Chef Asdren Azemi Closes Ruffino’s in Fort Worth

Chef Asdren Azemi has something up his sleeve.

Tomorrow this man will be unemployed. The man, chef Asdren Azemi, is closing Ruffino’s, the Italian restaurant opened by his father twenty years ago. Something tells me this man won’t be without a job long.

Azemi has worked at Ruffino’s since he was five. He swept the floors. Eventually he became a dishwasher. “I liked the dish-washer position the best, because there was no where to go but up,” Azemi says. (Guess sweeping was a glam job in those days.) At sixteen, he was cooking. After college he attended the French Culinary Institute in NYC.

Closing Ruffino’s is sad. Why, Chef Azemi? “It’s time to move forward and try something fresh…something new!” Chef Asdren says. “My Father created a staple on this quiet street. I enjoyed taking over and adding my own touches to his classic dishes, but now it’s time for me to create my own staple.”

Is he going into office supplies? “I’m currently working on several projects that I can’t speak about just yet,” he says. “However, I very much look forward to sharing more details when the time is right. I think many people will get to enjoy my new initiatives.”

I quite like the look of this man’s future.