Executive chef has been all over the world and back

John Birman, the executive chef at the Pines Golf Club and Restaurant in Orrville, has lived a life rich with adventures. After traveling and working all over the world, he’s back where he started from at the Pines.

Birman’s story actually begins in his native Australia when he met and married his American wife Judi in 1980. He was a young head chef at a Swiss restaurant.

“I was there about a year and a half,” Birman said. “Judi got tired of the heat and bugs and spiders and snakes. South Australia is very hot but beautiful.”

The couple arrived in the states and began looking for some affordable land. They found 18 acres in Massillon and settled in.

“We were looking for a small farm and just happened to come across it. It was beautiful,” Birman said.

The chef set out to find work. “I went door to door, and the third restaurant door I knocked on hired me.”

After several years Birman found his way to the Pines, where he worked for 20 years.

“In my early 50s,” Birman said, “I decided to go to Iraq.” A food vendor had told him there were opportunities with independent contractors who were hiring civilians to go overseas. “I contacted them, and in two weeks I had a job.”

It was a year before the chef came home, and that was just for a vacation. For a year and a half he worked in food service, moving up from sous chef to being food service coordinator on the front lines in Ad-Diwaniyah.

His next promotion put him in charge of multiple bases. “Then in 2009 they started to downsize,” Birman said.

At that point he was moved out of food service.

“I was in power generation maintenance, the logistics coordinator for reports and tracking parts and so forth,” Birman said. “I also worked at an ice plant. Wherever they needed you, you went. It was an incredible operation.”

A few years later one of Birman’s old bosses moved to Marathon Oil and hired the chef as a contractor to work as the clubhouse manager in Equatorial Guinea. He stayed for nearly two years.

“I originally went for one year and ended up being overseas for five and a half years,” Birman said. “That was long enough to be away from home.”

Of all the travels, dangers and adventures, Birman said, “It was great, very interesting. I definitely would not have done that if I was a newlywed.”

Birman came back to the same land in Massillon, and his marriage is now “going on 38 years.”

After a couple of years of other work back in the states, Birman was asked to return to the Pines, coming full circle after his around-the-world adventures.

What’s it like to be back in Orrville after traveling the world? “This is a terrific job,” Birman said. “It’s a very exciting job for a chef because it’s not limited. You get to do all kinds of things. We have a terrific kitchen here. It’s beautiful.”

His enthusiasm for his job shows as he describes how his job might shift from on-site weddings to outdoor barbecues and the daily buffet to off-site events.

As in most jobs it ultimately comes back to the people. “The main reason I came back is that Mr. Wenger [Howard] is a terrific owner. That really makes a difference.”

The Pines events coordinator Carolyn Clarke said, “Having such a phenomenal chef makes my job so much easier. With his vast experience it’s just incredible to have him here. He’s world class.”

Visit the Pines Gold Club Restaurant & Conference Center at 1319 N. Millbourne Road, Orrville. The facility offers a vast array of services from an on-site restaurant to a wide range of party facilities.

Go to www.thepinesgolf.com for more information. Find the Pines on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ThePinesRestaurantandGolf/.