Today we’d like to introduce you to Joshua Weissman.
Hi Joshua, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I began working in the kitchen as a helper alongside my mother when I was 4 or 5 years old. Fell in love with it. Realized it was something I naturally understood and was good at. Cooked regularly ever since then. Eventually decided a career in food when I was older. As soon as I could start working, I began working in restaurants, some of which being the best in the south-central region of America. Even in those moments of being a prep or line cook which I cherish every day, I knew I could do more. What was the next step? To become a sous chef and inevitably an executive chef? And then what? I want to contribute something much larger than that. Something that I’m equally as passionate about as I am with food. I wanted to bring food to places it has never gone before and bring it to the world at large in a way they’ve never seen it. As soon as becoming a sous chef in a restaurant I was working in was the next thought in my mind, I decided to embark on a larger journey in which part of that would be opening my own restaurant amongst many other things that I previously mentioned. The easiest solution for someone that was already working 80-90 hours a week was to play with Youtube and social media. After over a year of sleeping maybe 4 hours a night, working unstoppably at building all of that out, of course simultaneously working a full-time job at a fine dining restaurant, I ended up leaving that job. Surprisingly it was actually quite difficult to leave the job that I loved so much. Fast forward to today and here we are, and if I’m being frank, I still feel we’ve just barely begun.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I guess it depends on someone’s definition of what smooth is. I can’t imagine anything in life that’s necessarily smooth. I think my mindset has remained locked in, and always will be and that’s helped make this process FEEL more smooth than it actually was. I remember seeing my parents struggle with certain things, and that always helped keep me in line. I want to take all of their problems away and supply opportunities for those around me. So having a north star always keeps things in perspective. There was one time when I was fired from a restaurant that I really loved. Boy that was a heavy hit to my heart. It really confused me for a few months. Something that I felt I was very good at was suddenly being questioned…. was it me was it the restaurant? That was the one time I almost thought about leaving food, which was such a scary thought to me considering it was the only thing I ever wanted to have anything to do with from a long-term perspective. Long story short, I’m glad that I chose what I believe in, and what makes ME happy. Because as it turns out if you have a hunch about your own ability… many times you can be right and it’s just a matter of putting in the work and never ever giving up on what you care about.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I work with food. I make food entertaining. I like to say that I make food entertaining again. I say again because we contribute to the food space a level of entertainment that has been lost for decades. We’re known for balancing unbelievably high-quality professional recipes, or conversations about food…without the soapboxy B.S. and REAL stories, being a real person.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
My work ethic, and consistency.
Contact Info:
- Website: joshuaweissman.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/joshuaweissman
- Youtube: youtube.com/joshuaweissman
