Opportunity can come knocking at any time. For chef John Troupis, it came almost two decades ago while he was clearing tables at a restaurant in St Louis, in the US state of Missouri.
The then 14-year-old was working as a busboy when, on a particularly busy night, the dishwasher failed to show up.
Troupis offered to fill in and found that the kitchen, unlike the front of house, was hectic and stressful. He was hooked.
Around the same time, he had his mind blown by The French Laundry Cookbook, a beautifully photographed tome comprising 150 recipes that was co-written by the restaurantโs chef and owner, Thomas Keller.
โI picked it up in a bookstore and had to take a step back because I had never seen that kind of sophistication in my life,โ says Troupis, now 31.
This combination of subtle moments convinced him that a chefโs life was what he wanted โ and he was going to do whatever it took to make it happen.