Cooking seemed to come as a natural calling to Hayden Drews, our featured culinarian for this issue of the Times. Though he hadn’t started working in kitchens until recent years, his knack for experimentation and flavor profiling is astonishing.

Drews credits family get-togethers for helping develop his palate at an early age, stating that unique home-cooked meals were often the norm. “For family events, there were always tables full of dishes … from southern cooking to Latin, Asian, German, Polish and Jamaican, just to name a few.”

At the age of 17, Drews started his culinary career at McDonald’s. He has been making steady progress ever since, from working his way up from server to assistant to cook at the Horny Goat Hide Away, to spending a year cooking at Café Benelux.

Culinary school was where his passion truly fell into place. Drew said, “School was the first real cooking experience I got, but at that moment I fell in love with it and was hooked.”

One of Drews’ favorite food memories is when he had the opportunity to peer out of the kitchen after a quiet night as the restaurant grew exceedingly busy. “I looked out at the dining room and it was completely full of people and full of smiles… It’s embedded in my head and creates such a warm and pure feeling that stays with me every time I cook.”

When asked about what brought him to the culinary field, Drews didn’t feel as though he could pinpoint a specific reason, though it’s something that he’s given a considerable amount of thought to. “Maybe the only honest answer is that this is what I was meant to do, which sounds ridiculous… but something happens when I cook. It’s beautiful and terrifying all at the same time and it creates a feeling like no other,” he suggested.

Curious to try some of Drews’ culinary creations? He can be found cooking at the Iron Horse Hotel, and he will be working in the Cuisine Restaurant on the first floor of the Main building at the Downtown Milwaukee Campus during the second semester.