Tony Maggert is a retired Army contracting officer with 23 years of service, deploying three times to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan. Born in Indiana, he was raised in Florida where he joined the military in 1995. He’s been writing government contracts his entire adult life. When he retired, he had a burning desire to go to culinary school and enrolled in the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. He lost his leg from an accident in Afghanistan in 2011, but being an amputee in the kitchen never stops him. After 23 years, 63 different countries, and having met thousands of people, he feels that food is the one universal language. His passion is food and teaching others that you, too, can make gangster food to feed yourself, friends, and family. His motto is “Give your culinary voice some volume and start cooking.”