PHOTO DIARY

I'm the owner and head chef of Raphael's Restaurant in Pendelton, Ore. I started the restaurant with my wife, Raphael, more than 25 years ago.

It's an ever-changing job. There's always something to be done. I usually spend a couple hours in the morning dealing with one or two sales reps, keeping up on invoices and making sure everything gets entered into the computer system. I also do a little research on new products, new equipment and trends in the industry. After that, I'm up and about and checking to see if there's anything that needs to be repaired. Around 3 pm, we start opening up the kitchen. In the afternoon, I might take a trip to pick up a few groceries then the rest of the day is spent in the kitchen cooking with my staff. It's very rare that I stop to take a lunch break. There are a lot of days where I spend all day in the kitchen just cooking (like during the Pendleton Round Up). The more I can do during the day to make my job easier at night, the better off I am. We usually see about 40-50 guests per night. We run with a small staff here, with Raphael controlling the front of the house while I control the back. We're usually out of there by 10 at night. I try and hit bed by 11:30 pm, so I can get up at 5 am to go play basketball before I head back to the restaurant.

I grew up in Coer d'Alene, Idaho, and attended college in Moscow at the University of Idaho. I studied architecture there while working in the restaurant industry to pay the bills. I started out washing dishes but one day they asked me if I wanted to cook breakfast. Six months later I was managing the kitchen. It just came so easy for me. A couple years later I got offered a position as chef. I was having so much fun that I decided to quit architecture school and take the job. At the time I thought I would go back to school after a while, but it felt like such a good fit that I stayed in the restaurant industry. I moved around a bit and finally made it out here to Pendleton, where my wife and I opened up Raphael's.

I'm excited to go to work every day because I still enjoy the food. I enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that we served all these people and everyone was happy. I'm proud of what we've accomplished here in Pendleton, it's a small town but we've been able to stay in business 25 years and we have a great reputation statewide.

We're not ready to quit this quite yet. I really don't know what I'd do if I wasn't doing this. At the same time, I have lots of other hobbies, like motorcycling and boating. I have this idea of opening up a BMW motorcycle dealership. I've been playing with motorcycles since I opened the restaurant, so it feels like another opportunity to turn my passion into a business.