About Me
Growing up in a house of 4 boys, you have to learn to fend for yourself sometimes. I was the youngest and, for a while the least athletic of my siblings (hey, I liked to eat). One early advantage I had over my brothers was that when my parents weren’t readily available to prepare food, I was firing up some “emulation of goodness” at a young age. This became my main bartering technique since they surely were making grill cheese without butter. Hence, my “hanging” around the kitchen probably began. Poking my head in the oven quickly led to jobs like grating cheese and then preparing French toast. Innocently, I was a sous chef in 4th grade.
With such an early background in holding a spatula, the rest became easy. My first menu came from my Mother’s request to make dinner: “Anything I wanted to create with what we had in the freezer”, while home from boarding school. My first set of knives was the demonstration set from selling knives by appointment. Now thinking about it, save for that plus 4 year stint at a couple of colleges (UVA/NYU) and plus half-decade spent on Wall Street, this is destiny fulfilled.
So begins ReMarkable Cuisine, the culmination of over 2 years of private chef services and small catering on the side. ReMarkable Cuisine will show those out there who Mark McLean is, and how my passion in the kitchen comes to light with the food I prepare. I am not here to present a standard or ordinary fare that is “good” or a “decent option”. I attack an ingredient, menu, and dish like the rest of things in my life — with a strong knowledge base and hard work that will make that dish shine. Things cannot be just special…I am shooting for an unique experience on a culinary path that can only be known as ReMarkable.