Pizzeria Orso executive chef Will Artley wasn’t always on the right track. As a teen, he was kicked out of high school in upstate New York, which was a huge blow to his parents. “That was the first time I let them down,” admits Artley. “I told them, ‘I promise you that I’m going to do something with my life. I’m just taking a different path.’”

Starting at age 15, he started gravitating toward kitchen work, picking up any kind of gig he could score. There was one stint at Misty Meadows Pig Farm, which also had a restaurant. “So you’d get to see the pigs and then eat them,” he explains.

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