How I got my Internship

I decided to make this a separate post because it's a long story and I didn't want my first post to be overwhelming.

Believe it or not, it all started about 3 years ago when Grace, one of my really good friends from high school (you can check out her awesome blog here), told me that she was going with her cousin (who works for Food Network Magazine) to check out a restaurant in Atlanta for an article.

Now, before you get ahead of yourself, they did not go to Restaurant Eugene.  They went to another restaurant called Holeman and Finch Public House.  The went to H&F because every night they serve 24, and only 24, cheeseburgers at 10:00 pm.

Fast forward about 2 years and I remember about the restaurant that Grace and her cousin went to and decided to look it up and check it out.  So, we show up at Holeman and Finch one Monday at about 9pm and ask the waiter to reserve me and my friends each a burger.  At this point, the waiter starts gushing about these burgers and about how much we are going to love them.  So, I'm thinking, "These had better be good".  Luckily for me, they were out of this world.

Towards the end fall semester 2010, I knew that I needed to start looking for culinary internships for the summer.  I sent out emails to friends and family who knew people in the industry hoping that I could find a pretty cool place to work.

A long time family friend said that they know the head chef of a place called Restaurant Eugene, Chef Linton Hopkins, and would give him my information.  I immediately did some research on Chef Hopkins and learned that he has been nominated for the James Beard Award (the Heisman of the culinary world) multiple times and that he owns and operates Holeman and Finch Public House as well as Restaurant Eugene!

So, a few emails, a couple phone calls, and an amazing interview later, and they asked me if I would like to do my internship at Restaurant Eugene over the summer.  I was ecstatic beyond belief.  I simply could not wait for summer to get here.  I went back to Clemson and told my friends that I got the job and they were just as excited about it as I was.

Now summer is here, I'm a little over a week away from starting my internship at Restaruant Eugene, and I'm still as excited, if not more excited, about my internship as I was after my interview.

That's the story my friends.

Till next time,

Ben