Following an early stint dancing with the Joffrey Ballet and the Alberta Ballet Company, I hung up my tights for chef’s whites. I was Sous Chef at Arcadia, which Time Magazine named as America’s Best Restaurant in 1985, and subsequently launched my entrepreneurial career as Chef/Founder of Over-the-Counter, a Wall Street gourmet take-out, World Café, Dano in the West Village, and Restaurant Dano, a fixture at 28th & Fifth Avenue for 10 years. In 2002, I developed Events by Dano, an event managem...