Jokes about WUG aside, being a part of the Chef community (and part of Chef the company) had a direct influence on me being where I am today. (My turn for a !)

When I was first getting into this devops nonsense, my main method of learning *anything* about it was podcasts. A transformational moment for me was @jezhumble on devops cafe with @damonedwards & @botchagalupe, for example.

I learned so much from @ShipShowPodcast - and I kept hearing @sascha_d talk about something called “chef”. I had been experimenting with puppet previously, but it was clear to me that if I wanted to be cool like the ship show crew, i better check out chef

There’s a longer story about how I “taught myself chef out of spite” and how it indirectly (or possibly directly) lead to me losing my job. That sucked, but honestly thank goodness it happened or i would not have become the titan of the industry you see before you today

I got a job at @10thMagnitude and when I was doing migrations for systems to Azure, I was like “fuck this scripting nonsense, we should use Chef”. My boss said “what is this chef thing, and more importantly, how can I sell it?”

We started working with Chef to become a partner, and one day @stathyinc & @mfdii came by to show us some love and figure out if we dolls help them hit their number :)

Not long after that, @mfdii encouraged me to apply for a role at chef. By which i mean when I asked him if i should apply he didn’t tell me not to

(All kidding aside, Ducy has been influential in my career growth over many years and that twitter DM was a critical moment for me)

I interviewed with @yvov (with guest appearance by @esnyds ) at chefconf over a beer and a burger. A couple video interviews later (i remember chef recruiting telling me to be sure i brushed my hair before my interview with Barry) I had my offer.

Of course, @trevorghess then sent me an excited DM saying he was hired by @10thMagnitude and we would be working together!

“Yeah...about that...”

Not going to go into a chronological trip down my tenure at Chef, but a few things that might have seemed small at the time but I now see them as major inflection points for me:

@mary_grace inviting me to take part in the devrel community because, although i didn’t even know what devrel was, Mary told me I was doing it - devrel and its community is an important part of my life these past few years and i can thank Mary for that. We met at Chef!

My “new hire class” was me and @afiune. A casual random comment between the two of us turned into what would become Windows support in test kitchen! Sorry not sorry, Salim!

I randomly ended up walking to a company party with @nicolefv right before she officially joined Chef. I don’t know if Nicole remembers that, but I have decided that was the 0 day of our friendship.

Almost everything i know about trolling and shitposting I learned from @Julian_dunn.

Fun fact - at 10th, my coworker FJ and i used to say “WWJDD” with anything chef-related - and when i got the chef job I said “holy shit, i get to work with JULIAN?”

I was in constant awe any time I was paired with @JefrsonStarChip on a customer engagement. And Chip also was the one who helped me not feel over my head in the new company and role.

I wouldn’t have connected with @UberGeekGirl if not for Chef - and my knowledge and understanding would be so much less without that. Plus, Jessica has been a very good friend to me!

(I can’t name every single amazing person so this thread is going to not be comprehensive but my point was to show the connections that seemed small at the time but were long-reaching)

I mean i met @petecheslock at chefconf, so there’s that.

I also connected with some many orgs and enterprises though my time at chef and that exposure has let me synthesize to what i know and believe today

So yeah. Chef and the chef community matters to me. There was a lot that made me frustrated and sad, but when it was right, it was POWERFUL and I am grateful to the time i spent there.

I don’t use chef these days, and i don’t write cookbooks or anything, but I still consider that community one I am proud of.

@adamhjk thank you for all of this.