Harold
"My mother was my introduction to the kitchen. She was a catering company chef, and I still remember that when it came time for take your kids to work day, she’d let me go with her. I’d taste all kinds of weird, new things. As a matter of fact, the first time I tried sushi and spring rolls it was with her - I remember the spring rolls had goat’s cheese, and I didn’t know you could make cheese out of fucking goat milk - it blew my mind.
My obsession with ramen started all the way back when I was a kid, my family was always big on ordering take-out and I remember watching Toonami while feasting on all this food; the memory stuck. I was a weeb growing up and since they’re always eating ramen, it seeped into my mind at a young age - Goku eating Chi Chi’s food on the table, that shit looked really fire. I always flirted with the idea of becoming a cook, but it wasn’t until I discovered Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations and how he spoke about food, that I decided it was my calling.
Mastering the art of ramen was always in the back of my head, and I always practiced during family mealtime at work - but it took the pandemic for me to realize it was what I wanted to cook for a living! While I was working my way around restaurants and learning all I could from the chefs I worked under, somewhere along the way, I ended up learning how to make noodles. Then when the pandemic hit, I was left jobless. A friend of mine suggested I created a ramen kit, and through the help of some Youtube videos and the off-time the pandemic gave me, I ended up developing my own ramen kit and when bars began to re-open, I jumped in and started my pop-ups by asking my favorite bars to bring me in.
I’m truly thankful for the support of the industry, everyone who pushed me to take the leap into this, and I’m able to do this awesome job now thanks to them!"
Regina
"If I can't go to Brazil, I'll bring Brazil to my backyard."
I started Regina's Farm in 2006 as a way to reunite the church community of my neighborhood and celebrate special days like New Year's and Thanksgiving while raising funds.
After some time, a friend of mine put a post on Facebook about the food and suddenly the Brazilian community took notice, they asked me if I was in Brazil and when they found out I was here, they hired me to host a dinner for 35 people. The week after, I had 90, and I realized the community really wanted to eat from wood stoves and have food from my city Minas Gerais, they really missed Brazil.
My husband built the entire set-up in the yard; he realized my dreams at the same pace that everything was happening. Today, We open 2-3 Saturdays a month, and we're booked out until January 2022 at least. I went from having my family helping to giving jobs to 11 people, and we're serving upwards of 140 people each time!
After a year and a half of Covid we've finally been able to open again, and we're getting involved in all things from private event catering to fundraisers for the church!
Guido
"I’ve always said that I stumbled into the kitchen, it wasn’t something I chased or envisioned even though my mom and dad tell me those stories where I’d always walked into the kitchen at their restaurant to ask the Chef for food when I was young. It wasn’t until my first job in the kitchen, which wasn't even my first choice, that I realized this is what I wanted.
Honestly, it’s almost a love-hate relationship; you need tough skin to do what we do, and it’s always been an inner battle with masochism, in a way. You can certainly lose a lot while working in this industry, I can guarantee that a part of my failed marriage was my workaholism and my dedication to the craft.
When people ask me if I would recommend this career, I say no, because you will have to deal with lots of stress - I’ve personally lost a good friend to this career; the first chef to ever inspire me and light up the fire in me for this career. After he battled with depression and addiction for years, he took his life and left me wondering how it came to this. Despite working in a kitchen being such a struggle, it’s also a constant thrill. Getting your ass kicked during a busy service is something else, and rocking your station and calling tickets out while you feel the heat of the wood grill behind you is incomparable in the levels of adrenaline you feel.
Today my philosophy is simple. Have fun. We are not saving lives, we are only cooking and serving guests. People take shit to another level, act like we’re neurosurgeons and people’s lives depended on us. I’ve experienced that during my time in California, working in a 2-star restaurant, and will never forget it! That place almost broke me, it gave me the ass-whooping I needed in my career to realize what I wanted, but the head chef was something else - taking his job extremely seriously. I got it, partly - there was a lot at stake, but at the same time, we weren’t saving lives, just making food that people eventually pass, anyway. It’s crazy to think about all the time and effort that goes into creating every dish - and that’s not counting all the time and effort that goes in before we even begin prep at the restaurant."
Jeffer
"I was born in Nicaragua and arrived in the country a few years ago through the hole via Mexico. Back in Nicaragua, I used to be a tobacco roller but decided I needed to do more for my family, so I took the leap and journeyed to the U.S over a two-month desert trek, in a bet to be able to better provide for the family I left behind due to not being able to bring them along. It was a long, dangerous journey but I made it.
I love the kitchen, it’s not only my passion but something I need to get better at in order to provide for the family, and I’m not going to stop pushing until I become a head chef. Working in the kitchen is nothing compared to the hardship I had to endure on my way up here, and I’ve become stronger than I ever dreamt of!"
Facundo
"I’m 20 and from Uruguay; I arrived in the U.S about five months ago and have always somewhat had a background in food, working in a delivery food establishment back in Uruguay. So far the thing that’s intrigued me the most about being here is the kind of stories you can find in a kitchen, ranging from culinary graduates to people that lost everything and the only door that opened up was the kitchen - plus all the different amount of cultures that you find blending together in the city, it’s something I hadn’t seen before and something I’ve had to adjust to, but I enjoy it! I like the team here, we all vibe really well and I haven’t had any crazy experiences or hardships so far; even though I moved here alone I have a couple of family members here, so it’s been okay.
In the near future, I hope to be able to get promoted in my other job as a busser to learn more about the front of house aspect of the business, while on the weekends continue hustling in the kitchen!"
Carlos
"I'm from Chile, and I've been in the US for the last three years. My kitchen history goes back 15 years; and it started with an unpleasant story!
When I was working in Chile, I got an opportunity to do a trial at a restaurant for a week, then it was extended to two weeks and then they kicked me out without paying me a penny; they were using unpaid labor to cover a shift of someone who was on holiday. I will never forget that day.. and after 15 years, I still see so many things in our industry that are still unfair.
Even though I'm happy here in the U.S, people work nonstop. You got to love it to stay on the line! Cooking is my passion and the grill is my home and that’s what keeps me here. I used to come as a tourist to USA and loved it, but once I moved, the American Dream is pretty different from what I thought it would be."
Cristian
"I’m from Argentina but have been in the country for the last 3 years. My hardest day of work while being in the U.S so far has been one where service was hectic and we were in the weeds, and the staff decided to walk out mid-rush; they just left me there alone to manage! I had to close the kitchen and focus on serving each customer, one at a time – alone.
As a cook and chef, I have been taught to never leave or run away, if I do, at least I’ll finish my shift.
I feel that there is no dedication, especially among younger cooks, – more so when we get paid hourly, people don’t care and they just walk out whenever they feel like it, or sometimes don’t come in at all. Unlike when I worked with people in Latin-American that were paid salaries. I’m not sure what the future of the industry is, but if we don’t better our benefits or the ways we operate as restaurants it’s going to get hard to find reliable staff."
Carmen aka Mango Mama
"I come from a family of artists - musicians, painters, writers, sculptors. That’s where I get my spirit from. Cooking is my creative outlet. I grew up in the kitchen eating and cooking homemade Peruvian food but it wasn’t until 2020 that I decided to turn this lifelong passion of mine into a career.
The number 20 has a lot of symbolism for me, that’s why I have it tattooed on my hand. Sometimes you think you have it all figured out when you’re in your 20’s like me. I was married, comfortable in a corporate event planning job, and living the norm. In the year 2020, my life was flipped upside down and I had to reinvent myself. Cooking gave me purpose and happiness again.
Stepping into this new venture, I promised myself I would be authentic to who I am. I think that shows in a lot of my work. Building a brand based on my talents, interests, personality, and upbringing is important to me. As a young entrepreneur, I fail and struggle almost every single day. But sometimes I win and those are the days I celebrate with fancy cheese or wine. Yes, cheese keeps me going.
I’m in a fearless stage of my life where I have nothing to lose. I’ve put myself out there a lot and it’s allowed me to grow quickly and collaborate with others. The local chef community has been unbelievably inspiring and welcoming towards me as a new young, aspiring chef. I am grateful, but I’ve also worked my ass off to get here. Nothing comes knocking on your door; you have to fight for it."
Jonathan
"I’ve been cooking for the last 8 years. When I turned 18 I decided that I didn’t want to continue studying, and my mother told me I had two choices, either I moved back to Nicaragua or I learned some kind of trade to make a living with; I got a gig washing dishes for a company and worked my way up from there, working in different restaurants in various positions – and even delved into food photography 5 years ago, which got me featured in a few magazines! Now I do a bit of everything, I’m a line cook during the day, but I focus on my photography at night after my shifts.
My goal in the future is opening my own photography studio and being able to cook my own food for the shots, travel to do photography work, developing my portfolio enough to the point where I can make that my focus – it’s my dream."
Astrid
"I came to the US as a classical ballet dancer, but I needed a second job as well to pay the bills and stumbled into this job. I feel comfortable in this job and I’ve fallen in love with cooking while working – before this job, I didn’t know what it was like working in professional kitchens or what the job was like; being here has sort of opened my eyes to it all and I’m amazed by everything, I really like it.
Philosophically, I believe that in life much like in ballet, nothing is impossible to achieve if you work hard and aim for your goals while always moving forward. Ballet and the kitchen also have one thing in common, in ballet you need to transmit emotion to the public through your dance routine, and in the kitchen, you have to do the same thing through the flavors, they’re both conveying emotion through different art mediums.
In the end, both cooking and ballet are tough, and they will leave you with some scars, but it's all worth it for the artistic expression."