We were lucky to catch up with MJ Adams recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi MJ, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I pretty much have had a hard scrabble attitude at an early age. My dad left us for another woman when I was in the first grade. My mother never got over it and passed away after heart surgery when I was nine.. When you have loss at an early age you learn to survive. My paternal grandmother raised my sister and I for awhile but we ended up with my dad and step-mother. She was pretty cruel to my sister and I which only made my desire to succeed even stronger. I also believe resilience can be an inherit gene. I look at my maternal grandmother’s life….lost her first baby when it was about 4 days old. Her son Jimmy was partially burned in a car crash when he was 10 and died in the hospital a day later. Her daughter Patty had a mastoid operation when she was five and never recovered. She had the mentality of a five year old her entire life. My grandmother ended up leaving the family when my mom was in high school and to this day we still have no idea what happened to her. I think what a hard life she had. My mother lost her second baby, Timothy, my brother, when he was 9 months old. He was terribly sick and they were driving back in a snowstorm and he died in the car on the drive home. My mom had to leave him at the funeral home in Bozeman, MT, and head back to Vashon Island, WA. This was in the early 50’s. I can’t even imagine how hard that must have been. Later on having my father tell her he didn’t love her anymore after having five kids. That sucks. Later in my own life I survived a still born baby, loosing everything in a fire. I think you have to make a choice that either you can sit home and drink Vodka all day or jump back into life and participate.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
When I decided to leave NYC after having lived there for 12 years, I knew that the Black Hills of South Dakota, could be a place where I could focus on local ingredients. I just didn’t realize how hard that would be. No restaurant was really buying ingredients at the farmers market. I thought I moved back to a place that was known for being an agricultural state but it really wasn’t an equation in any restaurants here. After 15 years of running my restaurant, The Corn Exchange, I decided to close the door and pursue other interests. I was able to connect with SD Public Television and worked on a show for two seasons that explored the culinary landscape of South Dakota as host. It was called Savor Dakota. Later on the show was picked up by CreateTV and aired on the channel. A cookbook was the next step which really had been a seed planted many years earlier. How excited I was when it came out and was reviewed in The NY Times Food Section. Two months later Covid hit and everything came to a halt. How do you try and promote a cookbook almost a year and a half later? I spent a lot of time working on social media, learning various ways to promote it and trying to figure out when the next chapter was. For me that chapter is a memoir of my time in NYC. How lucky I was to have worked at Woman’s Day Specials Magazine. Headed up ‘Meet the Author’ series at The James Beard Foundation in the begining and working with the likes of Jacque Pepin, Craig Claiborne, Judith & Evan Jones and many others. It motivated me to attend culinary school (FCI). My first job out of school was working with Edna Lewis at Gage & Tollner, I maintained a friendship with her when I left. I worked at many restaurants such as Home, Le Petite Perme, Alison on Dominick Street. I worked as a private chef for a wealthy family and even filled in for Brooke Astor’s chef while she was on vacation. I feel I have an interesting story to tell. I have always felt that I am more of an artist than a chef. Living in an area now where there really are not many options you need to be an entrepreneur if you want to make a living.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Attention to detail, resilence and having a good sense of humor. I think it is important to realize that you do not know everything. I am always looking to better myself and my skills. I love traveling, especially abroad and always try and observe everything around me. I remember forcing myself on my second trip to London, to head to the Fish Market which at that time mean’t taking a train, hopping a fence and walking on a highway at 1 am. What it lead to was a walk through an amazing market, taking wonderful photos of the fishmongers and their catch and having an extraordinary experience.
Never wait around for something to happen. I always reach out to people. I was the one who sent Florence Fabricant at The NY Times my cookbook and a little note with “I know you read over 100 cookbooks to decide to review, well here is one more.”
Look what happened. People always thought I had a Public Relations firm for my restaurant but it was just me.
Life is short, you must seize the moment. I also very much believe in karma. Kindness does not cost anything. I always had the belief that you need to surround yourself with the best people and by that I mean people who really care and want to learn and have a bar set for themselves on excellence. Do not waste time on toxic people or vampires who want to suck the life out of you!
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
Charlie Trotter’s “Lesson in Excellence.” It was required reading at my restaurant for the staff. When you apply yourself you can really make a difference and people notice it. My restaurant has been closed for 10 years now and I still have people coming up to me and telling me what a wonderful dining experience I created for them and they miss my food.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.chefmjadams.com
- Instagram: chefmjadams
- Facebook: Chef MJ Adams
- Linkedin: Potted Rabbit Media
- Twitter: @chefmjadams
Image Credits
Photo by Melissa Hamersma Sievers
