Craig
I’ve worked everywhere, from fast food restaurants to massive Stadium and Hotel operations. But you’ll find me here on my days off - serving food on the street from my tent. This is where I feel good, where I feel good about what I serve. This is better than all that processed shit we’re usually served.
This is real food that everyone can feel good about. Fast food restaurants are all popping up, and grocery stores are closing. It’s hard to compete with that. I know a lot of places where the food quality is poor, but they don’t care. These people call themselves chefs but refuse to cover a dishwasher or prep cook’s shift if they call out.
To be a good chef to be a good restaurant manager, you have to be willing to face the same pressure as the rest of your team. You have to be ready to get into the weeds.
When you’re looking for an experience, learn about the chef and his craft, and understand why you’re paying what you’re paying. But if you’re looking for a quick meal, don’t go to a chain; visit your local street vendors.
Luis
I was born and raised in the Dominican Republic, but I’ve been living in Raleigh, North Carolina, for the past year.
I started in the kitchen as an escapist from my original role as a Doctor. I remember watching Chefs on TV and wanting to feel the rush and the emotions of the kitchen. The passion grew, and it soon became my lifestyle, so much so that I’ve been in the industry for ten years. What I love most about this is getting to express myself through food. I ended up studying culinary at the Dominican Culinary Institute and UNIBE University.
Seeing the satisfaction of the dinner guests and the way I’m able to continue creating is what keeps me going. For me, time stops once I step inside the kitchen. It becomes just me, my team, and the tickets. The power to create, transmit and have a rush at a particular time is fantastic.
My first job in the US marked me forever. I got to earn the respect of all the Americans that mocked me because I was the foreign guy who didn’t speak the best English and couldn’t express myself well. The day I became the Executive Chef, and everyone was happy and proud of me will forever be etched into my mind.
This goes with an important lesson: hard work pays off. Dream big. I always encourage people to try. “You don’t lose anything trying or asking about something.” One thing I would like to see less of, though, is perfectionism. It’s all about flavor, fun, and the idea of delivering something unique.
My final advice to cooks would be: Love and believe in what you do.
David
One day in the kitchen of a small English town restaurant, the chef was not there when an order for Champiñones al Ajillo was waiting to be taken out. I, as the dishwasher, seeing that the chef did not arrive and having seen how he made it, I dared and fulfilled the order. After a while, the waiter and chef returned and asked, "who brought out the order?" Silence filled the room. The chef looked at me, and the waiter said, "they send congratulations to the kitchen." Since that day, I began this journey full of passion, sweat, burns, sleep, and cuts for 15 years, passing through large kitchens.
I grew up in a small town called Garzón, Huila, Colombia. Like all small-town children, I needed to leave home in order to study at the university. That's how I started my trip to the capital to study electronic engineering. A year passed, and I needed to acquire a new language, so I left for England to study and work.
Without knowing English and having no work experience, washing dishes was the easiest job I could get.
While I was a dishwasher, I saw behind me a symphony where everyone was running, flying pans, the fire was breaking out, and yet, nobody crashed into anything. It captivated me, and when I stood in line, it just flowed. I felt like a fish in the water. That tide took me to work in many places and cuisines. Some were fancier than others, but in every place, I found life stories that taught me more than just cooking. A year later, when I returned home, the engineer no longer returned; the cook returned.
I grew my career in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I laid the foundations of my kitchen around the fire; I passed through my house, Colombia, to rediscover it gastronomically, and then I continued my way to Mexico to discover its roots.
Today, I continue my journey gaining experience in my kitchen day by day.
Joyce
After graduating from culinary school, my career began like all culinary students dream of, working in high-end restaurants next to big-name chefs. But there came a point in my career when I had to make a decision for my health, both physical and mental. When I reached the position of Sous Chef, my body and mind took a toll, and I was no longer handling the intensity of it all. I had some serious health issues that ultimately made me quit my position. I decided to step back and rethink how I would approach the culinary world, and simultaneously as a sign, covid arrived, and with it, my deep dive into sourdough.
Not long after, an opportunity arose to work as a Chef in a Latin kosher cafe. It was a small, locally owned business that had served the community for a long time, and the new owners were looking for a chef. I took the opportunity, but I didn't know what that would mean for my future. To be sincere, it was not the initial idea I had in mind or the culinary trajectory that they teach us to strive for. I had to fight many times with the idea of serving high end, being on the top, and being in the press. It made me focus more on the quality of the food, on the community we served, and how we were making an impact through small yet meaningful steps. I helped to achieve a good balance in their restaurant by being a good chef and an excellent consultant to the point that they offered me the chance to partner up with them. This partnership changed the way I thought about things.
I find myself now in my next phase in life. I have broken so many beliefs and stigmas in the industry that now, I'm shifting towards a journey to strive to be a better person, prioritizing health. I have always wanted to be more than a chef and understand the nutritional aspects. So I want to learn more about it and offer a more grounded experience to the people in our community. I want to offer food that feels good, that makes sense, that not only tastes great but that is good for your body. So this is the next step in my journey. Not only to get to know all this for myself but for other people.
Ana & Ana
We started cooking 22 years ago. It all started at home, where my mother taught us the basics. A skill I’ll be forever grateful to my mom for teaching us. We believe we should all learn how to cook ourselves a good meal; we never know what will happen, but we think it’s a crucial survival skill.
Years later, a business opportunity appeared, and it was a small restaurant. We weren’t sure if, from being home cooks, we could manage a restaurant or cook something others liked. That's when we started digging into our culture, remembering my mom's recipes and asking our mother-in-law about some traditional dishes we wanted to serve at the restaurant. Months later, we decided to hire a chef to help us have a solid structure, and that’s when we learned more about techniques and measures.
Today we both are in charge of the kitchen, and our husbands are farmers, so we always use fresh ingredients and help each other.
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@christianguval 📸🎤Reporting from Alajuela, Costa Rica 🇨🇷
William
I was born and raised here in Miami, but all my family is from Puerto Rico. I started cooking in high school and loved the grill. It was my first job!
I’ve been cooking for a long time. I didn’t go to culinary school. I just got hands-on experience at places like country club dining, high volume, and more. Trust me, I've seen it all and done it all. I've seen a grown man cry, and I've even seen guys get burned real bad or stabbed.
Aside from all the chaos that can happen inside the kitchen, what has kept me here is that I love to see the finished product. I enjoy being able to give pleasure through food and be part of people’s life’s somehow, even if they don’t know it. A good meal can go a long way, and that’s where it all comes down to, seeing people enjoy their meals and get together to celebrate around the table. I love cooking, but I have found that doing things outside, like landscaping, screen sprinting courses, etc., helps not only to learn other skills and disconnect but also as extra money and income.
Gustavo
Working in the kitchen has completely changed in the last five years. You have to treat people with a lot more respect. Just a couple of years ago, chefs would treat you badly, but now we are changing the culture to build people up instead of putting them down.
I’ve worked with some really tough chefs, especially in Spain. Spain was one of the toughest moments in my career because chefs yell at you for anything. So returning to the USA, I have tried to avoid that negative stigma.
While in Spain, I worked for free. Given the times, it is hard to get people to come and stage for you and work for free because everything has become so expensive it is hard to live. But if somebody wants to go to Europe and have that experience, I recommend they research and find a place where you are treated well.
Fine dining can be sustainable to a certain extent. The only issue is that the cost is translated to the guests, which few people are willing to pay. As it stands, a lot of these fine dining establishments survive on the free labor they receive. If you take this away, it's nearly impossible for them to survive simply because of the manpower needed to achieve the results. This was clearly evident in my experience (2 Michelin stars, no.3 in the world). There was a team of about 15+ stagiaires working at any time. This was almost the same number of BOH people and just as much for FOH in the restaurant's payroll. This situation with noma shows the rest of the world what some people have gone through to obtain some of the best experiences possible to succeed in this demanding field. We can be sustainable with all our ingredients, but can we do it with our human workforce?
Julian
When I was 11, my mom opened a Colombian Bodega/Deli in East Hampton, New York. I remember working the register with a metal box and calculator on the first day. When I wasn't at school, my mom would ask me to give her a hand. I didn't enjoy the first few years, especially on the weekends as a kid, and preferred to play. As time passed, I realized this was feeding my family, and as my mom was a single mother, I had to step up.
As I began to enjoy working more, I decided to go to school for business. I learned a lot about finance and marketing. I worked with my mom, and after I began bartending and realized I wanted to get my master's in Hospitality. The school from Switzerland had a sister school in Spain, where I had to do a six-month internship, and I was lucky to be chosen by the Ritz of Barcelona as a server in one of the best restaurants.
Being an American and living in Europe like I did for one year changed my mindset! I started enjoying the simple things of life. I arrived with 5 bags full of crap and returned to the USA with a small carry-on and my same dream of opening a restaurant. The restaurant director of the Ritz was a good friend of the executive chef at the Ritz in Miami, so I landed the job as front-of-the-house supervisor.
It's been 15 years working my way up in the industry, but I wasn't fond of wearing suits and shaving my beard every day. I always had a more back-of-the-house personality, yet I knew I was doing this because I had a purpose. I tried to spend no more than one year and a half in places to learn as much as possible in corporate, mom-and-pop, and high-end settings when I discovered it was time to make a shift and work in a place I see myself hanging out.
I partnered up with a group that was opening up a brewery that served Texas BBQ; it took three years to open, and we ended up splitting, but I learned all about BBQ and liked the kitchen and the fire more than the taproom.
Since 2018 I have had my own pop-up. I developed my recipes and ensured all my food came out with consistency, which was one of the main issues I encountered in the industry! I feel good now that I am building a brand with a solid structure.
Mary
In my town, from an early age, mothers teach you the basics, like washing and cooking. It is an essential survival skill. We didn't have the resources to hire someone, nor did my mother have time to do it, so we had to learn to do it ourselves. I found a passion for cooking and have taken courses since, but I've learned the most at the university of life.
I'm from Chocó, the Pacific of Colombia. I came to Bogotá for a job opportunity to care for the Caja Agraria President's kids. My dream was always to have a restaurant that serves food from the pacific in "The Big City." I found a place close to the food market where I used to do my groceries and began thinking of how nice it would be to work there next to all those fresh ingredients.
My friend told me the girl who'd taken the kitchen at the Plaza needed a lady to help her, so I came. The first two kitchen owners didn't last, and eventually, the owner of the Plaza offered me the choice of renting the space. He told me, "Señora Mary, why don't you take the kitchen since your food brings customers and is delicious?" I told him I'd love to, but I didn't have money, so he let me pay slowly, and I took the chance. Then the owner told me that to remain on the Plaza, I needed to buy the space I worked at or the rights, as we call it, in Colombia.
I was too committed to the business to let it go. I borrowed the money from a sketchy person and ended up in debt. The interest rate was also very high. My children and I went to bed many nights without eating because all the money went into paying the debt. I also encountered resistance from other business owners of the Plaza, who weren't happy I got my space and tried to force me out. But I believed so much in myself that they soon realized they couldn't break me.
I've grown in my business and as a person. The Plaza and its community have grown too. All of this has strengthened me, and I clung to God's hand a lot. It hasn't been easy, but I'm happy to say I've been here for 21 years. In the near future, I plan to expand and open a new location.
Thanks @ipesbogota and all the support you give to the cooks that are part of the @plazasdemercadodistritales
Gianluca
I started as an intern in a 5-star Hotel in Rome. I never went to culinary school; I learned the hard way. Plus, I’ve been cooking since I was 10. Food is very important in Italian culture. Still, working at this luxury hotel in Rome was challenging. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t cooking in the comfort of my home. I was working long hours, standing a lot, cutting, and bruising myself constantly. But at the same time, learning every single day and building up that professional mindset I always carry with me. I also had the opportunity to work with extraordinary Chefs and cooks. I ended up working my way up to Sous-Chef at the hotel. Afterward, I worked in several other kitchens. When I moved to Toronto, after 1 restaurant, I became Head Chef of a small business specializing in classes and private events. That's when I decided to open my own "Private Chef business."
You see, food is emotion. Emotions are delivered the second food touches your palate. In my new role as a Private Chef, it’s one of the things I love most. The opportunity to express me and bring that joy into people’s homes, see it displayed on their faces, and be part of their events, almost like becoming a part of their family. Exploring different ingredients and techniques, creating new dishes to present, and cooking for my clients keep me going every day. The constant desire to make better dishes every single day.
In my opinion, this profession is humble because, at the end of the day, everyone has to eat. Nutrition is part of our lives, and knowing that we are behind that 1 meal of that person's day, makes you feel like a superhero.
That being said, one thing requiring change is definitely the pay. The Back of House teams’ hours is exhausting and tiring. They definitely deserve better compensation than what is offered today. Dedication, sacrifice, and hard work are the only ways to succeed. Love your job and strive to be better every single day. Research, confront yourself with other professionals and cooks, and most importantly, don't be afraid to fail. You have to throw away (or eat :D) a lot of loaves of bread to get that perfect one.