About Mark
I love helping people.
Whether that be tech support, creative design, complex database design or creating tasty food.
My work life started out when I was just 15. I worked at a Computer Aided Design firm right about the time that Autodesk’s AutoCAD was disrupting the CAD market by making CAD available on the PC. I started learning how to program there (Pascal), but also how to work in an office environment. Along with those there was exposure to desktop publishing, “Ventura Publisher” came out as a Beta the owner of the company got and shared with me, data entry and how to answer the phone.
Creating bold inspiring flavor combinations
I’ve always loved food. Exploring the flavors of different cultures and searching out new culinary experiences has always been a thing for me. Over the last 15 years I got even more opportunity to continue those explorations and share that with others. Working as the Chef at the Grove School, a small charter school in Redlands, California. There I planned and prepared, with the help of students and a part time staff member, freshly prepared meals for students and staff. We served things like: beet and goat cheese ravioli, minestrone with bread we also made in house, teriyaki chicken with teriyaki sauce we made ourselves from scratch, saag paneer, dirty rice, stew chicken and more things from all over the planet. From making all of those dishes I’d run into ingredients I wasn’t really familiar with, gochujang, amchur, prickly ash (aka Sichuan peppercorn, which isn’t really peppercorns), black salt, star anise, etc. etc. That I’d explore other things we could use those ingredients with. Jess, my sous chef who worked with me at the school for over 10 years, referred to those ingredients “Mark’s Girlfriends”.
