Vaughn Crenshaw - THE RIDGEWOOD BLOG.

APRIL 8, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015, 1:21 AM
THE RECORD

Vaughn Crenshaw

Pearl Restaurant, Ridgewood

When he was 13, Vaughn Crenshaw was living out of a car in the streets of Paterson. Today, the 29-year-old is executive chef at Pearl Restaurant in Ridgewood.

Crenshaw has an associate’s degree in culinary arts and a bachelor’s in food service management, both from Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island. He has cooked at the Stony Hill Inn in Hackensack, the Brick House Inn in Wyckoff, Jacksonville in Paterson, Mocha Bleu in Teaneck, and Fort Lee’s Khloe Bistrot before arriving at Pearl in January 2013.

The Hackensack resident also appeared on the Food Network show “Chopped” in 2012; he made it to the entrée round before he was “chopped.”

Here, he tells how he evaluates a restaurant, and the strangest customer request ever.

How I evaluate a restaurant: I evaluate them on a 1-10 scale that has to do with the greeting, the curb appeal and the setting in the dining room; that’s what’s going to tell me if I’m going into another typical old-world restaurant where there’s no lively, electric energy. I also evaluate it by the clientele — the clients become a reflection of ownership.

https://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/vaughn-crenshaw-of-pearl-restaurant-in-ridgewood-on-how-he-evaluates-a-restaurant-1.1304526

This Ridgewood chef lived homeless, on the streets of Paterson

DECEMBER 31, 2014 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY STEVE JANOSKI
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

Vaughn Crenshaw always loved to cook. It is in his blood, he said — everyone in his family knows how to “put flavors together.” But from the moment he saw Emeril Lagasse’s cooking show at age 9, he knew the kitchen was his calling.

Four years later, however, he was living on the streets of Paterson, sleeping in an abandoned Volkswagen hatchback on Van Houten Street, hustling and selling drugs just to get by.

“It was a little two-door wagon, a blue joint,” he said. “I remember that like it was yesterday. It was hard to stay clean, my clothes were extremely dirty, and I became very upset with anybody who looked at me wrong. I became very aggressive. I felt like nobody wanted me.”

His future — if there was to be one — was bleak.

Things are different today. Sporting a shaved head and perfectly coiffed goatee, Crenshaw, 29, is the executive chef at Pearl Restaurant in Ridgewood. He lives in Hackensack with his wife of three months, Erica, and listens to jazz and plays basketball. He teaches conversions — how to use math the way a chef does — at the Paterson Adult and Continuing Education school, and is often involved in food drives in his old hometown.

https://www.northjersey.com/food-and-dining-news/dining-news/this-ridgewood-chef-lived-homeless-on-the-streets-of-paterson-1.1183573