…it all started with a dare, the Atlanta Grilled Cheese Festival, and a Torched Sicilian. The rest has been cheeezy!

Former aspiring biochemistry student turned restauranteur, Daniel Ray, never set out to make grilled cheeses. Although he’d had plenty of experience in the food world; going from owning a small bistro in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to managing a steakhouse in Buckhead, an Atlanta, GA neighborhood, heading up an Olive Garden, to finding himself over the eatery at American Girl, Daniel was not quite satisfied. Still, it was his wife, Stacey, who finally gave him the push he needed to grill that first cheeezy sandwich when she dared him to enter the Grilled Cheese Festival in Atlanta.

Now, Daniel has always been good with people and food. In fact, it’s his love for people that got him and the Olive Garden he managed ranked the fourth highest guest satisfaction, across the country! His mind and heart are wired for customer service. But the food? The food was always just a dream.

Truthfully, Daniel has carried this dream for 33 years. While his life took him different places, he started out as a thirteen year old cooking at a Jewish day camp on Long Island, in New York. Even then, his foot into the world of food all started because he put a bagel with cheese on it in an oven he wasn’t supposed to.

Then one day at church a friend looked right at him and said, “It’s time to give into your gift.”

That’s when Daniel took the leap and leaned into this dream he had believed would only ever be just that: a dream. He became “What’s For Dinner Dan” on Facebook and landed a wedding gig. From there, he wound up catering a friend’s birthday party — and the domino affect fell into place from there.

When asked, “Why grilled cheese?” Daniel just smiles. To him cheese is a whole food group of it’s own, and he wants to continue to experiment with high end foods by throwing them onto a grilled cheese!

And the dream only gets bigger. Daniel will be the first to say that he has been amazed at the opportunities he has had since stepping out in faith to help people scratch their cheesy itch. From being given a space in Downtown Woodstock to stand outside and grill for passer-by’s to the way he has been able to set up at different breweries over the weekends, making new friends and having fun over some supreme grilled cheese sandwiches. Cheez’d and Confuzed has changed his life.

Be on the look out for what happens next! Daniel is planning on expanding to 5 or 6 food trucks, having just purchased a 1962 camper to cater out of.

If you haven’t tried one yet, you need to get your hands on one of Daniel’s creations and get Cheez’d and Confuzed!