Derek Flynn

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Title: Director, Culinary Production

Year you started at FN: 1994

Path at FN: PA, Steward, Purchasing Manager, Director of Culinary Production

Culinary education/background: I did not attend culinary school but worked in restaurants and catering and was an avid cook from my teens.

Cuisine you're known for: Big food, roasts, meat stews, seafood stews, grilled steaks and chops

Favorite food: Any seafood at the beach, oysters, clams (raw or fried)

Food you won't go near: There's not much I wouldn't try if it was put in front of me but I'm not all that adventurous on my own.

Culinary inspiration: There are so many. A cheese sandwich on a train in France when I was 12 that just amazed me, a few weeks spent working on a farm in Wis. during high school where everything was from scratch and as much from the farm as possible (I volunteered for extra kitchen shifts), watching Julia Child on PBS

Favorite show: Iron Chef America

Do you prefer sweet foods or savory: I prefer savory and I do not like to bake but I can't get through a day without some sort of sweet.

If you were a condiment, what would you be: Mayonnaise, I cook with an eye to how good the leftovers will be as a sandwich.

Charities or organizations you work for/with: I've been doing a little work with the Queens Galley, which is a soup kitchen near my home in Kingston. In July, when we were taping The Next Iron Chef, they got some amazing leftovers!