Hi! I'm Gino Gabriel.
Fired Up Kitchen ignited in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina in 2009! A big transition from the eight years prior where I was a private chef on mega yachts floating around the globe, cooking for a clientele that included Athletes, Musicians, Actors and other folks from all walks of fame!! Life was great!
Well, after literally getting launched unexpectedly off a boat in the Bahamas and landing abruptly on a rocky jetty, I decided that life on the high seas was not for me anymore! Time to take my show on the road!
My passion for cooking
My earliest memories of a cooking experience are around the open fires that my Grandfather tended to and Grandmother cooked over. Everything drew me in, from beginning to rewarding end. My Italian granparents were as warm as the fires they lit, which fueled my passion for cooking—especially Italian cooking.
From Penn State to Culinary School
I grew up in Pennsylvania and graduated from Penn State! Home to Italian Living legend Joe Paterno and WE ARE…!!! Happy Valley kept me happy, educated and very interested in cooking. Earning extra money at a local kitchen usually financed road trips, most of which were "Truckin" around with the tours of the Grateful Dead! How Sweet it Was!
Graduating from New England Culinary Institute was quickly followed by the opportunity to further my education at the Italian Culinary Institute in Piedmonte! Here is where I immersed myself in the everyday life of Italy! Family, Friends, Food and Drink! It is that simple!
Connecting with Old World tradition
Travel is an education in and of itself. Being able to study and work abroad in Italy, was like gazing back into the early fires of my ancestors. It made sense—I saw ovens that were over a thousand years old, and they were still in use! Man, the stories they could tell!
This is the Old World style of cooking. It hasn’t changed. So many new trends in cooking today require PhDs in chemistry. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of molecular gastronomy. I enjoyed an amazing 32-course meal at El Bulli, Feran Adria’s Michelin 3-star restaurant in Catalonia, Spain. However, I’m no doctor, I have to stick to what I know—good, simple food.
New York City with Mario Batali and David Pasternack
I chose NYC as the place to be when I returned stateside. That’s a daunting task for a cook with very little money. As my future mentor and current friend Dave Pasternack put it, “You’re looking to go into the big leagues now.”
I worked primarily with Chef Mario Batali’s team and his now famous army of Italian restaurants. I helped open Esca, a 3-star New York Times restaurant, in 1999. It proved that jumping headfirst into the NYC restaurant scene was exactly what I needed to develop as a chef.
The Big Man at the oven
Cooking for me has always been about family and friends. Good timing teamed me up with Glenn Gubich, The Big Man at the Oven. I’m grateful to have him on board with his culinary muscle that he built up in Pennsylvania as the owner of the World Famous Rainbow Diner.
Glenn and I have been on many road trips as youngsters, and now here we are on the road again, the culinary caravan of Fired Up Kitchen. Glenn is the man who shuffles thousands of pizzas in and out, each one hot and fresh. Email Glenn to say, Thank You, Glenn!
