Jim Sexton’s first job, in 1975, was “salad girl” at the Holiday Inn. “Really! A female was always hired for that position,” he said. “I didn’t care as long as I got to be in a commercial kitchen with a real chef.”

Sexton, who has been working in the food services field ever since as a chef and educator, traces his love of things culinary to his childhood in Joliet, Illinois.

“I was the last of six siblings, and our house was tiny, especially the kitchen, so our mom never let us go in there while she was preparing food.”

When he was 9, however, his mother found a job outside the home. “As a result, I would get a phone call to start the potatoes and other things so they would be ready when she came home. I think that’s where it kind of began.

It really came to light when I was 19. Joliet Junior College was featured in the local news, with photos of foods that they prepared for competition at the National Restaurant Show. I saw what they were doing and said, ‘That’s what I want to do!’ I enrolled for classes and drove the chef at the Holiday Inn nuts until he hired me.”