Job earning cash for college turns into sous chef's passion
EDWARD C. FENNELL
The Post and Courier
Caleb Horner is a sous chef at Eclectic Chef in Summerville. He was working in restaurant kitchens to earn his way through college when he discovered that what he really wanted was to work in kitchens.
While working in kitchens to earn his way through college, Caleb Horner suddenly realized that the kitchen was where he belonged.
A restaurant worker since age 17, Horner is now 28 and a sous chef at Eclectic Chef restaurant in Summerville's Short Central. He has never lost his enthusiasm for his chosen career.
"Like any other job, it's got its ups and downs, but I wake up every day ready to come to work. It's really exciting, and that's something not everyone can say," Horner said.
A sous chef works directly under the chef in charge, in Horner's case Eclectic Chef owner Ben McCollum. The sous chef performs managerial duties, prepares meals, "and does whatever the executive chef needs done," he added.
Horner was attending Bradley University in Illinois, majoring in English and working part time when he realized cooking was his calling. Though he didn't go to culinary school, he learned all phases of restaurant work on the job.
"I watched the chef and the cook," he explained. His first restaurant jobs were unglamorous: busing tables and washing dishes. "I worked my way up," he said.
From Illinois, Horner moved to Richmond, Va., where friends told him they planned to go to South Carolina to get paramedic jobs with Dorchester County EMS. Horner accompanied the friends here almost three years ago and hooked up with "Edible Lowcountry," a magazine that celebrates not only coastal South Carolina's cuisine, but its farmers, fishermen, restaurants and "food artisans."
The journalistic experience acquainted Horner with a whole new world. "I found a love for the foods of South Carolina and the farmers and the people. It's a beautiful place. Who wouldn't want to live here?" he added.
Fresh with new knowledge, Horner "decided it was time to come back to the kitchen."
He lives in Summerville with his wife, Maria, and their two dogs and a cat.
Eclectic Chef, he said, is not a typical lunch counter, but an upscale casual restaurant that serves great food at a great value. You can dine inside or outside at umbrella-shaded tables set up on a brick street that is off limits to motor vehicles.
"It's really fulfilling to see people having a great experience with great food that's different from what they can normally get," Horner said.
Getting to know Eclectic Chef's regular customers is also a plus, he said.
If there are drawbacks to Horner's job, it's the hours, he said.
"It's a lot of hard work, but it can be very rewarding. You have to have a desire to serve people and you have to have a passion for it.
Reach Edward C. Fennell at efennell@postandcourier.com or 745-5865.
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