Max is a self-taught cook who has been in the restaurant industry for seven years. He got his start cooking and running kitchens in Boston, and Dartmouth, Massachusetts, before moving to Providence, Rhode Island, and ending up in Chicago. Though he has had some success in restaurants, earning a James Beard Award nomination, and winning a Starchefs Rising Star award, He is now glad to be taking a step back from the kitchen to be able to connect with the passionate home cooks that come to learn at The Chopping Block.
Recent Posts
The Power of Fresh Powder
I talk a lot to students about the importance of using fresh spices. So many people have little plastic jars of ground spices in their pantries that could be half a decade old or older. At that age, ...
This time of year a few things are true: it’s hot, too hot to cook certainly; if you have a garden and made the mistake of planting mint, it has gone absolutely berserk; and sometimes everyone in ...
As a chef there are a lot of things most people just buy that I’ve tried to make from scratch. There are the basics like bread, ice cream, or mayo, but I’ve also made my own croissants, emulsified ...
Those of us who have grown up around diet culture have invariably spent some portion of our lives denying ourselves in the interest of some nebulous concept of “healthiness.” Some who reject the ...
How to Make the Most of Summer Without Dying of Heat Stroke
Now that we’ve arrived at high summer and the temperatures in much of the country are soaring past records, the time has come to rethink summer activities. Don’t get me wrong - swimming, grilling, ...
Stir frying is one of the world's great cooking techniques. It's fast, can create hugely divergent types of dishes with a tremendously diverse array of flavors, and it's relatively simple. With just ...
I’ve been cooking for a while now. Long enough to have developed some fairly thorough opinions on things like cookware. Usually when I’m asked to pick a favorite of something I find it very ...
In summer I am pretty much always looking for an excuse to have a nice little treat. To be honest, most of the year I am looking for an excuse to treat myself (and my wife, I suppose). Finished all ...
At the beginning of June, my wife and I made the move from Chicago to my pretty rural home town of Ithaca, New York. If people have heard of Ithaca at all it's usually because it is the home of ...
Working at The Chopping Block, one of the most common questions I get asked as a chef actually has nothing to do with cooking at all. Guests always want to know “What’s your favorite restaurant?”
