I've found you can trust him...such an accomplished individual...always candid...no need for a hidden agenda.
Augie Mrozowski has arrived at the promised land, following a work life of 16 hours every day at his commissary and his downtown restaurant, Augie's Front Burner. He made a decision and sold everything two years ago. Before then, there was always a lot to do preparing all victuals fresh and from scratch while, in the same breath, caring for his individual customers and his hundreds of employees.
Tony Libri, the former circuit clerk and current preservation entrepreneur, told me: "Augie and I have been close buds since St. Aloysius grade school. What I love the most about him, he is what America is all about. His parents came through Ellis Island, immigrating from Wildflecken, Germany, in 1951. Through Chicago to Springfield. Then because he was Polish, he got bullied a lot and had to get tough early in life. As he matured, he would see someone getting bullied and, without hesitation, get in the bully's face, backing him down. He started working in the food service business at 14 in the St. Nick, cracking a thousand eggs a day. I personally witnessed his hard work and determination, making a huge success of his life. Augie is a world-class chef, a terrific father and a great friend."
While interviewing Augie, I learned he "admires" bees. Spent hours watching them closely five years ago. Found a bee to "unconditionally" work every day, taking care of other bees where two or three would help clean the honey off another bee so it can go back out and continue to collect. Without dispute, the bee is the most important animal in the world. He believes "we would learn a lot from a bee as to how we humans should care for each other."
While researching, I found that bees inherently live to survive. They use their honey for food in the winter. Apiaries like Augie's provide them shelter. In March, when growth begins outside, pollen starts being produced and the bees are out working. Discussing this with Augie, his comment was: "Hell, who can't make their own food? Bees do."
Lars Chittka, in his new 2022 book, The Mind of a Bee, wrote: "The bee's perceptual world is so distinct from ours, governed by completely different sense organs, and their lives are ruled by such different priorities, that they might accurately be regarded as aliens from inner space."
Augie ascribes to waking up early, especially for our kids, teaching them values in life from the get-go like his homeopathic parents did him. Always waking up early himself made his life much less difficult. He was able to sacrifice for who he wanted to be, who he became.
After turning over 15,000 employees in his 51 years on the job, his hands and mind never fatiguing, preparing six million meals, Augie's perspective is that people have become selfish. "Money is their reward. More important than family. Not like bees. They care for each other and protect the queen bee. Today, whoever has the most toys wins."
An executive chef of volume, he built his commissary at 15th and Converse to cater to as many 5,000 guests a day at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. He had to butcher a cow once a week. China dishes and stainless steel silverware, shipped in a box truck, were washed daily. Work went on.
On his way to enjoying the health he has now, four years ago when he became a CrossFitter, he experienced a permanent life-changing shift. Cold turkey he stopped eating sugar, anything made with sugar, stopped drinking liquor, wine, beer and disciplined himself to "never once walk backwards." He became ecstatic for losing 40 pounds of fat in 30 days and developed into twice the athlete, moving, he says, like he did as a teenager. Since, nothing he prepares is with processed sugar, processed salt or processed fat. Only honey, kosher or Himalayan salt, unprocessed olive oil, avocado oil and coconut oil. This is a permanent shift. Nothing stops him...not ever being tired, needing snacks, never quitting before his decided tasks are complete. After all that he achieved, he has the justification for his mindset to expect everyone else to "clean up their act and stand, not propped, on their own two feet, never being a burden to their family."
Augie learned that working out like he did was medicinal and heals. He took a life-threatening blow while driving, being hit on his car's right side at a T-intersection by a speeding car, flipping his car upside down, wrecked so badly he couldn't get out. It got turned over and he was pried out, so he could get a ride and immediately return to his commissary to meet his responsibilities. "Hurting and sore as hell," he didn't nurse himself and was back at it again early next morning.
Having to constantly learn to satisfy customers from all over the world was an education for him not possible in any other setting.
Now he has time to become whole. He always knew what whole meant, but his work cheffing came first. He feels young. Everything in life is fulfilling for him. He has a relationship with his wife, Sharon, again. To assure this current mindset continues, when he decided to sell his restaurant business, he sold everything including the buildings, all the furnishings, all the utensils so he would never go back to those businesses again. He sold his hot rod, all his ego toys. He wanted his freedom and a new life. He has a puppy now, and at his cabin in Florence watches stars at night while hearing the Illinois River flow.
It still excites him to cater but only as he chooses. Contact him at [email protected].
