I went right into my hard sell, telling him that I was ready to go to work on the spot. I told him straight up: “Look, Chef, I’ve done some time. I learned to run a kitchen in prison. But my resume speaks for itself.”

I think he liked my aggressive approach. In Vegas, like in prison, you have to be tough to run a kitchen. If the cooks sense any sign of weakness, they’ll run you over, tell you how to do your f** job.

“Mr. Henderson,” he said. “Did you ever kill anyone?”

“No, sir.”

“All right,” he said. “I want you to cook me dinner on Friday. Write up a menu.”

I opened my briefcase, showed him the menu I’d already typed up and brought along with me, and told him that instead of giving me the usual ninety-day probation period, just to give me a month.

“That won’t be necessary,” he told me. “Just cook me a tasting dinner for six.”

That tasting dinner would be a tryout for the food and beverage executives. Six courses in sixty minutes would decide my fate and the fate of my family. It would be the most important meal I ever cooked.

I remember I had my game face on, moving up and down the line in that sprawling kitchen like a general on the battlefield, flames roaring from my stove.

After I served them an amuse bouche that came out perfect - a beautiful pan-seared U-10 diver scallop with a white truffle creamed corn sauce - my confidence was high. They were impressed. My timing was on point as I was plating the first course, a microgreen and roasted-pear salad with gorgonzola. I knew I had them on the ropes as I plated the next course, Hudson Valley foie gras served with warm minted pineapple. That’s when I realized my - foie gras had been sitting out for about thirty minutes and started to oversoften.

Two things you need to know about foie gras: It is incredibly expensive and absolutely unforgiving in its delicacy. Foie gras has the consistency of butter and can turn into a useless mush if left out in a hot kitchen. With a great piece of steak or even lobster, you can screw up and there are ways to cover it up so that no one will notice. That’s not the case with foie gras. Just like when you’re cooking cocaine, one miscalculation of heat can destroy your product.