“I kept moving, but I wasn’t chasing my dreams. ”My lifestyle kept me on the run…”

In this three-part series, meet Anthony, a talented chef who spent many years crafting his skills in restaurants all over the country. A native Daytonian, Anthony realized at a young age that he loved cooking. We hope Anthony’s story will inspire you to make a year-end gift to Emerge. The Gift of Recovery will give more people true freedom from addiction and allow them to follow God’s Plan for their lives.

“As a teenager, I realized that I just loved cooking. My parents were supportive and paid for me to attend culinary school. I graduated in 1992 from a school in Minneapolis and returned to Dayton and opened a little restaurant.

Throughout all that, of course, I was drinking and smoking weed and getting high because that’s what you did as a chef. That was the lifestyle. 

From Dayton, I moved to Florida and I worked as a chef and eventually owned a restaurant. 

Because of my getting high and drinking, I kind of let it slip through my fingers. So I stopped cooking for a couple of years and returned to Dayton to open a salvage business.

Eventually, I started cooking again and even won a couple of cooking contests. While doing all this, I’m still getting high. Cooking was the only time I didn’t use drugs because that was my high and that did it for me. 

Next, I moved to Atlanta because it’s where a person like me should be, you know, it was a mecca of cooking and new styles. So I went down there to learn all the cooking styles I could. My cycle of substance use continued.

I kept moving so people didn’t know that I was using. Because I’m a chef, it’s easy for me to get a job out of town. So I kept using and I kept on moving on.

Yeah, on the run. That’s exactly what it was. I returned to Dayton, got my second divorce, and continued to run from life. That’s my M.O. It’s time to leave. Run from the relationship. 

I’ve been settled in Dayton for about two years now. I started to manage a restaurant, that’s what I do. Life was okay, but I’m still using, I’m still getting high. And then I realized that I didn’t want my life to be like this.

I wanted to make my daughter proud. I’m like, I can’t be 60 years old out here getting high, getting used to drugs. How much can I keep running? So my plan was to actually leave and go to New Orleans and start cooking there.  

But God had other plans for me and led me to a place called Emerge.”

Head to Part 2 to read how Anthony ended his cycle of addiction, found a caring community, and returned to the passion that fueled his dreams.