Jesse Ebbert
Jesse Earl Ebbert was born on November 22nd, 1987 and was raised in the town of Bel Air Maryland. He was a talented soccer player and loved to go long boarding, play frisbee and disk golf with friends. He had a great appreciation of nature and loved family vacation trips all over the US and Canada. Growing up in a house where music was usually playing, Jesse developed his own deep love of music, decorating the walls of his bedroom with old album covers and posters. He had real talent for pen and ink drawing, and later designed his own tattoo, and also designed for friends.After a few retail jobs, Jesse was hired as a busboy at Sakura, his first restaurant job. Shortly after, he took a busboy job at locally owned cafe that had just opened. Clearly Jesse wasn’t particularly happy bussing tables and the owner patiently moved him around to other positions, and in a last ditch attempt, moved him into the kitchen to assist. Jesse’s passion was found, and he never left the kitchen after that. He worked at that cafe for several years and gained a great deal of experience in all phases of cooking and running a kitchen. He moved on to Cinghiale, a Foreman Wolf restaurant in Baltimore. During this time in his career, he accompanied Chef Wolf to New York City to prepare a dinner of white truffles at the James Beard Foundation, and it was a day that he was enormously proud of. Later, when Foreman Wolf Restaurants opened Johnny’s Restaurant in Roland Park, Jesse was offered the job of Sous Chef and he worked there for almost a year, until the time of his death.
Tragically, on January 1st, 2014 after attending a New Year’s party at a friend’s house, Jesse laid down to sleep and with little warning, we lost a dear son, brother, friend and soul mate to a benign brain cyst that he had probably had since birth. On January 10th, at only 26 years of age, and after every attempt had been made to bring him out of a coma, his family was forced to remove him from life support and let him go.Jesse’s Legacy and Scholarship
The sudden loss of Jesse has left an unimaginable void in the lives of all who knew him. This scholarship attempts to fill this void in some small measure, by encouraging and helping those who shared Jesse’s passion for the Culinary Arts. Jesse Ebbert was an extraordinary person, lived an all too short but a happy and rewarding life and was a great friend and chef, and this is a positive way to memorialize the gift of his presence in this world by helping others to achieve their goals.
Jesse had a passion for food, its preparation and particularly its presentation. He was an artist and his chosen medium was food and the canvas he worked with was an empty plate. His work ethic was top notch and he often inspired others he worked with to perform at his own level. Jesse was always described as being a calming presence in any kitchen, always confident and respectful of others, always kind and patient to new employees, even at the busiest times. But also, Jesse expected nothing less than your best effort and had little patience for those who didn’t give one hundred percent. He was widely respected by everyone who had ever had the pleasure of working with him. His discipline and talent would have no doubt taken him far in the industry. He left so much of an impression on his coworkers in the short period of time that he worked at Johnny’s, that many of them were tattooed with his initials and a spoon, Jesse’s favorite tool. It is those values that we hope to instill and encourage in others, in a way that Jesse would be proud of. He loved to help people and with that in mind, this scholarship seeks to help those who will embrace his passion, his artistry, and his incredible work ethic.