Local chef earns distinguished honor
Chef Joe Carei, owner and operator of Caileighs Of Uniontown restaurant, recently was named the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association's Restaurateur of the Year for 2005.
For almost 60 years, the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association, comprising thousands of members statewide, has worked to represent, educate and promote restaurants and food service businesses.
The award, which recognizes outstanding professional excellence in both business and community efforts, is the highest achievement a member can receive.
"I felt very honored to receive the award," Carei said, "and this is a tribute, not only to myself, but to my family and to my entire staff."
Ironically, Carei's first career choice was not to be in front of a stove, but in front of a typewriter. He had aspirations to be a writer, having received a journalism degree from Susquehanna University of Pennsylvania in Selinsgrove.
After working for a span as a newspaper freelancer, Carei and his wife, Stacy, a native of Brownsville, moved to the area and he found himself back to the work he performed as a teenager, cooking.
"I started working in a restaurant when I was 16 (years old)," Carei said, "and then I managed a restaurant for a while."
The Careis opened their first endeavor, Caileighs Of Uniontown, in 1993, followed by Caileighs Thompson House Restaurant in 1995 in Brownsville.
Carei, who is a self-taught chef, keeps abreast of the culinary world and its changes, and through the Internet attends the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.
"Thank God for the Internet," Carei said, explaining that with his busy schedule, the Internet sometimes is his only opportunity to expand his range.
But in keeping with the tradition that the Restaurateur of the Year is more than just the owner of a successful business, Carei also is busy in the community. The chef hat is only one of many that he wears.
For many years, Carei has coached cross-country running for Brownsville Area School District at the high school and junior high school levels.
"I stress goal setting," Carei said, "and confidence in yourself to better yourself."
He also is well known for his work with charity, contributing time to juvenile diabetes, muscular dystrophy and cancer awareness.
In 2002, Carei was diagnosed with colon cancer. For 18 months, he struggled with the disease, undergoing chemotherapy, surgery and radiation.
During the first stages of his illness, he befriended a young boy who recently had been diagnosed with leukemia, and true to his generous nature, organized an Omelette Run to benefit the boy and his family.
The Omelette Run is now an annual event, one in which Carei still takes part.
Carei also holds special cooking classes for children, and is the president of the Laurel Highlands Chapter of the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association, holding regular quarterly seminars.
His most recent endeavors are bringing his unique personality and demeanor to the public via WMBS radio in Uniontown, and directly into the community's homes with his weekly show at 10 a.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays on HSTV.
"I'd like to get the community involved," Carei said, "maybe have them write in questions. It's a way to educate the people of the community and reassure them that this stuff is easy. If I can do it, they can do it."
And Carei remains modest about his success and the different directions his talents take him.
"I just took boiling water and expanded on it," he said.
Carei lives with his wife and their children, Caileigh, Braden and Maeve.
