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The Firefighting
Chef
By
Bruce Dries
Going back to school at age fifty is no easy task. For Joseph Toth,
though, it was the start of a new career.
After twenty-five
years as a paramedic and professional firefighter for the Oil City
(Pa.) fire department, Toth retired and chose a new direction by
enrolling in the IUP Academy
of Culinary Arts, graduating in Spring, 2004. “I’d been a
firehouse cook anyway, and always enjoyed cooking,” he said. “I knew
that from the time I took a chef’s class back in high school.”
Toth lives in Oil
City with Diane, his wife of thirty-one years. They have a son, 28,
who is an Army staff sergeant and just got back from Iraq; a
daughter, 27, who is married and living in Baltimore, working as a
pharmaceutical doctor at the Sinai Medical Center; and a daughter,
20, who is in the Army reserve and driving a petroleum truck in
Iraq.
In addition to
firefighting, Toth also worked part-time at Sears for sixteen years
and took his summers off of work to coach high school varsity soccer
for twelve years. He learned how to play soccer when he was
stationed in Germany with the military police.
Starting classes
at the academy wasn’t easy. “The first three weeks were the
hardest,” he said. “There was kind of a panic about going back to
school. The fear of failure made me buckle down some more, though,
and by summer I was having fun.”
After a year of
studies at the IUP Academy of Culinary Arts and an externship at the
Yellow Dog Lantern restaurant in Oil City, Toth is now an assistant
manager at a new Bob Evans restaurant. “When I was hired, I told
them I wanted something stable and not too hectic,” he said. “They
put me back in the kitchen cooking. After about three months, they
asked if I wanted to join their management program.”
Toth noted that
he is older than the whole management staff. His many years in the
town resulted in a lot of customers asking where they know him from.
“I love interacting with the customers,” he said. “The other
managers are from the Pittsburgh area and are not used to knowing
the people so well.”
Toth rented a
one-room apartment in Punxsutawney for his year of studies, only
taking the hour-and-a-half drive home on weekends. “My wife was very
supportive,” he said. “But she’s real happy now that I’m coming home
in the evenings.”
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