Spencer Taylor Memorial Scholarship Fundraiser
Joey Allette
Joey Allette is a personal chef, caterer and culinary instructor that has an
endless amount of energy and zest for life. His personal goal is to get a big slice
of life everyday. He has been fortunate enough to experience a lot of things and
meet a lot of wonderful people along the way.
Joey was born in Jamestown, N.Y. (home of Lucille Ball and the rock band 10,000
Maniacs) and raised in Louisiana, Alaska, California, Idaho and Texas. His
heritage is as interesting as the places that he grew up and the people that he has
met. Joey’s dad is an energetic Italian man with a million funny stories and his mom
is a wonderful Cajun-French-Irish woman that always inspires him to be positive
and do his best at everything he does. As you might imagine, with that marriage, he
grew up eating great foods with bold flavors.
Before he was professionally trained in the culinary arts, he served in United States
Air Force. While serving, he broke his leg badly and had to endure bed-rest for
three months in a military hospital. His television viewing options were very
limited. He could watch soap-operas, talk-shows or cooking programs all day.
Wisely, he chose the cooking programs. Joey was mesmerized by the television chefs
and their masterpieces. After three months of continuous viewing, he knew that he
wanted to entertain while creating his own masterpieces. Since then, he has been
fortunate enough to entertain, teach and cook for a multitude of customers,
students, friends and of course...loved ones.
Joey has a unique day-to-day relationship with food and food-facilities. He has an
education in environmental health as well as training in culinary arts. So, for
years he has been able to review kitchen plans and inspect them during the day
and cook in them at night and weekends. He has seen the best and worst of
hundreds of kitchens.
He relates well to all audiences. He loves to cook and instruct people how to cook
dynamic foods with layers of great flavors. While cooking and teaching, his goal
is to get the attention of the person that may not necessarily be too interested in
cooking; the ones that feel intimidated by unfamiliar culinary references and
techniques. Nothing makes him feel better than to hear someone say, "Hey, this
looks incredible, has depths of flavor and I know that I could do that!"
Joey believes that everyone is born with an artistic talent of some kind. Some can
sculpt, paint, sing, dance, etc. Although he thinks he is a very talented singer in the
car/shower, it has become evident that his true artistic calling is in the kitchen and
in front of people. Some wise person once said, "You will never work a day in
your life if you do something that you love everyday." Well, he loves his life.
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