Robert Fuller

In the summer of 1972 there was rock climbing in the Tetons, great fishing, whitewater rafting. Spending three days by myself in a remote ski cabin on the eastern side of Jackson Peak, a completely unique experience to me. I also lived in a tipi for the last two months that I was in Jackson.

I was able to take some pottery lessons in Jackson at a seasonal pottery shop, which led me to my next adventure.

I loved living in Jackson, but I was working for three dollars an hour and land cost $5000 an acre, I didn't see a future for me there.

In the summer of 1972 my girlfriend, Pamela decided to go back to Connecticut and go back to college. After the summer ended, I packed up most of my stuff and drove to Laguna Beach California to continue my pottery lessons with the same teacher, Janet, Braley, at the Laguna Beach School of Art.

In Laguna Beach I found a job working at the charming Cottage Restaurant on the Coast Highway very close downtown. My primary responsibility was baking pies, lots of pies. Name a kind of pie and I made it. I became quite good at pie baking and I also did quite a bit of prep work, soups, salad dressings, etc.

I spent mornings at the pottery shop, afternoon and evening at the restaurant and in my spare time I went to the beach all within a half mile of each other and my small apartment. I sold my van and got around by bicycle or walking. I let my hair grow. I bought Earth shoes, and experimented with fasting and meditating.

I lived there for almost a year, but I was getting a little homesick.

I bought a pick up truck and loaded it up with my stuff, went back to Wyoming to pick up my tipi cover and tipi poles and then drove back to my hometown of Ludlow Massachusetts.

I secured a job at a small French restaurant called Pico's Place and worked with a young French trained chef named Jean-Jacques Gage. I learned quite a bit about French cooking and enjoyed my experience there. It was the first and only restaurant I ever worked in where we used heavy cream out of half gallon containers, almost every sauce was finished with a splash of heavy cream, reduced to a wonderful, thick silky texture.

After a year and a half at Picot's I got my first chef job at a large corporate steakhouse called T. Butcher Block. I learned how deal with a very high volume restaurant. How to hire and train a staff of 15 to 20 people. I had to learn to cut steaks, a lot of steaks, the bone in T-bones on a meat cutting bandsaw. I had to prep for a really high volume restaurant. I signature soup was a Beer and Cheddar Soup garnished with popcorn, we made it in 60 quart pots. The assistant manager at this restaurant was a man name Marty Schupert, who grew up in Middlebury Vermont. After four months of working together, he returned to Vermont to become the manager of Mr Up's Restaurant in Middlebury. After a few months, he called me up and said I really need a chef up here. I applied for the job in January 1976 and moved to Middlebury a month later.

At Mr Up's I really sharpened my skills to become a very efficient working chef. Managing a staff of 10 to 12 kitchen workers. Ordering all the food, getting all the prep work done and working on the lunch and dinner line at least five days a week. I worked at Mr Up's for six years.