Very Short:

A private chef (The Kid) working on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, is faced with monumental problems when his long time friend and business partner (his other job is selling weed) decides to leave the business and dumps all of his inventory on The Kid to deal with.  Things are further complicated by the financial collapse of 2008, as he looses both his job along with his place to live.  All this while questioning his entire existence as a chef, something he is deeply passionate about.  Dealing with an insane amount of pressure, he balances panic attacksm, his other problems all while falling in love with Caroline, a food writer.  He is not the type to loose at life, but this is a lot.  He will be tested to his limits, but he will win.  He has no other choice.




Not As Short:

The Kid is a live-in private chef on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.  He also (still) sells weed.  But he doesn’t know why he does it.  He doesn’t even know what he’s doing as a private chef.  He once moved through the ranks of a prestigious 4 Star kitchen but left abruptly to get paid for private cooking.  He’s kind of lost.  But he’s not present in this life.  So he doesn’t deal with it everyday.  He knows on some level he is lost, but the numbing effects of apathy, booze, weed and the occasional sex and coke binge keep him in his nebulous zone.  He’s ok financially.  He’s not responsible with his money, but he has a lot coming in since the summer before his senior year of high school. He’s 31 now, and has been both selling weed and cooking since that summer.

He was put on to the weed game by his late father, who was never really in his life growing up.  He was raised by his mom in Philly.  His father, along with business partner Terry, had a lock on the high end cannabis business across the US.  Terry and The Kid’s father were not just partners in the cannabis trade, but has also developed a shared but healthy addiction to heroin in the Marines when they were in their early 20s.  His father OD’d long ago, but The Kid and Terry maintained a close relationship as friends, and as business partners.  The Kid, in his early 20s had taken cooking half seriously, choosing to sell large amounts of cannabis (by the 50 or 100 pound load) but one day his love of food and feeding people took over and he focused more on food and less on weed.  When we meet him, he’s basically out of the weed game, save for a small amount he sells each month.  It’s not really worth his time, but he does it still.  Perhaps for the social interaction.  

He loves the people who he works with, but does not love the work anymore.  There more for him to do, but the golden handcuffs of private chiefdom and the un-reportable extra cash he takes in each month doesn’t really make his motivated to look for something else.

So he festers and sometimes emotes.  Mainly when he’s drunk.  At the place he hangs out at, an attempting to be classy Italian restaurant in the neighborhood.  It’s here that he has found a solid group of friends.  A high end CHEERS situation.  There are a bunch of interesting people who sit there late night.  The person with whom he has connected the most is Caroline, a food writer who also buys weed from him.  She’s the only person he sells small amounts to (he’s very quiet about it) and she buys often.  She likes him a lot.  He can’t imagine how she could like him, because he’s kind of hating on himself.  He’s closed off and not being his true self, and she, being very smart and perceptive (as writers tend to be) can feel this.  Still she sticks around hanging with him, waiting for him to break through and open up to her, or maybe he just has really good weed and will answer the phone whenever she sends him a BBM (Black Berry Message for any people who missed this era).

One day Terry shows up and drops some heavy shit on him.  Terry, who had built a stellar bulk cannabis distribution network is getting out of the business.  He’s also getting off this planet.  Terry had been maintaining his dope addition using the William S. Burroughs method, which is to only do enough.  No more no less.  It seems to have worked, as Burroughs lived a long life and eventually died of natural causes.  But Terry couldn’t wait, and he wanted to shoot dope until he leaves the planet.  Going out on his own terms.  He leaves The Kid with 700 pounds of weed, something he doesn’t want to sell, as he is passionate about cooking and trying to find his spark in that once again.  And giant amounts of meth and MDMA, two things The Kid wants nothing to do with.

At the same time, in a perfect storm the crash of 2008 happens.  And he looses his job, which is attached to his place to live.  

About to be unemployed, without a place to stay and laden with the burden of almost a full ton of drugs, or a lengthy prison sentence he goes into panic mode.  He needs to find a new apartment, but he hasn’t saved his money.  It’s all gone to partying, new sneakers and clothing.  He also has no credit and no history for a landlord to look at, as he’s not had to deal with a lease for the last 5 years of his life.

The stress starts to get to him.  He finally opens up to Caroline and she ultimately tries to help him out.  He tries to sell the meth unsuccessfully.  The cannabis he might have a better shot at, but he doesn’t have the connections to just sell off 700 let alone 100 lbs in one shot.

Terry, who we think might be dead at this point, resurfaces and calls The Kid.  He has money for him as well as a buyer for half a pound of the MDMA.  He just has to hop on a plane that night and bring it from NYC to Miami.  No big deal?  But The Kid figures it out, and using cooking techniques from his years in the kitchen is able to successfully get it down there.

On his way he sees a friend Thea who works as a very high class companion (she is totally open about what she does for money and there is no shame in her game, unlike The Kid, who is struggling with his position in life as a chef as well as a drug dealer).

Things go awry and The Kid finds himself in a situation, as Thea, who has been forced to defend herself with lethal results from the same man who The Kid is bringing down MDMA for.  Thea is not a killer, but justice has been served.

The first season ends as they buy a vehicle for cash in Miami and make their way back up to NYC to face life.