I recently had a chance to catch up with Chef Barret of Hell’s Kitchen frame. It was inspirational listening to his life story. We started off our conversation speaking about how he came into the food world. His story is not unlike others that once they found their calling, they focused all their energies on pursuing their passions!

Chef Barret’s first cooking duties came in the ‘90s when was in the coast guard, and working in the kitchen. When his coast guard duties ended, he bounced around from job to job, not even realizing he had found his passion while in the coast guard, cooking. He spent many years in the mortgage business and put in time as a restaurant server to name a few of his jobs.

He also made a couple of bad choices, like somehow managing to get him self arrested almost every two years for various crimes! To make matters even worse, during his search for his life’s work, he hit rock bottom and ended up being hospitalized for a drug overdose. He was on life support for 2 days. I think Chef Barret might be more cat-like and have nine lives.

During his last arrest, his father refused to help him and wanted him to learn a lesson and didn’t pay his bail, so Chef Barret stayed in jail for 2 days. His rock bottom behavior came to end a few days after his daughter was born, with his “ah-ha moment.”

When he got out of the slammer, he finally had learned his lesson. He realized he loved cooking. In particular, he loved watching people cook on the show Hell’s Kitchen, and said to himself, I’m a better cook than them and I need to be on that show! With that seed and the constant urging of his mother, telling him he loved cooking and why wasn’t he making that a profession? He entered a 9-month Culinary School in Long Island, NY. He told admissions that he needed to learn everything about cooking because he had to get on the show “Hell’s Kitchen.” Shortly after his schooling, he landed a spot on none other than, “Hell’s kitchen.”

As they say in show biz, the rest is history!

Chef Barret’s motto is “it’s not what you know but who you know,” in order to pursue your passion! He wants to serve people comfort food that’s kicked up 3 levels. If that means his mac ‘n cheese with 8 different cheeses, then I’m in!

He wants us all to follow him on social media and look for him as a pop-up guest chef in your favorite restaurants throughout America!

I know you can’t get enough of Chef Barret. So check him out at his insanely cool website chefbarretbeyer.com. or follow him on twitter @BarretHK11