Aaron Hornischfeger

My passion is food. The whole reason I got into culinary arts is that food is basically my life. My favourite part of the job is seeing the guests enjoy the food that we serve. I never thought I would make food my career; to be honest, I was cooking at home just for the fun of it. And I cooked for my family. I was cooking before I knew how to do anything else. It was my mom who encouraged me. She said, ‘you seem to like cooking; why don't you turn it into a career?’ I was always afraid to turn it into a job because I've heard of so many chefs who lose their passion once they enter the industry and they do it full time, like from nine to five. And I was afraid that I'd lose interest in food, but my mom was like, ‘just try it!’ So I went to culinary school and I've been trying it for the past 12 years. And so far, I haven't lost any passion. I still love food today, just as much as I did when I was six years old and made my first cheesecake.

The hardest part of the job is making sure everyone is happy and has what they need to succeed because everybody has different needs. And those needs change from day to day. So it's not the same every day. Every day is a new adventure. Just being able to adjust and being able to solve problems that come my way, whatever they may be. That's the most difficult part.

There are many benefits to my job, but if I was just going to pick one, it would be that it’s helped me grow as a person. It's my relations with my coworkers and my relationships with other people in the St. George's community has helped me grow as a person socially. Now, I'm more outgoing. I feel like it's helping me get stronger as a person because I know I have support, whereas before, I was kind of doing my own thing and not really being as social as I am now.

I thought I was going to be a teacher at one point. I thought I was going to be a nutritionist too, which I guess is still food or food sciences. I thought I was going to be a counsellor one time. I also thought I was going to be a detective, working in crime investigation. Even if I had a time machine, I probably wouldn't change a thing because I know that my heart still lies where my passion is. Something to do with food. I don't necessarily have to be in a kitchen, but I feel like food controls my life and who I am.