Meet Gregory Royster | Chef and knife maker

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gregory Royster and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gregory, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I’m from Ft. Lauderdale born and raised around the Sistrunk area. Growing up we really didn’t have much but somehow my family made it work. We weren’t broke broke but we weren’t well off either, the neighborhood was a lot rougher than it is now. Our family just had that never quit attitude and God was always in the center of it all. So honestly if it wasn’t for my faith and never take no for an answer attitude I wouldn’t be where I am right now. All glory to Jesus.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
For me I would never say I’m just a chef, in reality I’m an artist through and though. I just chose plates to be my canvas and food to be my paint for a while. What sets my knives apart from your standard kitchen knife is they’re made with the chef in mind, made to be very comfortable through extended use and more importantly being gorgeous to look at while performing like a beast. I’ve put in almost 12 years in kitchens across South Florida, I know what chefs want out of a knife so I’ve used that experience to build a fantastic product that any chef would fall in love with after the first use. As far as lessons along the way, I’ve learned to be patient first and foremost, sometimes we can want something so badly we go for it before we’re even mentally, physically and spiritually ready and it all just goes up in flames. It’s taken me 2 years of learning, making mistakes and learning from those mistakes to get me to where I am now with knife making. I just want the world to know that MKKW is hear to stay and continue to provide top quality, high performance knives to the top chefs around the world.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If a friend was visiting, I gotta take them to see my friends. Starting from the bottom up first we’d have to hit Vice City Pizza in Kendall owned by a friend of mine Chef Carlos. His place has been blowing up and for good reason. Next spot would be in Boca, Saiko-i Sushi Lounge & Hibachi. Probably one of my favorite spots for Japanese cuisine, their matcha mojitos will help you have a grand ol time. And I’d have to round that off with Twenty Twenty Grille in Boca Raton. Probably the best New-American fine dining restaurants in Florida if not the country. Chef Ron is always coming up with some insane dishes and he was very instrumental in the chef I’ve become today…. although I’ve never told him that.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
When I was young and first getting into the industry I told myself I wanted to be like Chef Wolfgang Puck, a well known celebrity chef with his own knife and cookware line. Fast foward 11 years in and I’m a lot wiser at this point as to how the industry works but I never caught my big break. At the end of the day nothing in life is given, sometines you just have to take it by force. Then I found out about Quintin Middleton of Middleton Knives, a black knife maker. And for me that sparked the idea, why wait to just put my name on something from some random company? Why not just go and get it out the dirt myself and make it to my own specifications, make the knife that I as a chef would want to use for 10 hours a day. Middleton knives realistically was the spark that set Misfit Kitchen Knife Works in motion.

Website: https://instagram.com/misfitkitchenkw?igshid=MzNlNGNkZWQ4Mg==

Instagram: @misfitkitchenkw

Image Credits
VictoriaAshleyPhotos