'Bringing People Together' With Food

May 27, 2008— -- Michael Psilakis says he "kind of fell into" the restaurant industry.

Now an executive chef, Psilakis was an accountant who wanted to be a lawyer, so he and took a job as a waiter at T.G.I. Friday's to pay for law school.

"It just kind of felt like home," said Psilakis, who now runs three top restaurants in New York City — Greek restaurants Anthos and Kefi and the Italian restaurant Mia Dona.

Cooking came naturally to Psilakis, who says his traditional Greek upbringing centered around "big parties at our house."

The 38-year-old was raised on Long Island, and remembers that growing up his family ate meals together every day.

"Using food to bring people together was just natural," he said. "The joy that [my mother] was getting was making this stuff and giving it to the people that she loved. It was that gift that made her excited on a daily basis. For me food is like that."

First-generation immigrants, Psilakis' family had high hopes for their son, and he says his mother was disappointed when he first pursued a culinary career.

"My mother cried when I went into the restaurant industry because for her, I had gone to college, I graduated college, I had these degrees, I did all this stuff that she was so proud of and that she really had hoped and dreamed for me," he said.

But Psilakis' father told him to "find that one thing that you really love to do and be great at it."

"You have to have the willingness to sacrifice, and the sacrifice is not as hard if you love it," he added. "So food is that one thing for me that I can be very good at. I'm trying to be great. It's not easy."

Once Psilakis decided to pursue a career in the restaurant industry, he says he "started working like a crazy person."

He opened his first restaurant Ecco when he was only 24, working in the front of the house. When his chef abruptly departed, Psilakis decided he didn't want to depend on someone else to do the cooking.