Jewish Life Digital Edition November 2014 | Page 60

FEATURE

From cocaine
TO CUISINE

Steve Dewey, from the depths of a drug addiction to group
catering manager at the Chev I BY TZIVIA GRAUMAN

56 JEWISH LIFE

ISSUE 79

A REAL EUREKA MOMENT OCCURRED WHEN SHE
SAID ONE DAY, ‘BUT WAIT A MOMENT, YOU’RE JEWISH.
THE CHEV WILL HELP YOU!’
earlier, when we met to talk about his life
and work. “They’re the best part of my incredibly rewarding job. Each relationship,
like each person, is unique. I feel a sense of
joy coming to work every day.” How many
of us can say that?
But Steve’s life wasn’t always idyllic. The
path he travelled to get where he is now
has been long and painful.
He started growing an enormous chip
on his shoulder when he was just six years
old, and his family moved to London. “I
was beaten up almost daily by students of
all races – just for being South African.” It
was 1969 and apartheid was hot news.
Kids can be cruel and playgrounds are
deadly places when mob mentality sets in
and reason flees the scene. Self-righteous
scholars had no problem blaming the entire, sick regime on a little kid with no one
to defend him.

“We returned to South Africa just before
my barmitzvah, and although I was happy
to be back, by then I was an angry and rebellious teenager.” No one, he was determined, would ever bully or abuse him again.
So he got tough, got into a rough crowd,
and got into all sorts of trouble for drinking
and gang-fighting. Expelled from Queens
High at 14, he was enrolled in Studywell
College, where he lasted two years, before
being expelled again. “I had something to
prove – refusing to be a victim, I just
couldn’t back down from confrontation.”
His school days behind him, Steve worked
at odd jobs and accelerated his downward
spiral by experimenting with drugs – grass,
acid, white pipes. He got married when he
was only 20 and had two sons, who, though
now grown up and far away, are still his
pride and joy. Decimated by his drug use,
the marriage crumbled after 10 years.

PHOTOGRAPHS: DAVE MADDEN FROM PHOTOINC.BIZ

IT WAS LUNCHTIME ON A REGULAR WEDNESDAY
afternoon. I was on my way to meet our
catering manager, Steve Dewey, for a tour
of the massive, industrial Sandringham
Gardens kitchen – the largest kosher