Rooted in Nature
Humans Of The Kitchen
A Journey of Connection That Challenges the Rigid Mold of Fine Dining!
Ana Leão
Food has always been about connection for me. It started with my grandmother at her country house in Portugal, where I am from. I’ve been cooking for almost twenty years and remember beginning my journey as an apprentice in fine-dining restaurants. It didn’t take long to realize that wasn’t the right path. The rigid formality and the pressure to follow a specific mold didn’t feel like me. I wanted something different, something more connected.
Much of my career was spent traveling and working across Australia, splitting my time between restaurants and farms. Those years were transformative. I wanted to understand food’s roots and see where it came from before reaching the plate.
Today, I’m the head chef at Babel, a small restaurant in Porto that feels closer to where I’ve always dreamed of working. At Babel, the goal is to make every customer feel like they’re at a friend’s house. Everything is casual and unpretentious, but the food has to be excellent. We change the menu specials almost weekly, keeping things exciting for the team and our guests. There’s a joy in that constant creativity, and it’s the happiest I’ve been in my career.
The industry, though, has its challenges. Schedules are grueling, and paychecks often don’t reflect the efforts of the industry. If there’s one thing I’d like to see change, it’s how teams are treated. Better working conditions and more respect for the people behind the food matter. They’re what I strive for every day at Babel.
From Weekend Server to Culinary Command
Humans Of The Kitchen
Banquet Chef to Master Chef and Owner: A Journey of Precision, Leadership, and Growth.
Keith Hernandez
At 16, I took on weekend shifts as a server at Lido Beach Club. In the kitchen, the air was thick with the scent of garlic and grilling meats, and the rhythm of clattering pots alongside the crackling of the fryer formed a soundtrack that resonated deeply within me.
I soon transitioned into the kitchen. The organized chaos, the pressure, and the excitement of cooking for large groups intrigued me. While many chefs gravitate toward the fast pace of restaurants, I found my passion in mass production—creating meals for 500, 1,000, or more people at a time. That’s where I knew I wanted to focus my career.
After graduating from culinary school, I started my career at Sodexo, managing corporate lunches for hundreds of people daily at the Pfizer building. Later, I moved to the hotel industry and gained experience at places like the Gramercy Park Hotel, where I cooked for celebrities in a rooftop kitchen. I began working with higher-quality ingredients and refining my culinary skills. My significant career advancement came when I became the Banquet Chef at the Marriott Marquis, where I cooked for 1,000-2,000 people daily. This experience made me feel like I had truly entered the “big leagues.” Only a few chefs can say they’ve handled those numbers with precision every day. It was a test of skill and leadership, and I was honored with awards such as Manager of the Year and Big Apple Nominee. I also competed and won in the Masters of the Craft competition, representing the Marriott brand.
I have worked in luxury hotels, Kosher catering, and high-end venues like Public Hotels under Chef Diego Muñoz. Currently, I serve as the Executive Chef at Resorts World Casino, overseeing multiple outlets, banquets, and my restaurant, @Rwprime_nyc, which has been an enormous success. Through my experiences and hard work, I have gained the confidence to handle events of any scale, shaping me into the chef I am today. I am dedicated to striving for a better quality of life for chefs and cooks. Building a solid team with comprehensive knowledge of the kitchen can provide support during days off, and reducing work hours to a more reasonable level would allow us to spend more time with our family and friends.
Turning PR into Culinary Art
Humans Of The Kitchen
Foraging, Catering, and Embracing the Chef Within
Valeri Fuentes
Back in Venezuela I was a PR girl—deep in campaigns, deadlines, and lots of coffee, but always great food from my grandma. I never thought of cooking as more than tradition or a way to pamper my family until something shifted. I wanted out—not just of the office, but the country. I craved movement and reality. I wanted to backpack around the world, so I enrolled at the Caracas Culinary Institute. Cooking seemed perfect—a skill that could take me anywhere.
Buenos Aires was my first stop. I took a job in a Japanese kitchen, thinking it’d be temporary. But the chaos, the discipline, the rhythm of the line—I fell hard for it.
Then came Patagonia. A tiny town with eight streets. I worked at a hotel where ingredients were scarce—whatever didn’t sell in the nearest city, we got. Tomatoes, onions, scraps. So, I started foraging. I found an old, hand-painted book on edible plants and took it into the mountains. Herbs, mushrooms, roots—I used them all. We built an entire menu from the land. That’s the kind of cooking I love—the kind that forces you to adapt, be resourceful, and create something out of what’s in front of you.
Later, when I moved to the U.S., catering became my world. One day, I was cooking in a church. The next, a rooftop. Then, a museum, a street corner, a party in the hills. Every job was different, unpredictable. You learned to improvise and stay on your toes.
Now, I’ve shifted back to restaurant life, cooking inside @pamm, the art museum of Miami. It feels like a chance to connect food with art. I may not paint on canvas, but I know I can paint on a plate while connecting with the culture and local ingredients. The kitchen is evolving. Women are no longer just pastry chefs; we are redefining what it means to be a chef. I love the discipline but reject the notion that greatness requires suffering. The old ways—enduring abuse and collapsing from overwork—don’t fit the kitchen I want to create.
Secret Sauce
- What’s the most unexpected ingredient you’ve ever worked with, and how did it change your perspective on cooking?
When I lived in Patagonia, I had to cook! It’s a type of Patagonian llama. I had no idea how to cook it, but by asking the locals in the village where I lived, I managed to learn. I will never forget that its meat has a very distinctive and strong smell. Also, during that time, I was cooking with a local mushroom called “Pan de Indio.” It has a pretty neutral taste and a shape that’s not ideal for agoraphobics, haha!
- What’s your “guilty pleasure” meal?
Jajaja I love eating fusilli pasta with Venezuelan-style bolognese, fried sweet plantain, red pepper flakes AND mayonnaise! Just thinking about it makes my mouth water!
- A food trend that you hate and why?
I’m a bit tired of people using red cabbage to make colorful dishes! Its flavor isn’t always the most friendly for every recipe.
- What’s the craziest shift you’ve ever worked in the kitchen? What happened, and how did you manage to get through it?
When you work as a catering chef, you often have super long shifts because you combine the food prep shift with the event shift. And if multiple events happen on the same day, it’s absolute madness! My longest shift was 21 hours!
- What’s the most unusual or funny cooking mistake you’ve ever made in the kitchen?
It was one of my first events as a Chef at a Catering Company. I was focused on all the details, making sure everything went well (the client was very picky). We arrived at the party (which was an hour and a half away from the production kitchen), and it wasn’t until we were ready to start reheating the food that we realized we had left all the food at the commissary!!!
- What’s an underrated ingredient and why?
I think cassava is a wonderful and underrated ingredient. I could also say that “Aji dulce” is a delicious ingredient that very few people know about or use outside of Latin American borders.
- What’s a must-try dish from your kitchen or the one you’re proudest to have prepared?
I’m really proud of the “Mojito Tiradito” because not only is it delicious, but it also tells a beautiful story about the origin of an artist named José Parla. This dish was inspired after seeing Parla paint live, one of his pieces where he captured Cuba and Miami. I’m also proud of one of the brunch dishes called “Caracas Egg Benedict,” which is a fried beet arepa with poached eggs, chive hollandaise, and pickled red onions. Not only is it beautiful and delicious, but it also invites people to try the arepa, which is something I’m really proud of!
- What You Love and What I Hate About Chef Culture?
I love the discipline and the idea that to survive in this career, you must have true vocation and passion. It’s something beautiful, because having a calling isn’t easy—not everyone has it. So many people work in jobs they don’t truly enjoy or love. In the kitchen, you might get by without passion, but to really thrive, to be good, and to find meaning in your work, you must love what you do. That’s what makes cooking so special to me.
On the flip side, I hate the notion that to be a chef, you have to be a slave—enduring grueling hours, little sleep, and even mistreatment. I understand that hardship is part of the tradition, but just as the industry is evolving for women, the way chefs are treated is changing too. In the past, kitchens were toxic environments where you’d be beaten, shouted at, and abused. I’m glad that’s shifting because we’re realizing you don’t need a yelling kitchen to do great work. That transformation in chef culture is something I truly celebrate.
- Is the role of women in professional kitchens changing?
100%, it’s changing, it’s changing. I feel like it’s been very difficult. I sometimes feel forced to go full throttle, operating non-stop. We’re compelled to tap into masculine energy because it seems to be the only way to be on the same level and be taken seriously. But I do believe it’s changing. In fact, one of the things I’d eventually love to do is launch a project or host a special dinner—something where every chef is a woman.
I think it’s beautiful to empower women in the kitchen. You know, before, women were mostly limited to being pastry chefs. Now, I believe we’re all on equal footing. There are incredible women chefs out there who are just as impressive as their male counterparts. And thank God, things have changed.
About Your City!
Miami, USA
- If Anthony Bourdain or a chef came to your city, what would be the perfect tour itinerary from breakfast to dinner?
My country has changed a lot since I left over 10 years ago, and it’s very possible that many of the places I knew back then no longer exist. But if I had to recommend a place to Bourdain, I would take him straight from the airport to my grandmother’s house!
- Recommended Places in your city:
- Food Markets: Mango tree in Hollywood, Fl
- Cultural Events: Topsfield Fairgrounds
- Popups: Sandoches
- Street Food/Food Trucks: Dijon hot dogs @diyonhotdogs
- Restaurants: Alinea Chicago , Leku and Verde.
- Bar: Doya.
- Cafes: Tatte Boston
The Rise of Evil Cooks
Humans Of The Kitchen
Defying norms, Combating Flames, Metal - Fueled Dreams
Alex & Elvia
It started as just another Saturday at Smorgasburg. Our huitlacoche supplier from Mexico mentioned the wildfires. It’s devastating how normal that kind of news has become—these days, all you can do is hope they calm down by nightfall. Seven years of running pop-ups and over 17 years in the industry couldn’t prepare us for what came next.
We were 25 hours without power, scrambling for generators to save the food at our brick-and-mortar, which had only been open a couple of months. But when the fires kept hitting, it stopped being about us. We started cooking for firefighters and families in shelters, giving everything we had until we ran out of food. Then something cool happened—an old friend @lifeandthyme, showed up with a donation of meat. Others sent money. That kept us going.
As chefs, this is what we do: serve, help, and make someone’s day better. But there’s a harsh reality. After the fires, people stopped going out. They’re saving for the next disaster. Wildfires might come again. It’s hard not to feel uncertain about the future.
Yet, rebelling against the current is what we know best. We both took different paths in the kitchen—one in fine dining, the other in large-scale school operations. We walked away from the usual chef’s path: no chasing accolades, no institutional food service systems. Instead, we created Evil Cooks—a mix of our love for metal music and our refusal to conform.
We’re both from Mexico, but we grew up in LA, surrounded by a mashup of flavors—Chinese, Persian, Korean. A Chinese taco didn’t just make sense; it felt natural. For seven years, we sold food in bars and breweries, just doing what we loved.
Then came the call. A friend told us we’d been nominated for @beardfoundation . We couldn’t believe it—still a pop-up, suddenly in the spotlight. We never went looking for it, but sometimes life works like that. You just keep doing the things that truly move you, and things fall into place.
Anais Rivera
Anais Rivera
I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, the oldest of two sisters. My parents are Puerto Rican, and in 2003, they decided to move us back to Puerto Rico. That’s where I really found myself in the kitchen. My mom and abuela—everything they made was from scratch. They cooked with so much love. It wasn’t just food; it was a way of keeping our culture alive.
By the time I got to culinary school, I knew this was it for me. Cooking felt like home. But even with that clarity, life has a way of testing you. I’ve been through some hard moments—a divorce, the earthquake that shook the island, even just the daily grind of running a kitchen. Still, every time I wanted to quit, I’d remind myself of the women I came from. My mom didn’t raise me to back down.
One of the moments that shaped me most wasn’t even about me. It was this guy who started at as a dishwasher. He had lost everything to drugs and didn’t say much at first—he just kept his head down and worked. He was quiet, but there was something in the way he paid attention to what was going on in the kitchen. You could tell he was trying to prove something, not just to us but to himself.
Eventually, I started showing him small things—how to chop, how to prep. At first, it was just to help him stay busy, but then he really started picking it up. He wanted to learn. I watched him start taking control of his life—he got help, he cleaned up, and little by little, he built himself back up.
Today, that guy is a sous chef. He’s a dad now, with a family and a home. And seeing him go through that transformation reminded me why I love what I do. It’s not just about the food; it’s about the people. Kitchens can be chaotic, but they can also heal. They gave me purpose when my life felt unstable, and they gave him a chance to start over.
Now, as a Chef and owner of @sweetfirehubpr , I try to pass that on. Not everyone’s going to walk out of here as a chef, but if they leave with a little more confidence or a reason to believe in themselves, I’ve done my job.
Ricardo Fagundes Borelli
Ricardo Fagundes Borelli
I am from São Paulo, Brazil, and I have been in the gastronomy business for 24 years. My passion for cooking started due to the influence of my father, who was an excellent amateur cook. One of my earliest memories related to food occurred when I was around 8 or 9 years old. My parents argued and went to bed without dinner. I woke up in the early morning hours, took the leftover food from the fridge, heated it, set the table with candles and flowers, and then woke them both up and insisted that they could only get up and eat after resolving their dispute. From then on, I realized that food brings people together.
When I was 14, my family faced a financial crisis and went bankrupt. We moved to the coast of São Paulo, where my parents opened a small bar that served homemade food. My father was the cook. It was there that I took my first steps in a “professional” kitchen, even though it was just in our garage. I often felt embarrassed to work alongside my parents, as was typical for someone my age. As time went by, I grew up, and by age 16, I needed to find work. I had the brilliant idea of selling sweet pies, even though I had never made one before. Remarkably, I managed to make a few sales, but like many young people, I soon lost interest and gave up.
When I turned 18, I joined the army, where I learned industrial cooking and how to prepare meals in large quantities. I was responsible for feeding 1,700 people, and during this experience, I realized that I could pursue a career in the culinary field. After completing my compulsory service, I decided to try life in Florianópolis and began working as a kitchen assistant in a restaurant. I learned a lot during my three years there. In 2006, I received a scholarship to study cooking at Senac, which helped refine my skills. I worked at several restaurants, both good and bad.
In 2020, an opportunity arose for me to lead a Brazilian kitchen in Costa Rica, where I worked for four seasons. Today, I serve as a private chef for one of the most traditional families in Brazil. Gastronomy has provided me with everything I have today.
Sandy Martinez
I still remember the sting of reality after culinary school. I thought I was ready to take on the world, but the kitchen had other plans. It was a hard blow to realize that in every kitchen, you have to start from the bottom and work with humility; that every station, every cuisine, and every chef is unique.
But that humility, that willingness to learn, to take the hits and keep moving—it’s what shaped me into the chef I am today. I started as a waitress in my town, Guanajuato, Mexico, and now it’s been twelve years in the industry, which taught me that cooking isn’t just about following a recipe; it’s about respect, tradition, and constant learning.
I have left a piece of my heart in every kitchen I have worked in. As a woman in the culinary industry, it wasn’t easy to carve my own path at first. However, through hard work and dedication and the people I have met along the way, I have built a career doing what I love. My cooking style is free and creative, but I always strive to respect the proper techniques and processes. I thrive on the fire and adrenaline of the kitchen, yet I also cherish the peace I feel when I see a satisfied diner smiling as their plate arrives at the table.
Through the years, I never forgot my purpose. Those long hours and hard work, even if they took a part of me, reinforced my understanding of what I was doing there and why. I was there to learn, to refine my skills, and to make my culinary vision a reality.
When the pandemic hit, it took everyone by surprise, but I felt prepared. That’s when @wokiwokqro was created.
Davide Calabrese
I was born in Bitonto and graduated from the ITIS Guglielmo Marconi as a thermomechanical expert in 2012. In 2014, I decided to embark on a new adventure in London, working as a commis chef at Plateau, a French restaurant in the heart of Canary Wharf. This moment marked a significant change in my life; I felt I belonged to something meaningful and was part of a personal journey. I was fortunate enough to conclude my experience in England in the kitchen of Pierre Gagnaire, a chef with three Michelin stars.
With a wealth of new technical knowledge, I returned to Italy and began working for Don Alfonso at the San Barbato Resort, which holds one Michelin star. Eager for more adventures, I took the opportunity to move abroad once again, this time to Luxembourg. I started a new work experience at the Château de Bourglinster, where I worked in the brasserie restaurant as well as the one-star green distillery. There, I learned the importance of vegetable cuisine, which inspired me to create a vegetarian course that reflects my vision of eco-sustainability and makes a small contribution to our planet.
Today, I am the head chef at @lelapperelais in Tuscany, and I hope that cooking continues to evolve toward a more patient and humane environment. To preserve the future of this art, we must remember how our mentor chefs achieved greatness and revolutionized world cuisine.
Aline de Freitas
Departing from Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte), a celebrated hub for food in Brazil, I made the move to Australia and am now based in Sydney. Over the past eight years, I have fully immersed myself in the culinary world. Through food, I have witnessed countless dreams come to life and navigated a sea of opportunities that I once thought were beyond my reach.
The kitchen is my favorite place to be, where I draw inspiration and experience a spectrum of emotions in mere moments. I constantly push boundaries, improve my skills, embrace failures, and dive deeper into the challenges the kitchen brings. The privilege of working alongside chefs I admire and sharing kitchen spaces with individuals on their unique journeys is truly remarkable. As my career progresses, I am confident in achieving my dreams and sharing my journey with those who are interested.
Becoming a great chef extends beyond the kitchen. It is about how often you practice a skill, how much you study your craft, and how consistently you can reproduce results with the utmost excellence. The kitchen is a team environment, and the combination of diverse skills and experiences shapes who you are. I have been fortunate to have many unforgettable experiences, but I also recognize that there is still much to explore in the culinary world.
The industry has been evolving significantly, particularly regarding management and food concepts. It is becoming increasingly open to ethical and sustainable approaches. As a chef, I believe sourcing matters; therefore, I prioritize high-quality, ethical, and local produce. I am deeply committed to working with people who strive for excellence, embrace sustainability, respect ingredients, and support small farms and businesses. It is essential to understand that the experiences you have and the people you meet along the way will significantly influence how you cook, although it is often unpredictable.
Carlos Lucas
I’ve always been drawn to the rush of adrenaline and the constant movement. I was studying engineering, but it didn’t feel right. I clashed with my parents, who wanted a traditional path for me. But I lived by a simple rule: ‘No Regrets.’ So, I made the decision to drop out of engineering and start studying Culinary Arts.
Since then, I’ve worked in every corner of the kitchen, from dishwasher to executive chef. I’ve seen it all - the fights, the mistreatment, the hidden loves, and the open ones. I’ve encountered my fair share of characters. Overrated chefs and cooks who thought they were above the rest. Underrated individuals who worked tirelessly behind the scenes. But through it all, I’ve learned to act quickly, think on my feet, and make effective decisions. I’ve also learned to appreciate the family you find in the kitchen - the people who become your support system, your confidants, and your friends. I’ve seen the ugly but also the beauty of a well-run kitchen, where everyone works together like a well-oiled machine.
I remember a moment that changed everything. I was asked to cook Duck Magret at a private event in a wealthy family’s home. I poured my heart into it, and when the guests stood up to applaud, I was blown away. But what really stuck with me was a conversation with one of the guests, who knew my dad. He told me I’d made the right decision, and that I deserved my family’s support. That dinner opened doors for me, including a job offer as Sous Chef at one of Panama’s top restaurants.
As a Panamanian chef, I envision a future where cooks’ dedication is valued. Like police officers, who can retire after 25-28 years, I believe cooks deserve similar recognition. It’s time to acknowledge our hard work and passion, and provide a well-deserved retirement. At the end of the day, we’re not just cooking meals, we’re building communities, and preserving traditions.
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📸 @soymarcosalvarez