Meet the official: Kuykendall is a transplant resident

James Kuykendall is the Kingston Fire Chief, the Emergency Manager, and Floodplain Administrator. Kuykendall, who grew up one county over in Bryan County, moved to the Kingston area 20 years ago. Like most people that move to the Lake Texoma area, Kuykendall made this his home very quickly.

After 18 years of being a volunteer as Kingston Fire Chief, Kuykendall was awarded the full time Chief position in 2014 when they received grant money to pay for the full-time role. When he is not rescuing people and helpingtoputoutfires,Kuykendall can be found heating up the kitchen so to speak. Kuykendall said he has an interest in the Culinary Arts that he enjoys just as much as serving his community. The Madill Record sat down with Chief Kuykendall for a short Q&A for the residents of Marshall County to get to know him.

Q: What did you do prior to moving to Marshall County, when you still lived in Durant?

A: “I owned a service and maintenance company for aerobic wastewater systems. So I mostly worked out of Grayson County, Texas and some in Oklahoma. I continued that even after I started as a volunteer with Kingston up until prior to being hired full time as the fire chief in Kingston.”

Q: When you first moved here 20 years ago, what motivated you to get involved andbecomeavolunteeratthe Kingston Fire Department?

A: “I had a friend who was the assistant chief at Kingston at the time and they were needing help and he told me how fun it would be and all these great things. Most of it was right. So here we are now.”

Q: Since you did start as a volunteer and you did own your own business at the time, what motivated you to want to make that climb up the ladder?

A:“Thereweresomethings early in the fire department with my career that I saw some need for some change. A couple of things on scenes, things that happened that we were lucky a lot. There wasn’t a lot of training, most of the training was on the job training at the time. There wasn’t a lot of formal training or education in the fire service. We were lucky a lot and I realized there needed to be a lot of changes so I made a promise to myself that if I ever had the opportunity to help make those changes and offer some training and different things in the fire service I would try to do that for new firefighters.”

Q: When you are not being KingstonFireChief,whatare your hobbies?

A: “I like fishing. It is definitely a hobby. I do not get to spend as much doing that as I would like to. I have always enjoyed cooking, smoking, and grilling. I have a friend, Justin Germany, who is an executive chef and owns a catering company. I started helping him a little bit and it has turned into a whole culinary journey that I wasn’t expecting but really enjoy. My spare time right now is cooking.”

Q: Does that mean that you are an apprentice or a chef in training, and what are you learning?

A: “It’s a Commis. It’s basically a chef in training. I’m pretty much any and everything, that comes to food preparation, all the language of the culinary world, and the different ways to prepare spices with what foods. Then there is also the business side of it where you are doing your product counts and figuring how much product you need and how much food you need forthenumberofpeoplewithout drastically over buying and things like that. There is a whole lot to it. Knife work, cook times, fires times, the temperatures that are a lot. We have done wedding and fundraiser types things.We are also the caterers for a hunting lodge out of Wynnwood.”

Q: Would you say that your experience as Fire Chief helps with transitioning to being a Chef?

A: “It does. It is kind of the same hierarchy, as far as you have your leaders and then your steps down but a lot of teamwork. The great part about the chef side is there is somebody making the decisions and I just get to do my thing. I don’t have to make all the hard decisions.”

Q: Do you see yourself in the future retiring from the fire department to carry on with the new venture?

A: “Maybe, eventually but nothing in the near future.”

Q: So far, out of everything that you are learning, what is your favorite style of cooking or your favorite food you have learned to make?

A: “Wow, that is a hard one. I don’t know if I have a favorite style, I like them all.”

Q: Do you consider yourself a “Foodie”?

A: “Yea, pretty much. I do a lot of work with protein, so I do a lot of grilling and a lot of smoking. Pretty much anything that will come off a grill or a smoker is my favorite.” Q: Do you do any pastry work?

A: “I leave that up to chef. He does all the baking. Baking sometimes is much more precise.Where as cooking you have a little bit of leeway. Baking if you are not right on your receipt a lot of times things just do not turn out. I do not need that stress in my life.”

Q: Would you agree that it is also like that in firefighting, that if you do not go out there and do things to a “T” things might not go your way out there?

A: “There are days when things do not go your way.100% the fire service is a team. There is no I or a me, it’s a we. It takes all of us, from training to the fire scene to the car wrecks whatever we go it is a team sport. It takes a whole group to make it down the road.”

Q: What is it about Lake Texoma and Marshall County that made you want to settle down here and that draws others to want to do the same?

A: “For me I liked the community. It’s a small community. We do not have a lot of the problems that big communites have as far as drugs, crime rates, things like that. Every community has its own share of things but it’s safe, it’s comfortable. I enjoy being close to the lake. I feel like that has been a selling point for a lot of people. Because it is kind of a laid back area and there's a lot of outdoor recreation if you are outdoorsy. It’s laid back but close enough to Dallas and Oklahoma City. You can go spend a day in either one and be right back to where there is not much traffic and all the other stuff.”

Q: Is there anything else you would like to say or for the residents of Marshall County to know?

A: “I would really like to thank everybody for their support of the department and me as the Chief. I hope that that support continues, because we really need it and appreciate it.