Stephan Juliusburger has cooked for famous rock bands, held his own in prestigious cooking competitions and helped to run world-renowned restaurants, and through it all his grandmother has been his greatest inspiration.

Mr. Juliusburger is a former Sonesta Beach Executive chef, and now runs Syntuitive, a company that aims to bring more Bermudians into the culinary arts industry. Syntuitive is currently involved in helping with the Bermuda Culinary Arts Festival coming up in November.

He was born in England to university professor parents who ate only to stave off starvation.

?In truth where I initially got my passion for food was from my grandmother who is German,? said Mr. Juliusburger. ?My father?s mother is still alive, bless her. She is 95. She is an amazing cook. When I was about 11 she moved close to us. We started going to her house for dinner.

?The difference between what we got at her house, as opposed to what we fed ourselves on a daily basis ? it was so stark that it intrigued me. I would hang out in her kitchen and watch her cook.

?I started reading cookbooks and practicing on my own. I came to an understanding that it didn?t have to be about the way it was in our house.?

When Mr. Juliusburger was working in restaurants he would try to work some of his grandmother?s recipes onto the menu, especially a marinated mushroom dish he calls ?Oma?s Mushrooms?.

She refused to tell him how to make it, so he learned by covertly watching her cook. ?It still doesn?t taste exactly like hers,? he said.

Now he wants to help Bermudians find the same inspiration to become chefs.

Syntuitive is a company that was formed this year with a mission to raise the awareness of the culinary profession and increase the development of chefs and bring more people into the industry.

Syntuitive works very closely with the National Training Board, and is currently in talks with the Ministry of Education.

?We do feel that kids learn how to love food at an early age,? said Mr. Juliusburger. ?I talk to a lot of kids. I see a lot of passion. I remember my own passion when I was a kid in school.

?I feel that if we can nurture that and provide a ladder to those people that says ?yes we can give you training and help?, that is a great thing.?

Mr. Juliusburger said he is unsure about the status of cooking classes in local schools, but he knows that CedarBridge Academy?s curriculum in the Family Services Department includes courses dealing with food and nutrition.

?The industry needs more young Bermudian chefs,? said Mr. Juliusburger. ?The industry wants to inspire people to become professional chefs, not just teach them how to cook.?

One of the ways that this idea is being carried out is the Escoffier Cup a Bermuda Culinary Arts Festival cooking competition designed to find the best chef on the island.

?The competition is currently underway. During the preliminary rounds, four chefs were recently picked to go on to the semi-finals, -Castro Boutin, and Paul Jurt from the Newport Room, Rick Bartram from Elbow Beach, and Steve Marston from the Pickled Onion.

?It is going to be a real barnburner,? said Mr. Juliusburger. ?We have four really good candidates.?

?We did not have many Bermudian entrants in this year?s competition,? Mr. Juliusburger admitted. ?We have had a lot of interest.

?I have had three or four calls from Bermudians who want to compete next year. In general, the work we do at Syntuitive is designed to inspire more young Bermudians to become chefs.

?Last night at our cook-off (the final preliminary round) we had two Bermudian culinary students there watching. That is what we are trying to inspire.

?The Escoffier Cup itself is about the finest chefs on the island competing. It is not about necessarily promoting one particular agenda. We feel the work we are doing will result in many more Bermudians being able to compete in the future.?

He said the Bermuda Culinary Arts Festival has two agendas: to build knowledge of Bermuda?s heritage and foods overseas, and to create awareness of the culinary arts here in Bermuda.

?Every member of the audience over the last three nights of cooking competitions has come away saying that they knew more about what goes on in the kitchen,? said Mr. Juliusburger. ?They learn what a chef does and the passion that a chef feels. That is the sort of awareness that Syntuitive wants to create and the Festival wants to have.?

Mr. Juliusburger said he never went to cooking school.

?I started working in an apprenticeship, but I never finished it because I went to the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut,? he said. ?I had been in an apprenticeship in England.

?Having two parents who are university professors makes it hard to not go to university. They had certain opinions about that. They pulled me from where I was working as an apprentice in England and said I had to go back to school.?

However, in university Mr. Juliusburger could never quite give up cooking. He continued to do it on the side.

?When I was 20-years-old, I had an offer from a restaurant owner who was building a second restaurant to become his chef,? said Mr. Juliusburger. ?I left university and became a chef and opened that restaurant with him in Stamford, Connecticut.

?That pretty much changed my life. We got reviewed by the ?New York Times? and got two stars. All of the sudden, everyone wanted me to be a chef, except for my parents.

?But I got offers from a lot of different places to go on and keep cooking. I just followed my heart.?

One day, one of the chefs working with Mr. Juliusburger wrote to the band the Grateful Dead, and asked them to visit the restaurant. They said no, but asked the chef to cook dinner for the group backstage.

?So he asked me if I would help him and I said sure,? said Mr. Juliusburger. ?At the end of the evening the band asked me if I was interested in doing it full time.?

Ironically, Mr. Juliusburger was not a fan of the Grateful Dead, he was more interested in jazz and old-time blues music.

?I was not what people call a ?dead head?,? he said with a laugh. ?I was not a fan of the band, but that was one of the reasons they made me the offer. They liked the fact that I wasn?t phased by who they were. I just liked cooking. They wanted to get some of that on the road.?

The Grateful Dead built a kitchen on the back of a truck, and off Mr. Juliusburger went with them, touring with them everywhere east of the Rocky Mountains.

?They loved fine French cuisine,? said Mr. Juliusburger. ?They loved wine. We use to carry our own wine cellar. I would do all my shopping fresh in every city.

?I would see what was seasonal and fresh. I would try to do some little ethnic evenings. I would do a Chinese night, for example, or a Mexican night.

?For me it was such a freedom, because they basically had no demands. They just wanted really good food every night. I was reading a lot about different cuisines.

?What a playground they gave me. I could buy anything (food-wise) I wanted and cook anything I wanted. We had a wonderful relationship.?

Mr. Juliusburger worked for the band for six and a half years. During that period he saw hundreds of Grateful Dead shows. After working for them, he was recruited by Marriott Hotels, and then a series of other hotels around the world.

?I went back to Chicago and worked for another hotel company for awhile, but wasn?t really happy,? he said. ?Then one day I had a call from the Sonesta Beach Hotel in Bermuda, asking me if I would be interested in coming to Bermuda.?

Mr. Juliusburger has now been in Bermuda for seven years.

The Escoffier Cup 2004 is not over. Tickets at $50, are available at Bermuda International Imports on Par-la-Ville Road in Hamilton. The semifinal is tonight.

The finals will be held on November 13 at the Bermuda Culinary Arts Festival at the Fairmont Southampton Princess from November 10-16. For more information about the Festival, a schedule of events and reservations please visit www.bermudaculinaryarts.com or call 295-2508.