Editor’s Note: Movers and shakers are people who make things happen, influencers whose energy creates positive change. They’re always busy and often pioneers in their respective fields. In each issue of Richardson Life Magazine , we highlight an individual, couple or group of people who we feel fits this definition. If you would like to nominate a mover and shaker to be celebrated in the pages of the magazine, email pmotte@hylogroup.com

 

Justin Box

Chef Extraordinaire. Recovered Addict. Good Guy.

By Patti Otte

 

THE EARLY YEARS

Justin Box has been cooking for almost thirty years, a love affair that began atop a black wooden stool in his great-grandma Lareda’s kitchen. As a young boy, Justin lived with and was raised by his step-grandma Jimmie (whom he called Mom) and his Granddad CJ. Jimmie, Lareda’s daughter and Justin’s best friend, worked for Granddad CJ, an attorney/CPA.

Since his grandparents were working, care for the young Justin fell to Lareda. She would take him to Heights Elementary in her silver Chevy Impala smoking a cigarette from a pack of Misty menthols. After school, Lareda would start cooking. She taught Justin how to make all kinds of Southern food from scratch: coffee cakes drenched in butter, biscuits and gravy, sausage and more.

On days when Jimmie would do the cooking instead of Lareda, Justin would eat ground beef out of the pot as she prepared dinner. They ate “hash and eggs,” Vienna Sausages

straight out of the can, and “sh*t on a shingle,” a dish dating back to World War II which consists of chipped beef from a jar (salted and dried), gravy and white bread.

Justin is now a highly decorated chef with several awards to his name, but to this day his very favorite meal is “still Mom’s spaghetti – store-bought Prego, ground beef and noodles.”

So how does a young boy growing up in Richardson with three loving family members end up near death on the streets of San Francisco with a couple of failed suicide attempts, an out-of-control drug habit and a trail of broken dreams? Now celebrating 14 years of sobriety, Justin looks back reflectively on those formative – and often dark – years with a “shake your head” kind of disbelief that he’s still here today.

A DOWNWARD SPIRAL

Never comfortable in school, Justin developed a need for control and became a class clown who would do anything for attention, no matter how scary or dangerous. He discovered drinking and drugs in his early teen years. Ironically, he continued to cook no matter how many drugs he took.

Justin believes his RISD teachers must have known he was on a path of destruction so let him have some freedoms. From time to time, he would walk out of one class and go sit in another. He did eventually earn his high school diploma, but he was at alternative school by that time.

Knowing he wanted to work with food, Justin registered for El Centro’s culinary program. He speaks fondly of the “amazing teachers who try to help people who are a little less fortunate than others.” As he learned, he simultaneously dove deeper into the drug world.

Wanting to leave Dallas, he applied to a couple of elite culinary programs. None would accept him…until he ended up at CCA (California Culinary Academy) in California.

That move was a disastrous turning point. Trying to balance culinary school and a tumultuous, drug-fueled life was killing Justin. And he was tired of making his grandmother sad, so he ended up coming back to Texas. In 2005 Justin hit rock bottom and contemplated suicide daily. Lost, sad and hating to be alive, he nevertheless tried several times to get sober; he had developed a plethora of drug-induced, potentially life-threatening health problems and didn’t want to die.

RECOVERY BEGINS

Luckily, a recovery program in Florida took Justin in and he stayed there for 50 days. He got clean and never looked back. That was 14 years ago. To this day, Justin fondly recalls his counselor Lightning Mike’s reminder to articulate self-love daily.

Once he got sober, Justin went to Twisted Root Burger and made fried pickles to get his head back in the game. Then he went to a couple of lower end restaurants. And slowly but surely, he made his way to the mentorship of acclaimed chef Randall Copeland at Restaurant Ava in Rockwall. Says Justin, “Chef Randall Copeland was my mentor and hero. He helped establish me in the chef world. He saw my creativity and wanted to help me find my place.

After Chef Randall died, Justin began working for some of the top players in Dallas, such as Stephen Pyles and Dean Fearing, and easily moved between fine dining and farm-to-table cooking thanks to his creative culinary interpretations. Justin has opened and curated memorable menus for some of Dallas’s best restaurants, including Cafe Momentum, The Cafe at Bonton Farms, Cedars Social and Richardson’s Lockwood Distilling Co., a hometown favorite.

Justin stayed at Café Momentum for a year-and-a-half. At-risk youth would come to Café Momentum to learn and grow after getting off track. It was a catalyst for change in what Justin wanted to do with his life. He has always believed in helping kids, especially the world’s “ugly, bad ones,” the ones with no father figures. Doing so has become Justin’s reason for being.

Since he wanted more time with family and flexibility, Justin decided to leave Café Momentum and start consulting. By this point, he trusted his own skills and knew he could make it on his own.

Justin has plans to devote some of his free time to one of his passions: nutrition in public schools. Says Justin, “All kids can find that happy place [like I did] around food and develop a sense of discovery. There’s nothing better than watching the light [in their minds] go on through food.”

He is also now taking all the best parts of his culinary journey and pouring it into his new catering business, Good Guys Cooking Co. He and a silent partner have teamed up to take the Dallas catering scene to the next level. Their goal is “to run with the best of the best in the catering world.” Good Guys Cooking Co. already has a full team of chefs, cooks and employees ready to go. When I asked Justin about what inspired the name, he replied, “It was inspired over morning coffee. I looked in the mirror with my hair all askew, a scraggly beard and dark circles under my eyes and thought, ‘Now that’s a good guy.”

Whether it’s opening a catering company, staying sober or honing his culinary craft, at the heart of every decision Justin makes is an intense love of family. When asked about it, Justin replies, “Family is at the heart of life. Being a good dad and husband makes me proud…and getting to cook with my son and seeing him light up is everything.” Justin’s son is sitting with us whole we chat, so I ask him what he loves. He thoughtfully replies, “Hanging out with Dad, getting to explore new foods and how you make them. And I love that our family never gives up!”

Turns out that inquisitive, curious and confused kid who felt so comfortable sitting on the black stool cooking with his great-grandma Lareda has found his way as a dad, a husband and a chef and is destined to be one of Richardson’s greatest success stories.

JUSTIN RICHARDSON’S FAVORITES

Chinese – First Chinese BBQ
Coffee Shop – Communion or Staycation
Date night – Sueño
Japanese Food – Masami
Japanese Sushi & Cuisine
Middle Eastern Food – Albaghdady
Pizza – Olive Oil’s (pepperoni)
Tacos – Taqueria La Candelaria (Chivo)
Vietnamese Food – Pho Troung