About Me — Lloyd P.
Chef, runner, musician, and family man on a journey of growth and transformation.
I am taking a different approach than usual here, having already published and re-published some of my writing here on Medium, but here is a short bio of myself.
Hello, I am Lloyd P., a Chef by trade, married with a two-year-old son, an avid runner displaced by injury, a writer, and a former DJ/musician. I am based in New York City, building in the “40s” chapter of my life.
I have worked in the restaurant industry for 26 years, in both front and back-of-house capacities. Originally from Lancaster, PA, I moved to Philadelphia shortly after graduating from high school. This is where I started working in kitchens, then segued into bartending and serving positions for that quick cash-in-hand pay. I eventually ended up living in NYC and back into the kitchen after a few years of bouncing around bartending and doing other work in catering. If I am working in the restaurant industry, the kitchen is where I prefer to be.
I spent over a decade learning Japanese cooking styles and techniques and have worked in QSRs (quick service restaurants), fine dining, dive bars, and boutique cafes. Menu development is my favorite aspect of working as a Chef, from trying and sourcing funky, high-quality ingredients and developing the actual dish to costing it and writing the menu description.
My interest in running began in 2015, being an ex-smoker for 10 years at the time, I wanted to capitalize on maximizing my health and since I already liked running on the treadmill, figured to try it out on the roads and eventually trails. I loved it and still do. I have raced a lot of distances, from the mile to the marathon, and am excited to dive into Ultras. Some of my favorite races are the Philadelphia and NYC Marathons, the Bronx 10 Mile, and the Van Cortlandt Track Club’s Summer Series 5K in Van Cortlandt Park (my favorite place in all of NYC).
Although running has been great for me, it comes with a lot of maintenance work. A fair amount of injuries have forced me to take time away from running and to look into why that happened and how to recover and prehab to prevent the next injury.
Musically, I had been playing it since I was five, with piano lessons I took up through high school. Reading music and a little dabble into music theory was what I learned during my time there, mastering some classics like “Fur Elise” and “Moonlight Sonata” by Beethoven, and “Rondo Allá Turca” by Mozart, great recital pieces.
I taught myself some guitar, bass, and drums and started a few punk bands in high school. I have a very diverse taste in music. As a child, I listened to a lot of country because that was what my parents listened to. Once I got old enough to develop my taste, I started listening to bands whose videos I saw on MTV (this was the ’80s, so MTV played music videos 98% of the time). I had my phases, like I am sure most, if not all, of everyone did. From MTV pop to alternative and thrash metal, to grunge and punk rock, then deeper underground to crust punk, grindcore, and sludge, then hip hop.
Some of my friends in Philly had turntables, and I played around a bit. I had fun learning to mix records, so I found a cheap set of turntables and a mixer and started spending my entire (small) pay check every week on records. I started with underground hip hop, then got seriously into reggae and dancehall. Friends I made at some of the best Ethiopian restaurants in West Philly, along Baltimore Ave introduced me to the weekend Jamaican speakeasy scene. I would hang out there on Fridays and Saturdays and hear the latest riddims, sometimes until 7 am! Eventually, I started getting DJ jobs around town, meeting others, and going to parties all over the city.
While I lived in Philly, at the peak of club/lounge/bar nights in my personal experience, I was out five to six nights a week. Sundays and Mondays were my favorite nights at the now-defunct venues Filo’s, Loie, Soma, and Fluid. It was reggae/dancehall at Filo’s, a well-rounded mix of dance classics, disco, 70s, 80s, 90s, current RNB and hip hop, house, afrobeat, reggae, and dancehall at Loie on Sundays, and deep/progressive house at Soma and hip hop at Fluid on Mondays. Those were the days! There was a large, solid group of friends that developed here. We would mostly meet up at these venues. We were all industry people, meaning we all worked in Philadelphia restaurants, bars, clubs, and lounges, so those days were our “weekend”.
All of these coinciding aspects of my journey have shaped who I have become today. In my current life chapter, I am being the best husband and father I can be, and am always learning new things, to expand my horizons. I have traded going to bed at 4 am to waking up at 4 am and staying ahead of all of the road bumps that have been popping up in my 40s. I hope to be able to help others with what I have learned from my life experience.
