Being a ‘Gourmet Chef’ was an evolution for me. An evolution that took a while. When Whitey and I first started working on charter boats I was very much a novice in the galley, kitchen, whatever you want to call it. Luckily our first jobs as crew were in the British Virgin Islands, which is charter boat center in the Caribbean, which meant there were many chef’s to network with, swap recipes and get lots of ideas. All the networking provided all of the newby chef’s valuable assistance as we planned meals and cooked for our charter guests.
One of my favorite meals to prepare was also a favorite meal for our guests. Paella! It didn’t ma
tter who they were, they could be picky, not like seafood, not like spice, but everyone loved my Paella. And we loved serving it. It was such a grand presentation in a big pan that I would take to the table, and serve to the guests from there. However, I must confess that the original recipe came from my brother, Larry Blue. He had worked his way up through the grind of restaurants to work as Sous Chef/Assistant Manager for a successful catering company in Salt Lake City. One Christmas he presented each
of the family with a collection of his favorite recipes, reduced down for smaller servings. His Paella soon became my Paella. The recipe has been altered a bit over the years from his original but I have to give Larry a big shout-out for my Paella success.
