As a child, Beau Schmidt did not dream of becoming a fireman or a cowboy. He wanted to cook.

“Since I was 5 years old I liked to cook,” he says, recalling how he memorized the ingredients for his grandmother’s potato soup and pancakes, and lined them up on the counter when he went to visit.

As a high school class project, Beau drew up a restaurant business plan that turned out to be eerily prescient. His acclaimed Beau’s Grille is now nearing its 20th anniversary – first in Akron’s Merriman Valley, then in Fairlawn Town Centre, and for the last eight years in the Hilton Akron/Fairlawn, on Market Street across from Summit Mall.

Beau can probably thank his genes for the acclaim he has raked in as one of the top chefs in Northeast Ohio. His father was an Army cook and his mother was a professional cake decorator. Growing up, there was always something coming out of or going into the oven, Beau says.

Even back then, Beau experimented with ingredients. “I used to make stuff up,” he says with a laugh.

He still does, but these days his brainstorms end up on the menu. He is known for his chic contemporary dishes featuring seafood, such as grilled sea bass with lobster mashed potatoes, chive veloute sauce and grilled asparagus, and margarita-seared shrimp and scallops with pineapple-mango minted salsa, crisp spinach and couscous with chipotle-lime vinaigrette.

In his down time, the 46-year-old chef slips into his other role as a single father of two teen-agers and a fifth grader. He oversees all of the food operations at the hotel, though, so there’s not much down time but that’s OK.

“It’s a passion,” he says.

Beau Schmidt is executive chef at Beau’s Grille in the Hilton Akron/Fairlawn. The phone is 330-865-5577.