With the budget I have and offering the program free, I put the focus on giving my students marketable skills that would get them hired and in the door."
Marcus Sales works as a chef in two jobs, the first at AT&T Field’s giant grill, cooking up hot dogs and hamburgers for Chattanooga Lookouts games. His second job begins about 2 a.m. – often the same night as Lookout games – at a sports bar where two dancing girls sometimes entertain customers.
At the bar – which he does not want named although it’s not a strip club – he may easily spend the whole night working on dishes like Chicken Alfredo and complex salads, expanding the menu far beyond the usual fried bar snacks.
“I got two compliments at the bar that made me feel great; one customer told me that the food I made was better than Hooter’s,” Sales says with warm, happy, irresistible laughter. “And the girls told me one day, ‘Marcus, you’re saving lives by making dishes that are healthy to eat.’
“It means a lot to me that they enjoy my food, the food that I am busy making in the kitchen while they are dancing.”