Anthony Spak
Scott: How long have you been in the food industry?
Anthony: On and off since I was 15. My first job was at a cider mill when I was a sophomore in high school. From there I graduated to a much more upscale place called Hungry Howie’s.
I went off to college in 2012 but started working as a dishwasher and a bar back at a golf course during the summers for the first two years. I’d work weekends 4 pm - 3 am washing dishes, cleaning up broken glass and puke, changing ashtrays, and hitting golf balls off the practice green into the pond nearby.
I had abs for one whole summer just from lifting cases of beer and legs constantly. I learned how to hustle there and the bar staff really appreciated how hard I worked so I always got tipped out well.
The next couple of summers I decided I wanted to try cooking for my summer job and applied at The Clarkston Union down the street from the golf course. It’s an old church downtown that was converted into a restaurant back in the 90s. I had eaten there once as a teen and just thought it was the coolest place. They had a crazy rotating menu with weird pizzas and meatloaf and I just thought it was the coolest.
I got the job and ended up working through the summer and after graduating from college the following year. I had a head chef and a sous chef there that I developed really good relationships with. My Sous Chef, Rick, was a gruff older guy who liked the Dead and had an old-school temperament. He took me under his wing and showed me a bunch of tips and tricks in cooking, ingredients, efficiency, and stuff like that. Still love that dude.
I was in a band called Greet Death and was playing a lot of shows and doing a lot of touring around this time. My restaurant job was flexible and accommodating for taking time off for the band so I stuck with it even after graduating from college but I never wanted it to be my “career.” I had a band that was doing well and I wanted to do that full-time and my new journalism degree was my backup. I liked cooking but thought I was above working in the industry (we’ll come back to this later).
I ended up leaving the band, moving out of my mom’s house, taking an office job that I hated, quitting, and coming back to the Union Joints company at their Vinsetta Garage restaurant in Berkeley. Again, this was supposed to be a short-time thing until I found something “better” in writing or media. I struggled for a few years trying to find the perfect media-type job but ended up working unpaid internships (which are bullshit, by the way) or dumb entry-level office jobs.
COVID hit and Vinsetta closed down for a few months so I found a copywriting job down the street from my house. I quit after three months because I could handle sitting in a box all day with no windows, staring at a computer, and writing YouTube scripts about industrial electronics parts. I was losing my mind so I left and went back to Vinsetta, again, as a pit stop to pay bills while I looked for another writing/degree-oriented job.”
Scott: Why did you decide to become a chef?
Anthony: A perfect segue. I was cooking at Vinsetta Garage and just treading water. One day a new guy came into work and started setting up next to me. I thought he was a new line cook but he told me he was training to be the head chef at the company’s new restaurant Union Assembly (where I work now). We worked together and talked for about four hours. At the end of the shift, he told me he was looking for a sous chef and to give him my number if I was interested. I was hesitant at first but knew I could learn a lot from Phil so I gave him my number.
A few weeks later I interviewed, they sent me an offer and I accepted. I finally decided to jump into the chef life because I knew I had a strong mentor in Phil who could teach me how to be a leader and a chef, which he did. Chef Phil has moved on from Union Assembly now but I learned an immense amount from him in a short time period and am forever grateful.
Scott: What education and training do you have as a chef?
Anthony: No formal education. Never went to culinary school or did any internships at fancy places or anything like that. My degree is in journalism and communication which has been a huge benefit to me in my job because only about half of what I do is food-related. The other half of my time is spent managing personalities, mediating situations, writing emails, texting food vendors, and doing other various office-oriented projects.
Everything I know from cooking I learned from family, friends, on-the-job training, and food shows.”
Scott: What are your goals for the next year?
Anthony": 'Professionally, my goals are to improve on my ability to develop recipes and discover new ingredients and flavors that I’m not familiar with.
Personally, I’d like to pay off my car and start playing music again with people and not be alone in my basement.
Scott: What is a roadblock that you had in the food work? How did you overcome that roadblock?
Anthony: I used to struggle with getting temperatures right when cooking proteins like steaks and burgers. When I was working at Vinsetta Garage, a high-volume burger joint, I started taking grill shifts to get more practice. I forced myself to nail this skill through repetition as well as asking other cooks and chefs for tips.
Don’t ever be afraid to ask for help - it doesn’t make you look weak. What makes you weak is the inability to ask for help when you need it.”
Scott: Favorite memory as a chef?
Anthony: A recent one is actually from this past week. We had a party in our private event room for the owner of the building’s daughter’s 16th birthday party. The daughter and 35 of her friends were coming in to eat before the Dua Lipa concert. It was a big challenge but I broke the party menu down into small chunks and projects, delegated some of the prep tasks to staff, and saved the rest for myself. I mapped out every ingredient of every dish, how it should be prepped and fired and how everything should be transported up to three flights of stairs to the party while coming out hot and fresh.
It was a crazy few days but I put the team on my back and pushed out the party on time and with no complaints. They even ordered more steak after they had eaten what they’d ordered. This was the first time I’d ever taken point on such a big event but it all worked out and I left feeling very proud.”
Scott: One positive thing about yourself?
Anthony: I move quickly. I think quickly. Whatever culinary chops and knowledge I don’t have yet I make up for by being the hardest worker I can be and by always thinking three steps ahead.”
Scott: What are your top 5 food dishes to cook?
Anthony: I don’t really have a specific top five. The things I make at home really well are kabobs, steaks, and different kinds of pasta. At work, we have a corn soup dish that I struggled with for months but I’ve finally mastered it and am very proud of it.”
Scott: Anything else worth mentioning?
Anthony: Working in the restaurant industry is tough and is not for the faint of heart. For most people, it’s just a way to pay the bills, which is totally fine. For me, it’s something I have always romanticized and an environment in which I’ve always felt I belonged, which is odd because of how stressful and fast-paced it can be. I’ve learned to love the rush.
My goal is to one day own my own place. I don’t know when I don’t know how. I have ideas for some concepts, all of which are small and simple. I am sponging up as much as I can each and every day in the hopes of one day taking what I’ve learned from dozens of different people and putting it all together into my own spot. Stay tuned.”
