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For Clay Carnes, acclaimed chef and owner of Cholo Soy Cocina in West Palm Beach, the culinary arts are less of a throw-around 9-to5 and more of an embodied identity. He’s known around the country for his success on Food Network’s “Cutthroat Kitchen,” but that achievement is just one of many for the talented cuisine-man.

“I’ve just been working in restaurants, you know, literally my whole life,” Clay shares. Summer jobs in local joints at the ages of 12 and 13 directed him to an eventual line cooking job in Palm Beach that led him to culinary school first at the French Culinary Institute in New York City and then at ALMA, a school of Italian culinary arts near Parma, Italy; two experiences that landed him the Executive Chef role when he returned to that same Palm Beach restaurant at the age of just 23. Following this, Clay headed to Ecuador, an experience that ultimately came to influence the beloved Latin-American food fusion experience he’s now offering at Cholo Soy Cocina.