Brendan’s roots were always in Michigan, but his family moved around the country as a child. When they moved back to Michigan, he found his love for culinary at an early age, working in his grandparent’s restaurant. He graduated from Catholic Central High School, and earned a B.S. in Culinary Science and Management from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY.
In 2011 Brendan and his soon-to-be wife Amy moved back to Michigan from a short stint in Charlottesville, VA to help with the family business. Fast forward several years to their first child being born, when Brendan decided to take a pause from being a chef to work as a sales rep for food purveyor Sysco Detroit.
“Parenting changes your entire perspective on life. Marriage wasn’t much of an adjustment because Amy was a pastry chef, and we both knew what the life of a chef entailed. When Seamus was born, everything changed. It became evident very quickly that I would struggle to be the husband and father I needed to be, let alone wanted to be, if I continued to work as a chef. I made Seamus a promise shortly after he was born to teach him things I was never taught as a kid, and little did I know that would change the trajectory of my life.”
After stepping back into the life of a chef for about a year in 2018-19, Brendan started to tinker around with computer programming languages in his spare time.
“I found that I had an affinity for it. A lot of culinary and pastry techniques are a linear process, very A to B to C. If you followed the basic rule set you could pretty much do anything that you wanted, as long as your didn’t violate the core rules. Programming in a lot of ways is very similar.”
Mother’s Day 2019 was his last day as an executive chef, and a few short weeks later he started the front end web development boot camp program at Grand Circus in Detroit.
“It was a giant leap of faith, and needless to say Amy and I were nervous. I knew what our lives would become if I stayed in hospitality, and this felt like the right move. Looking back, it was a huge risk walking away from the industry that I spent that last twenty-plus years working in.”
Fast forward another few years and Brendan is a full stack developer building business solutions for companies large and small.
What Made You Run For Office?
“If not me, then who? I believe that we have a hell of a lot more in common with each other than we realize. I also believe that most of us want the following: to create prosperity for ourselves and those we care about; to leave things in a better place than where we found them; and to be left the hell alone. The sticky wicket is on how we go about those things. This is why communication and compromise is so important. It is possible to stay true to our beliefs, values, and principles all while negotiating the best path forward together.
Most of us would never allow the behavior so prevalent in politics to exist in our everyday lives. The hatred. The corruption. The constant victimization and denial of responsibility. None of this trash is acceptable, and the only way this will begin to change is when we raise our own personal standards.”
What’s Important In Your Life?
“The greatest blessing in my life is my family. My wife Amy is my balance and my best friend. Our children Seamus and Caydren are great little guys and outside of the day I married my wife, the days of their births are some of the best days of my life. The most important thing I’ll do in this life is to help my little guys turn into amazing people.”
What Keep You Busy?
“I’m a part time homesteader and we try to grow as much food on our property as possible. Some years are better than others, and it’s really been an exercise in patience. We’re active in our church. My oldest son and I are on the water hunting for bass and pike as often as we can, and maybe this fall we’ll get him in a hunting blind. Staying busy for us is not a problem…usually we have too much to do and not enough time.”
What is your reading list for 2024?
- Only The Dead ~ Jack Carr
- The Forgotten Man ~ Amity Shlaes (Refresher)
- The American Story: The Beginnings ~ David & Tim Barton (Refresher)
- The 5000 Year Leap ~ Skousen (Refresher)
- American Progressivism ~ Pestritto & Atto (Refresher)
- False Alarm ~ Lomborg
- Fossil Future ~ Epstein
- The Intentional Father ~ Tyson
- Bonhoeffer ~ Metaxas
- Letters To The American Church ~ Metaxas
- Twelve Ordinary Men ~ MacArthur
- The Rape Of Nanking ~ Chang
- The American Story: Building The Republic ~ David & Tim Barton
- Bad Therapy: Why Kids Aren’t Growing Up ~ Shrier
