The most electrifying Monterey County chefs of 2014 share professional figure skating backgrounds.

I’m standing in the center of the ice rink in downtown Monterey’s Custom House Plaza and dreaming of becoming an incredible chef.

My ankles are a little sore from the sweet figure turns I’ve attempted so far, and my brow’s got some beads following a full-on 1-inch leap off the ice.

Figure skating coach Wendy Loew-Mari happens to be on the ice instructing a young girl on skating backwards, so I ask her the secret to jumping. She giggles.

“Oh honey, you’re wearing hockey skates,” she says, shaking her head. “You need figure skates with a toe pick.”

Fine. My skating fantasies are laughable. But my culinary dreams are real.

The reason to believe: The two hottest chefs in Monterey County during 2014 – who between them published a major text on charcuterie, avidly toured to promote local food and wine, and earned one of the most cherished new chef awards out there – started off as professional figure skaters.

Yes: Superior skating leads directly to superior cheffing.

They admit they would not be the same without the experience on ice.

Justin Cogley of Aubergine (624-8578) in Carmel would not have been all around Eastern Europe or seen the Angkor Wat temples in Siem Reap, Cambodia or traveled to Everest Base Camp at Annapurna, Nepal.

Or met his wife. “That should have been the first one,” he says.

He definitely wouldn’t have been exposed to so many Eastern flavors and techniques. Look no further than his Miyazaki Kobe-style beef, rare hijiki seaweed and diver scallops roasted on a Japanese grill for proof of their influence.

Without skating, Jeffrey Weiss of jeninni kitchen + wine bar (920-2662) in Pacific Grove says he’d be “in prison.”

“Or worse,” he adds, “at a desk job.”

They both had monster years in 2014.

Cogley, who once toured with Disney on Ice, earned a first of its kind for the area, a nomination for Best Chef: West 2014 from the James Beard Foundation.

He also gathered leading chefs from across the country to pioneer new techniques and seafood products with Rediscovering Coastal Cuisine. He helped restaurateur David Fink launch the swankiest public food event the area’s ever seen with GourmetFest in March, which coincided with the 60th anniversary of Relais & Chateaux’s luxury restaurant-resort family. During the festival he served local abalone in an artichoke broth with seaweed and caviar that I still think about. He was invited to cook at Goldman Sachs’ Builder and Innovator conference. Another invite took him to Norway to chef; he stopped on the way to free dive for sea urchins and seaweeds. L’Auberge, meanwhile, won a place on Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best.

Weiss, a one-time silver medalist at the 1995 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, not only settled into his new home at jeninni kitchen + wine bar – intriguing with Spanish street food-style treats and giving Pacific Grove its most interesting eatery in a generation. He put out the wondrous 460-page Charcutería: The Soul of Spain in March with a foreword from Jose Andrés. He traveled to New York to cook at theJames Beard House, bringing Iberico ham, gnocchi and crispy octopus. He also visited Dallas and Seattle with jeninni co-creator Thamin Saleh and the Monterey County Convention & Visitors Bureau to spotlight local wineries and culinary inspiration. As the year closes, he’s reinvigorating Tuesday night guest chef dinners that set the bar for the area, like the melt-in-your-mouth ramen with Paras Shah earlier this month.

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Cogley’s skating advice doubles as life coaching.

“You are going to fall. Embrace it,” says the guy was strong enough to run a 50K last month and a half Iron Man earlier in the year. “It makes you stronger.”

The loquacious Weiss lavished all sorts of lessons.

“Balance is key, so save the spiked hot chocolate for afterwards,” he began.

His posturing instructions can be applied at the rink in Custom House Plaza 11am-10pm (noon-8pm Sunday) through Jan. 4: “Keep your knees slightly bent and weight on the center of the blade – this lowers your center of gravity and places your weight in the right place. Pretend you are sitting on your favorite bar stool, and try not to think about how you will be walking like John Wayne in an hour.”

The advice worked wonders. I was out-skating the sequins off almost every first grader on the ice. Cogley’s and Weiss’s skating careers prepared them just as beautifully for the kitchen.

“The hours of traveling to practice, early mornings, etc. helped me prepare for long hours in the kitchen,” Cogley says. “I mean at Charlie Trotter’s we were easily doing 100-hour work weeks.”

A bonus benefit: “In skating you would receive criticism from judges, training teams, even parents, some helpful some not,” Cogley says. “Thats helps with diners – not everyone understands the story you are trying to tell.”

Weiss ties it all up like a nice pirouette.

“In skating, you are beholden to busting your ass training, putting out your best performance, and – in the end – having absolutely no control over how the judges score, if they judge fairly, or what they think about you and your work.

“In short: What better preparation for a life of food critics and Yelpers?”

QUICKBITES

➔ Last time I spoke with Tobias Peach and Rich Pepe they were all smiles, toasting Champagne and a new era for Pepe's Carmel restaurants with Peach and William Townsend running the show and Pepe shifting his focus to other projects. Now they're on either side of a lawsuit alleging breach of contract, negligent infliction of emotional distress and several labor code violations. Hear from both sides on the blog, www.mcweekly.com/edible.

➔ Carmel Belle (624-1600) has a new winter seasonal menu along with updated juice options – including the Omega-tron! (with date, avocado, chia and more) and Apple Jack (apple, pineapple, pear and mint) – plus curbside service and upcoming events like a Feb. 20 pop-up at Monterey Museum La Mirada ($60, www.montereyart.org).

➔Celebrate New Year’s Eve Wednesday, Dec. 31 with Bubbles and Brews – award-winning Caraccioli sparkling wines and favorite barrel aged brews by host venue Alvarado Street Brewery and Grill (655-2337). Four course dinner ($95) begins with reception at 7pm; dancing starts at 10pm ($25 for general admission).

➔Cioppino with local dungeness crab is a featured dinner special at Cantinetta Luca (625-6500) starting Dec. 20. Get a half-gallon to go for $50.

➔Mark the calendar for this one. Chef Brad Briske of La Balena and Mark Shelley of Tassajara Natural Meats do a grass fed nose-to-tail cooking demo 6pm Wednesday, Jan. 21, part of Holman Ranch’s “In Your Backyard” culinary series (659-2640; $10-$25) to benefit MEarth.

➔Local Catch Monterey will soon be renamed Real Good Fish, and aiming to expand its CSA-of-the-Sea network of seafood subscribers to 1,200 with the help of new grant funds.www.localcatchmontereybay.com for more.

➔For Christmas my brother-in-law is getting a bacon-scented pillow (!) from J&D’s Foods, the same people that helped me gift him bacon shaving cream. They also just debuted trademark-protected Naked Bacon Cooking Armor.

➔In honor of The Big Lebowski making the National Film Registry, this week’s closing thought: “I do mind. The Dude minds. This will not stand, ya’ know, this aggression will not stand, man.”