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.
All the best Chef.
This is a wonderful story. I intend to go to Pearl just to support him, even though the restaurant is a bit out of my price range. Way to Vaughn!
I read this about ten days ago anyway good luck.
yes look to you. cook cook cook.