Social Good Engineering Magazine: GineersNow Social Innovation GineersNow Engineering Magazine Issue No. 001 | Page 84

Mechanical
Engineer
turned Chef:
Dave Smart
by Robert Bagatsing
For David Smart,
swapping a lucra-
tive Engineering
career for a riskier
culinary adventure
is all worth it.
Photo Source: Devourfest
H
ow many times
have we heard
people say “choose
a job you love and
you never have
to work a day in
your life”? From
experience, I would say that it may
sound fun and easy, but it is extremely
tough to put into action. At least for
a working class citizen like me, the
dilemma stems from the fact that
most of the things I love to do are not
as financially rewarding as the things
that I less love to do. For instance, I
must admit that my desk job pays
well, making it completely ridiculous
to give it up for theatre acting stint.
At this point in my life, I am just not
ready to leave my 8-5 job to chase
after my passion.

It is, however, inspiring to
know of people who have taken the
monumental decision of leaving their
cushy career in exchange for doing
what they love. One of them is Dave
Smart, a mechanical engineer turned
restaurateur, and the head chef at
Front & Central, a casual dining place
in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

Smart recounts that though
there was not any eureka moment
that led him to take the plunge into
opening up a restaurant business, his
friends always noticed how excited he
was when he talked about cooking.
“One day,” say Smart, “a friend said
to me ‘Every time you talk about
cooking, you sit up and your body
language changes’.” The same friend
said that this was in contrast to when
Smart would talk about Engineering.
And the rest, so they say, was history.

Smart admits that making
it through the transition phase was
not easy. “I work way more than I
once did,” he says, “but I make a frac-
tion of the money I once made.” But
Smart does not seem to care about
the difficulty, as long as he felt “full”.

Smart identified as an engi-
neer from his 20s through his 30s,
when he enjoyed the perks of the job.
“It was nice to enjoy the lifestyle – the
spiffy car, the house and the loads of
travel,” say Smart. “It was his perfect
existence on paper, but it felt so emp-
ty.” His struggles were made worse by
a coincidental marriage break-up.

“After my marriage was
broken up,” Smart says, “I decided
not to be one of those guys who lies
on their deathbed with a list of things
they wished they had done before.”
So, he finally decided to give in to
what his heart tells him. At 40, he
took a nine-month culinary program
at Cordon Bleu Ottawa Culinary
Arts Institute, then apprenticed at a
restaurant there.

In January 2012, he
accepted a job at Wolfville’s Tempest
restaurant, which became his seven
months later.

Smart admits that he still
has moments, especially in extremely
difficult circumstances, when he
stands on the brink of giving up and
going back to full-time engineering.
“But the moment
I make that state-
ment, I immedi-
ately feel empty
inside,” he says.
A lot of people
go through quar-
ter-life or mid-life
crisis. Many are
disappointed to
find out that the
road to success is
not straight, let
alone paved. We
all have our own
unique circum-
stances that either
allow or disallow
us to do what we
want to do at the
moment. If there’s
an essential take-
away from Dave
Smart’s story, it is
that you have to
take ownership of
your life at some point, and it is never
too late to chase after what you love.

Chef Dave Smart’s Front
& Central restaurant served its last
meal on December 20, 2014, after two
and half years in business. Despite the
set-back, Smart has not given up on
what makes him feel “full”: He said
that he would continue to work in the
food industry, doing such things as
collaborative events with other chefs.
Photo Source: Nova News Now
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