Keith Young

"The best thing a father can do for his children is love their mother"

Keith Young, to us is more than just an incredible cookbook author... he was our dad, our best friend, an amazing husband to our mom, a firefighter, massage therapist, 2 time Chopped Champion - a true hero in every sense of the word. On March 17, 2018, we lost our dad to a 9/11 related cancer where he became an angel with our mom in heaven. We are here to continue his legacy with his cookbook, "Cooking with the Firehouse Chef."

A few years ago, our dad wrote his story in his own words after inventing his Cup Board Pro -

"I guess nothing, truly great, comes easy…

My Name is Keith Young. I’m a father, a NYC Firefighter, and a NYS Licensed Massage Therapist. I have an AOS in Culinary Arts from Johnson and Wales University RI. I’m winner of “Throwdown” with Bobby Flay. I’m a 2 time “Chopped” champion. I’m also the inventor of the Cup Board Pro.

Although the Cup Board Pro is a very simple invention, it’s taken me close to 8 years to perfect it, where it’s as close to being flawless as possible. Those were years of thoughts and dreams, ideas and drawings, setbacks, financial struggle, large moves for my family, self doubt, overcoming self doubt, sleepless nights, working on my first prototype with friends, finding my industrial designer through a friend on the FDNY, meeting my patent lawyer through mutual friends, friends that believed and supported me, friends that lent me money, scraping together money for tooling, prototype flaws, stalls, fixing flaws, working on colors, working with different materials for the board, working with my daughter Kaley, countless hours she spent printing business cards, working on website, designing my advertising packaging, working with a friend to print up advertising packaging, many, many, business meetings with different people from all over the country, following leads, travelling to Chicago IL, Los Angeles CA, Tampa FL to pitch my idea at it’s earlier stages. For every set of ups, I had twice as many disappointments. Through all of that, there were a few people that never let me give up on my passion, even when I forgot what it was, I was passionate about… That was my wife and kids.

I’m very proud to share my invention, The Cup Board Pro, with all of you, but at the same time the moment is very bittersweet. The person that always believed in me the most, through thick and thin, my cheerleader since forever, my wife, the mother of my beautiful children, Beth King passed away on August 22, 2012. She wasn’t here with me physically to witness this moment. My kids picked up her torch though, and wouldn’t let me give up. They’d remind me what Beth would say to me, when I would forget. “Dad, keep going. Mommy believed in this and wanted you to get this out there for everybody.” It helped me to push through all of the hurt, and anger, and do what needed to be done, so I could see this through.

So that’s my story… Everybody’s got one. This one is mine. Enjoy!