Background

"A hesitant doctor is no good doctor", they told him in '87, during his last year of med school. He, of course, couldn't reply. His mind was boiling with a thousand curses and a million snarky comebacks, yet couldn't voice any of them. His only answer was a mouth opening, and then closing immediately. Silence and a troubled face. He didn't say anything. Maybe they were right, but this was the catalyst for a once in a lifetime decision. Rex was born and raised in a family of French Canadian doctors, a vocational trade running in his family for at least three generations now, his dad had been a surgeon in Montreal for four decades and Rex had always been an applied student, likely set to a good future in medicine. Yet, his heart growing up was somewhere else: Food. He loved food. From cooking it, to savoring it, to daydreaming of using the most rarest exotic ingredients to craft a meal worthy of a king's delight. This caused a dilemma, a conflict that truly surfaced when Rex realized that all the money spent in buying the best ingredients and spices to experiment with at home, ultimately went to waste because time was a luxury that medical school didn't allow, and that is something he thought couldn't endure for the rest of his life. And so, realizing that he would never have time for himself, that his cooking dreams would never come true and that his dad spent a lifetime in a thankless job, Rex chose to break the cycle by not starting his residency after med school. A very lengthy and tough decision that troubled him for many days, weeks and sleepless nights, but in the end, he was doing what he thought was right. Dad wasn't entirely happy with this decision, but understood the reasons behind it after a long discussion. And so Rex was free and ready to start a new career path, with his dad already retired and having made bank, they could go anywhere they wanted; in this case, they chose Southern California, home to their few still living relatives. Once settled there, Rex went to culinary school, and after four long years of kitchen work, learning techniques from different cultures and cooking styles, a lot of food safety regulations and dish cleaning; Rex was officially a chef. Sadly, his dad passed away during this time, and Rex was left alone with just his uncle's family. An uncle who was also a chef, a pretty good one that worked for the Evercrest Transportation Services company, he was meant to board the Silver Meridian in early '93 to work the train kitchens but by the second half of '92 became too sick to board said train. He would make arrangements with the company, letting them know months in advance as his health declined, that his nephew Rex could replace him, as he was more than able to do his job if not better. Rex saw this as a chance to work and learn in possibly one of the finest kitchens in the entire country, on a luxury train, and wishing good health to his uncle he agreed. For the next few months, his uncle taught him how to behave in such a luxury environment, expecting no less than his best, because this gig wasn't just about serving food, it was possibly a once in a lifetime experience, and Rex took that to heart. And then the big day came. The paperwork was done. It was official. On March 3rd 1993, Rex Rousseau boarded the Silver Meridian train as part of the kitchen crew as he waved goodbye to his Uncle and what little family he still had left, wondering what his first dish creation in the train would be, and what the train and passengers had in store for him.