Chef Tom Finnelli of Restaurant Memoire , Accountant to Culinary Master
FEBRUARY 11, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015, 1:21 AM
THE RECORD
Chef Tom Finnelli’s path to the kitchen was long and winding. Although he’d worked at restaurants during high school, he went to college for accounting and had a successful 18-year-career in that field. Still, at 32, he turned down the chance to become partner at the fifth-largest accounting firm in the country because he knew that, if he accepted, he’d never work in a restaurant again. That company had massive layoffs in 2009, and Finnelli was “almost happy” to be one of those included.
The 40-year-old Park Ridge native and Rockland County resident already had his degree from the French Culinary Institute in Manhattan (now the International Culinary Center) – and in 2013, he bought the spot that would become Restaurant Memoire in Ridgewood. The restaurant, which serves seasonal eclectic fare, received 2 1/2 stars from The Record in January 2014.
Although Finnelli doesn’t regret the two decades he spent in an office, he says he’d be a hypocrite if he told his two young children they should always follow their dreams when he hadn’t followed his. “We only have one life, and at some point, you’ve got to at least try to do what you love,” he says. “If you never [do it], you’ll always wonder, ‘What if?’ ”
Here, he talks about his $1,000 meal and the one thing he’d never eat.
https://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/chef-tom-finnelli-of-restaurant-memoire-on-his-1-000-meal
16 Chestnut Street, Ridgewood, NJ 07450
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