Chad Clift - Three Things to Know before you Skydive for the First Time

One of the many passions of Chad Clift includes skydiving, a pastime that he has grown fond of in recent years. He has been running the community upscale restaurant Swanky’s in Mossy Rock, Washington for over 15 years, and skydiving has a relaxing effect on him. Still, there were many facts that he wished he had learned before he took his first jump off of a plane. Here are his top three facts he wished he knew:

• Yes, your skydiving partner is certified and experienced. To be a certified skydiving partner, you have to have jumped hundreds of times and you have to pass many tests and exams to do it professionally. They always prepare you in the event of any emergency.
• Emergencies happen in the air. Chad Clift was worried about every possible thing that could go wrong skydiving before he took his first jump from a plane, don’t worry, the skydiving instructors always tell you what to do in rare cases involving instructors passing out or somehow incapacitating themselves in the air. You’ll be fully prepared to land safely even in the extremely rare event of an emergency.
• The scariest part of skydiving isn’t jumping from a plane. Chad Clifton knows that the scariest part of skydiving is actually riding up to jumping altitude in a small plane that seems sketchy but is actually safe. Jumping out of the tiny aircraft might actually be relieving in a way.

Chad Clift has jumped out of many small planes that don’t seem safe, and he loves it. He recommends skydiving to anyone who wants an intense adrenaline rush.
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Chad Clift - How to Break into the Food Industry

Chad Clift took an unusual route to break into the food industry. He moved to New York City and attended Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts after he graduated from high school—which isn’t unusual, but then he did something extraordinary: he moved back home to found the community five-star restaurant Swanky’s in Mossy Rock, Washington. Here’s a more conventional track that you can use to break into the food industry:

• Get an apprenticeship. Chad Clift went to school to learn from top-notch chefs in a classroom and mock kitchen setting. He worked briefly as an apprentice to a top chef in New York before he returned home to Washington. Most chefs start their career apprenticing for more experienced chefs because the time with an expert who trains them gives them an excellent resource for references in the future and they can tell you about job openings themselves.
• Learn a wide range of skills. Retail workers call this being cross-trained. If you know how to make and do a wide range of things, you’ll find more opportunities in different areas of the food industry.
• Communicate and network. Working as a chef, as Chad Clift knows, is just like any other job. Opportunities will be there for those who have friends in the industry. Clift got much of his initial funding for his project in his hometown from connections he made in chef school.

Chad Clift took his culinary industry skills and used them to open a restaurant that would help everyone in the community he grew up in.
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Chad Clift - Founder and Owner of Swanky’s

Chad Clift earned a Culinary Arts degree from one of the top chef schools in the United States. In 2000, Clift graduated from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in New York City. Clift, rather than remain in New York and work in one of the main global nodes of the food industry, moved back home to his small town of Mossy Rock on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. He wanted to serve his friends and family with the best food he could create rather than a city of strangers across the country. Clift wanted to found a new kind of restaurant, one that was known in the community as a place where people could meet and forge relationships while enjoying some of the best food in the area.

Chad Clift moved back home because he wanted to give the people he loved access to the best food he could create. Clift found himself cut off from everything he knew in New York City. He was in the Mecca of culinary culture in the United States and could have found what he thought was his dream job in one of the many upscale restaurants in the city and begun his career. Instead, Chad Clift returned home to found Swanky’s, an upscale restaurant that everyone in his community can find something they want to eat at.

Chad Clift built his business to be a community service, not an exclusionary eatery. He crafted the menu to give everyone an option for good food.
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