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"An East Asheville neighborhood hibachi where a young Rakim Gaines spent afternoons as an unpaid intern after the owner invited the nine-year-old watcher to try cooking. There he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with other cooks, learning to grill chicken, steak, shrimp and make fried rice, doling out heaping portions and surprising customers who saw a kid in school clothes working behind the grill — an early, formative hands-on experience that sparked his passion for cooking." - Eric Barton