Kentwood MI
AAKP Ambassador since 2016
Chef O is a two-time Kidney Transplant recipient for 39 years, He is a retired (2010) International Healthy Lifestyle Award Winning Chef, who spent 52 years in the restaurant business. Chef O was also the Executive Producer and Host of a weekly award-winning TV cooking show, from 1999-2010 with 315 shows that aired on a variety of stations around Michigan. Chef O’s Place was seen by millions of viewers throughout the state who tuned in each week to meet Chef O’s celebrity guests and enjoyed his ever-changing menus.
Chef O’s Place has won nine Philo T. Farnsworth Awards from the Central State Region of the Alliance for Community Media. He also received the 2001 Producer of the Year Award. He has been asked to appear on the “Top CHEF” and “CHOPS” on the Food Network and to serve on the Clinton Foundation “The Alliance for a Healthier Generation.”
Chef O has been interviewed many times for articles in the Grand Rapids Press, Grand Rapids Magazine, USA Today, USTA Magazine, U of Toledo Magazine, New England Journal of Medicine, and other national magazines. He spends his downtime competing, judging competitions, speaking, writing recipes, doing healthy cooking demos, and TV and radio interviews.
Thousands of dialysis patients across the United States have benefitted from the many cooking demonstrations he has done. His healthy cooking demonstrations have been done in such cities as Grand Rapids, Nashville, Austin Salt Lake City, Chicago, Orlando, St. Petersburg, Pitts burg, Santa Rosa, St. Paul, Boston, and many other cities, and for pharmaceutical companies, the National Kidney Foundation, other national health organizations, as well as for several insurance companies.
Chef O was invited to be guest chef at 5-star restaurant in England in September 2023. In July 2024, he was the recipient of the 2024 PRESIDENTIAL LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD for VOLUNTEER SERVICES and the STATE of MICHIGAN GOVERNOR’S AWARD.
