John Trefry John Trefry, 26, of Marquette Island of the Les Cheneaux Islands, has found his life’s work is to be a chef, and he enjoys fishing and hunting for his own wild game to prepare.

Mr. Trefry has been a summer resident here all of his life. He grew up in Alaska and would come here with his parents, George and Denise Trefry, to visit his grandfather, John Trefry, the former owner of Arfstrom Pharmacy in Cedarville. The old Trefry home place just two homes behind the store on Meridian Street in Cedarville still remains. The annual family visit always lasted from May to Labor Day and eventually took place in the family’s second home on Marquette Island.

At the age of 12, he helped his parents by working at their restaurant, The City Diner, in Anchorage, Alaska. He found that cooking was going to be his life’s desire, as he loved it from the start. The specialties at the restaurant are salmon, croquettes, or halibut sandwiches.

Mr. Trefry’s experience of fishing and hunting led him to harvest the fresh food he would prepare for the business with his father, included salmon, duck, and pheasant.

His mother, Denise, was born in Alaska, and she has experience working at that state’s salmon canneries.

Soon Mr. Trefry worked as a chef, catering and preparing weekly meals that only had to be heated by clients who could not cook for themselves.

While in the Eastern Upper Peninsula, Mr. Trefry enjoys the pristine wilderness, fishing at the Tahquamenon Falls area and catching trout on the Two Hearted River with a friend, Mark Lee. Mr. Lee is a former writer for The St. Ignace News.

This summer in the Les Cheneaux area, Mr. Trefry said he’s enjoying shopping at the Pickford Farmers Market for fresh fruit and vegetables, purchasing bacon at the Dutcher Farms, and maple syrup from Tassiers. Sometime soon he plans to offer a cooking demonstration at the Pickford Farmers Market using local ingredients. It will be at the market site in the parking lot at the Community Center.

Mr. Trefry also has an interest in film. About four years ago he spent two years in Sydney, Australia, where he was a screenwriter and helped manufacture short films. He would like to one day incorporate his experiences with film and cooking demonstrations. He said he would enjoy hosting a televised cooking show. He was once auditioned on the Bobby Flay show, “Grill It.”

Even Mr. Trefry’s early experiences included a family enthusiasm for hunting and fishing. He is the oldest of three children, with a sister, Kate, who is 22 years old and a brother, Sam, who is 20. Mr. Trefry recalls an experience when he was eight years old and he went fishing with his father, George, and another parent-son team. They flew on a floatplane near King Salmon, Alaska. After unloading all the gear from the plane on shore, they began fishing and soon and saw a bear and two cubs rapidly approaching. They grabbed the fishing gear and scrambled back into the plane as quickly as possible. When they looked out the airplane window at the bear, they saw it had two feet on the float and was shaking it. The encounter was a memorable one for Mr. Trefry, and helped teach him to respect nature in his pursuit of outdoor sports.

“It really made me appreciate that there is a natural order of things, things bigger and stronger, teaching the human to know when to be humble,” he said.