20 years ago, I walked into Applebee’s Neighborhood Bar and Grill in Lincoln, CA…

I had just graduated from Lincoln High and had spent the summer growing a lawn-care business I purchased with my previous summer’s labor. Yes. you read that correctly. My youth pastor was moving, and I worked for free for the summer to take over when he left.

I loved the customer service side of the job, but didn’t have the knowledge required to run the business side. So, when I had the privilege of becoming the first William Jessup Warrior signed to athletic scholarship, I sold my business and applied to be a busser/host.

How could I have know that what started as a means to an end would start a lifelong obsession for using food, beverage, and hospitality to make a tangible difference in people’s daily lives. Not to mention, some of the people I worked with have become life long friends.

I fell in love with food and the hospitality industry. Over the next few decades, I tried to deny my passion and explored several different career paths. No matter how much I loved or hated it, how good or bad I was at these other things, I always found myself in hospitality in some form.

I chased flavor and experience across the world; from ladling soup at Loaves and Fishes, to serving high tea to Hollywood elite and caviar to royalty.  From calamari cooked by a street-cart vendor in Morocco (some of the best calamari I’ve ever had), to tea in a Bedouin camp behind the Pyramids. From oxtail agnolotti in a bone marrow butter sauce prepared by a local celebrity chef in DTLA’s luxurious Faith and Flower (where I was GM for a stent), to homemade empanada’s from the kitchen of our host family in Mexico. Everywhere I’ve traveled, food and drink were at the core of breaking not only language barriers, but cultural ones. It has allowed me to forge authentic lifetime friendships with amazing people all over the world. 

Food is the universal language of friendship and connection; it allows us to share more than nourishment for the body. If done correctly, it is a vehicle to heal the soul, and share a piece of your own soul with someone else. Every dish, every drink, and every smile contains within it a glimpse into the history, culture, passion, and character of every person involved in the process; from conception to cleaning. 

Through my 20 years as a food and beverage professional, I have been fortunate enough to have worked with and trained under some of the most talented and knowledgeable professionals in the hospitality industry. Award winning, world champion, and industry recognized as such, these living legends deliver so much more than a cocktail, an appetizer, or glass of wine. Their authenticity, passion, and preparation, transform a mundane daily requirement for sustaining life (eating and drinking) into a paradigm shifting experience. 

Now, as promised, I’m bringing some of that experience back to my hometown of Lincoln. I’m happy to announce the launch of McFerran Hospitality Training.