A Letter from the Founder

I started working in kitchens around 19. Kitchens by day, and at night I was a barback and security at a bar. On top of that I took the janitor spot, cleaning after hours. Some days ran 20 hours between the jobs. I didn't get my feet wet. I dove off the cliff into the water below.

Then I realized the kitchen was the one. I loved it. In the words of CT Fletcher, it became my magnificent obsession. I wanted to know everything. Like a kid, I asked why. Why do they do it that way? Why this, why now? I soaked it up like a sponge, kitchen after kitchen. In my head, I wanted to be a culinary monster, a stove jockey, a rock star in the kitchen.

Many kitchens later, it all started to click. Movements with surgical precision. Speed, yet graceful. Every plate, I lived by one mantra: you are only as good as your last plate. Let that sink in. We know we can't please everyone, but that mindset carried me to Sous Chef, Banquet Executive Chef, Executive Chef, and management, through hotels, a casino, and small local restaurants. In banquet kitchens we ran events of 120 to 250 plates, scheduled as close as 30 minutes apart, and turned 600, 700, 900, even 1,700 meals a day. I was blessed enough to do it successfully. And to this day, I still do large batch cooking with chicken scratch math by hand.

Along the way I made comida, family meal, for my crew. My cooks could eat almost anything, just not the steak or the bluefin. My dishwashers ate anything they wanted once a week, steak and bluefin included. Theirs is the hardest, dirtiest, lowest-paid job in the kitchen, and nobody gets through a service without them. A chef once told me, "A great dishwasher doesn't stay a dishwasher long." I heard those words again at every promotion, all the way up to Sous Chef.

So why not let this be my token, to those who came before me and to those wishing to follow? That's what this is about: honoring the people who came before, helping the next person, and bringing people up, not down. In this app, the dish pit comes first. The Dish Pit Badge, for a special plate you make for your dishwasher and post with a shout-out, sits above every skill badge on a chef's profile, and the ladder runs from Dishwasher to Executive Chef. It's why there's a bucket by the door before service. Leave 'em in the bucket. Long shift ahead.

What sets Infamous Bytes apart is the level of skill, empathy, and passion for the industry behind it. The experience feels intimate, the app serves a meaningful purpose, and it bridges the two worlds of cooking. Home cooks get a real taste of the industry, and the industry gets taught a thing or two by a fierce home cook.

This app is a tool, not a replacement. It does the math and the busywork so you can be the best at what you do. The judgment stays with the cook, always. And the price is honest: $4.99 a month.

To everyone who read this far: thank you. Without you, and your attention to detail, we wouldn't be here. I'm forever grateful for this journey and for what we're creating together.