Wilo Benet - Early Years

Early Years

Benet was introduced to the restaurant business when his father decided he should pursue the career he wanted. After trying photography at FIT in Miami he told his father he will do cooking and requested not to send any money to help with the expenses as he wanted to do it on his own effort. He first worked as a dishwasher at the Foxfire restaurant in Florida. After returning to Puerto Rico he started in the kitchens of the Caribe Hilton Hotel without any pay for a year. He was later a trainee at the same restaurant, where he learned how to make salads, peel shrimp and perform other simple kitchen chores. With the help of the Hilton executives and his father he was enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in New York City which he graduated from in 1985.