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After an auspicious start at the age of 11 in a banquet hall kitchen, Dayn Smith grew up to run some of New York's better hotel restaurants. By the age of 21, he was executive chef at the UN Plaza, where he served such dignitaries as Henry Kissinger and Ronald Reagan. After falling in love with Puerto Rico on vacation, he landed a job as executive chef of El Conquistador, a luxury hotel with 17food-and-beverage outlets. But Smith says that as he rose up the corporate ladder, he moved farther from his true love - cooking.
That's why in 1995 he negotiated a deal to run his own restaurant in the hotel's marina. Dining in the Stingray is like eating underwater thanks to a mural, replete with fish and coral, that covers every inch of the ceiling and walls.
Title: Chef-owner, Stingray Cafe at Et Conquistador Resort & Country Club, Fajardo, Puerto Rico.
Birthdate: March 27, 1958.
Hometown: Detroit.
Culinary Education: The Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, N.Y., graduated in 1978.
Career fights: Competing in the 1992 Culinary Olympics, being named executive chef of the U.N. Plaza at age 21, opening El Conquistador and becoming chef owner of the Stingray.
How did you become interested in cooking?
Since I was 8 years old I wanted to become a chef. The kitchen fascinated me. My mom was a cook; she runs the food concessions at a country club in Detroit today. I used to stand on a chair and help her.
Do you remember your first cooking job?
When I was 11 years old, I started working at Waldamere's Banquet Hall. My mom was working there, and I started working...