Being a chef was not the life Michael Psilakis pictured for himself.
Psilakis, best known as the 2012 winner of the BBC's cooking adventure show "No Kitchen Required" told FOX News, that becoming a chef was not in his initial career path.
"Becoming a chef chose me," he said. "It wasn't really something I thought about. I went to school for accounting; I was getting ready to go to law school. I started waiting on tables and fell in love with the restaurant industry."
Psilakis, who owned his first restaurant at 23, said he avoided cooking at all cost, and used his background in business to run his eatery. It wasn't unil, one of his chef's neglected to show up to work, did Psilakis picked up a spatula and began cooking.
"I ran into the kitchen to do the best I could... and really found the place that was home for me," Psilakis said.
Psilakis, who was awarded a Michelin star for his now-closed New York City restaurant Anthos and "Chef of the Year" by Esquire Magazine, said he worked 18 hours a day and grew to know nothing else but cooking.
"I was really one-dimensional. Worked 18 hours a day in the kitchen. I didn't know what was going on in the world," Psilakis said. "I didn't know if it was raining or sunny, or the day of the week. I had no clue. And I achieved a tremendous amount of critical success from that period."
After the passing of his father, Psilakis said he began to understand the art of cooking.
"What I realized was that the memories that I had with him revolved around food in a way that I never used it before," Psilakis said.
Psilakis teamed up with The Food Network's Iron Chef America judge Donatella Arpaia to open a series of restaurants. The business partners, who have since parted ways, still co-own New York's Upper West Side staple, Kefi. The restaurant reopened after a water main break flooded it.
Psilakis mission is to make Greek food common for Americans.
"I am trying my best to take Greek food out of the genre it's sat in for a long time and bring it into the mainstream," Psilakis said. "People here in New York - and maybe in the U.S. - look at Italian food as American food today. Like when you are sitting at home and thinking to yourself, what should I eat tonight?
"The choices are pretty much American or Italian or Asian or Chinese or Japanese. Greek food doesn't really fit into that equation yet," he said.
For the moment the Greek chef just hopes his customers feel "at home" in his restaurant.
"I hope that I can show someone that you can use food as a vehicle to create an environment where you, your family, the people that you love will come together and create a memory that hopefully later on as you grow will bloom into more memories for your children," he said.
