CHEF LIFE MAGAZINE

CHEF CHRIS CASTRO

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Journey Of A Chef

Chef Chris Castro

My name is Chris Castro, California born 28 year old Chef. I started cooking when I was 15 in high school I took cooking classes and started to build a competitive edge when doing it, I start doing competitions and was the guy who always was left out of the strong groups, so I decided I would be better than them on my own it never panned out, so as time went on I decided to give up and just take regular classes. Shortly down the road I was faced with what you are going to do when you get out of high school so I started to think what I was good at being creative was my niche. Well during this time I also learned what being with a woman was like. At the young age of sixteen I met my daughters mother, we'll needless to say I got her pregnant. This put more pressure on me to find a job to make money to support my family, so I said let me go find a job. I saw a new restaurant opening so I went and applied, they did on the spot interviews and I sat with the chef he asked me what I was looking for so I said I think I want to learn how to cook and maybe be a chef one day, he goes ok well how about I hire you as a dish washer and you can see how it works and eventually will get you to cook. I said ok, I was willing to start at the bottom. Then it all hit me I'm going to go to culinary school, work my way up at this restaurant and become a chef one day! It begins I started going to culinary school at central New Mexico college, and working at Chama River brewing company, and trying to raise a little girl and carry a family. It was rough no sleep, no time for myself, but I loved it I was getting to learn about food busting my ass at work with all those suds. I started to watch the cooks and get anxious, I worked hard in the dish pit, finally one day the corporate chef came in and he liked me, I told him I was going to culinary school and I wanted to cook. Boom a couple weeks later he moved me up to a prep cook I was so ready to just keep working hard and continue moving up. I did just that through time and patience they saw how hard I worked and wanted to learn so I kept moving up soon to pantry cook, then fry cook. I was on my way while also making it through culinary school. Meanwhile my home life was crumbling because I started to commit to my career. I brushed that aside and kept going forward with my career. I eventually got to be a lead cook for them, I started to get my chance at running specials and diving more into the food aspect of it all. I grew hungry for more I started to learn in school about fine dining and I wanted to do it. I started to reach out to friends I met through cooking and landed a job at Bienshur a casino restaurant that focused on the finer side of food. In school I started doing competitions I loved to compete, I ended up winning in house, state, then booked a ticket to nationals. First time ever going to Kansa city, I went there nervous but ready well not that ready. Keep in mind this competition was 50 different culinary students from the top schools I mean Johns and Wales, le cordon blu, CIA, and other big name culinary colleges. I ended up not placing do to a deduction, this Had me down but determined to come back my next year I was eligible, and I did and won the gold medal first place in culinary, big thing for me in my life , shortly after I finished up school. My family life was gone I had lost my fiancée through being young and stupid. I decided to focus back on my career and block out everything else going on. Through time I had gained a vast knowledge of food and learned my own path. I started to look for a big position to put under my resume. I found a new boutique hotel opening in Downtown looking for a sous chef I knew I was green and it would be hard to get but I applied anyway. Within a week I got a call and interview, I went in with no idea how to sell my self. I just let my passion speak and it worked I impressed them enough to get a second interview. I did the same in my interview with the gm and corporate heads, in the end I got the job offer it was nothing money for a sous but I wanted the title under me so I took it. I started my first sous chef job and I watched so many different chefs come and go through my time, but me I stayed tough let my drive push me. I made tons of specials and put my stamp on the menu with my creativity.

I became close with the owner who was a vegetarian, and loved all the dishes I came up with; this led to them asking for me to create a vegetarian menu. This was my chance to impress not to mention with the huge restriction of no protein or meat product. I took this task like a champ, I created it with the thought that people that were not even vegetarians they would want it. I hit it out of the park the owner went crazy for the menu and it became very popular. The hotel was going through a transition in management which led to my boss getting fired. I decided it was time to step up and ask to be promoted and hold it down till they hired a new chef, I was promoted to executive sous chef. I held it down for a month until they hired a chef, he came in and we did not get along I was way too ahead of my time for him and he didn't like that. I only spent 6 months in that portion until I couldn't stand work for him. My daughter and her mom had also moved to Arizona so I missed my baby girl and made a rash decision to up root myself and move to Arizona. I went with no job on a whim that with my resume and experience I could easily find one "wrong". It took me 1 month to find something at that I took a hug step backwards to a culinary supervisor at the Hyatt. One I hate big corporate operations because they take all the fun out of your job. I needed money and to get back on track so I took it, knowing I was gunning for the chef de cuisine's job, not to long into it I’d say 6 months he got fired and I debited if I even wanted it but one of the other chefs who became a friend of mine sold me on it. I went ahead and applied and got the job I spent the next two years hating my life. I say I hated my life because I was a corporate puppet who didn't like to follow there rules, I spent at least one day out of every week in my bosses office about something I was doing wrong, no not with food that I was crushing but the other Bullshit. I started to ask myself what am I doing, yes I was getting to somewhat do my food and have fun teaching my cooks cool stuff and my self-coming into my own as a chef, but I was doing so much paper work and corporate standard stuff, it ate at me I had to re think my self and passion for what I do. I had a great woman in my life at the time that helped me stay afloat and keep my head on straight. I then decide I want to be happy again with food and love it all over again so I took to looking for another chef position. I found the perfect fit top of the rock at the Marriott temp buttes I had a great interview but knew it was a highly coveted position and I would have to impress the executive chef to get the chef de cuisine position. I set up my stage to cook for the position I went in guns blazing me doing me cooking with creativity and passion that I put on all my dishes. I knew the executive chef had similar style to me, after a couple weeks passing and me wondering I got the call and the offer. I accepted the position and great it was a decision the next two year I spent there I got to learn how to refine my skills, through technique, having a chef that pushed me to impress him at every turn. I started to hit a wall toward the end of my stint there with my personal life hitting me hard I started to lack in my job. I again had reached a Plato, what I need next for me for my life. A big move led me to where I am now I needed a new start in a new place; I moved to Denver and am chef for a Kimpton hotel restaurant. I needed a new learning curve and to add to my culinary knowledge. I arrived to why I became a chef my answer simple but yet not, I have put my whole life into what I do it has beat me to the ground, it has made me feel on top of the world, gives my brain in outlet to express my creativity. I became a chef because there is nothing better than expressing your passion, heart, creativity all on a blank canvas using your hands as your brushes to paint your work of art. It takes so much to be a chef it's one of the hardest careers there is, but if you fall in love with it you never want to stop.

CHEF TALKS

Wtih Chef Jim Berman

Opportunity Cost

The volumes written about a cook’s “passion,” “dedication” and “commitment” are valuable for the Johnson & Wales student, for the kid at the community college, and for the new cook dipping their toes into the deep end of the kitchen pool, contemplating the life. It isn’t a life worth pursuing for the charisma of this dashing industry. A pulse, after all, is sometimes the only requirement to get called off of the bench. “Here, put on this apron,” and the rest is from the College of Real Life Cooking. The passion that we so generously dispense as the guiding light really is a touch of insanity mixed with adrenaline. This passion does not play well with others. Specifically, it doesn’t play well with others’ hearts. Just get out of jail? Get a job as a cook. Ditched school one too many times to see the Foo Fighters? Cook. Everybody eats, so how hard can it be to get the cooking part done? Get free kitchen tattoos that look remarkably like the side of the oven door and the edge of a sauté pan. Get a little nip/tuck of a fingertip or two while plowing through a pile of carrots. Get barked at for burning the crostini or roasted potatoes. And, Bam! bitches, you are indoctrinated into the not-so-secret cooking society. Congratulations, you can play with the other kids. With eyes open, you have entered the world of kitchen hooligans. There is no turning it off. This is not the casual IHOP cook waiting for something better to open up at the Amazon distribution place or the credit card call center, but the cook that is living this life for the foreseeable future. You know who you are. You know them when you meet them. Swearing like LiL Wayne, socially awkward loud fuckers that simultaneously compete with and celebrate other cooks’ successes and bad-ass culinary alchemy. It is a singular life, like no other and it can be a single life.In economics, there is a principle called “opportunity cost.” In essence, opportunity cost is the value associated with sacrificing one benefit for another. Say there is a Foo Fighters’ concert tomorrow night, but you are scheduled to work. You elect to go the concert, giving up the income you would have received by working grill for the evening. The cost to go see Dave Grohl and company do their thing is the cost of the tickets, the parking, the overpriced beer and the loss of income for the evenings missed shift. Having a career behind the line can, also, provide amazing opportunities. Opportunities to work with colorful people, a chance to be creative options for being a nocturnal deviant.

There are earnings chances in an otherwise closed-door economy. There is the camaraderie of the after-work shenanigans, the seemingly endless access to good ingredients with which to play. There is an opportunity cost, too. The hours are the hours. Nobody has a perfect schedule — work a 9 to 5 gig and you wait in the same traffic and lines at the bank as the other Monday through Friday schnooks. Work later at night? You sleep through business hours and never quite make it to the bank or to the kids’ plays. Work weekends? You miss the parties and tailgates in the Cowboys’ parking lot. So the hours do not matter. It’s the cost of the lifestyle—really—that makes the struggles a headache and heartache. Trying to maintain a civilized relationship is all but a fool’s errand. Ever talk real food with somebody that likes Olive Garden? Or discuss the rage of a server spilling balsamic reduction into your mise en place? Or look for empathy when a two-top walks in two minutes before close? Or someone that can’t understand the sheer excitement of the arrival of soft shell crabs, ramps or spring peas? Or diddle somebody that doesn’t get excited about eating short rib tacos, pho or slow roasted lamb tucked into a street gyro? It is the oxygen in our collective lungs; that contagious enthusiasm is embraced, grounds and all, or not at all. It has to be white hot and passionate. Why $150 for an apron isn’t ridiculous but $14 for a movie is. Why a trip to New York means the Waffle and Dinges food truck in Central Park, berries at the Union Square Greenmarket or a big bowl of steamy foodgasm at Ivan Ramen and not pictures at Radio City or a shirt at Abercrombie & Fitch. It is a life that really is only shared with the heart-breaking insidiousness that another cook of kindred spirit can share. It is a burn bright and burnout industry. Drug use is rampant. Alcoholism may as well be a job requirement. Tattoos beyond burn scars are the stars and bars of the kitchen rank order. More brawn than brain, cooks are a different breed; one that does not do well to commingle with non-cooks. Rather, the gene pool is full of similarly swimming Xs and Ys - or not at all. It just does not work out. Tears are not worth being spilt. Rather, just don’t. It’s a tough gig and nobody’s heart gets out unscathed.

The idea behind Anarchy Knives was bornout of a need. A need to stand out

The knives are made out of 3.5 mm thick stainless steel. The steel consists of a single piece and the balance of carbon and chromium provides a corrosion resistance and long sharpness. The handle is made of exclusive black / brown Micarta, a material that resembles wood but is better suited for the kitchen environment. Micarta is produced by pressing linen cloth and a special plastic together under high temperature. The result is a hard, water -resistant, hygienic material. Compared to wood, which is a living material that expands with moisture and has a high tendency to attract germs, Micarta is unmistakably better when it comes to matters of hygiene and sustainability. Each knife has an exclusively designed brass jewelry with an associated quote, which means that the unique and distinctive design of these knives extend far from what we are used to seeing in the modern kitchen. Anarchy Knives is a line of quality knives where steel and brass are in symbiosis, a fusion that in time offers a beautiful patina.

I was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden. As a third generation of chef’s, I received all my training from my father in the kitchen of the family restaurants.

After 15 years working as a chef, and running two Italian restaurants, I realize that all sorts of knives saturated the market, however none of them represented the lifestyle, so often exemplified by chef’s all over the world.

Long story short, I realized that there was a gap in the market, saw the need to make a difference, and so I did. Based on my experience, and the opportunity, I decided to take the chance to create a line of chef knives that would stand out and make a difference.

We don’t compromise. We live, breath and eat the lifestyle. We are just like you.

Christian Campogiani
Founder, Anarchy Knives

Private Chef

Jacoby Ponder

A certified culinary expert to the stars, Jacoby Ponder is taking the lean mean fine cuisine scene by storm. With a notorious May 2013 feature as a final contestant on the Food Network hit show "CHOPPED": Military Salute episode under his belt, and now an uncontested win in September 2015 on Food Network's latest and toughest hit series "CUTTHROAT KITCHEN", Chef Ponder is carving his name in culinary history and earning the right to be mentioned among the food world’s greatest cooking professionals.

A native of Monroe, Georgia, Celebrity Chef Ponder gained his cooking abilities from a laid back food loving city life in the South, but the bulk of his culinary skills and aspiration came during his 10 year tenure as a CS (Culinary Specialist) serving proudly in the United States Navy out of Norfolk, Virginia. Being hand selected on a regular basis to prepare meals for high profile military officer, prestigious military command, and political official functions was enough to confirm the pursuit of a career as a professional chef once his naval commitment came to an end. After transitioning back into civilian life, Ponder took the initiative to continue his education in culinary arts through the Culinary Institute of Virginia (ECPI University), and has now established his own culinary company, Chef Ponder & Co. - a talented team of choice chefs from the Hampton Roads Virginia and Atlanta areas. With a myriad of accolades that is consistently building, Chef Ponder is definitely approaching a prime time in his career.

Chef Louis Robinson

I grew up in a rough town...Oakland CA. My father died at a young age and I was raised by my mother. As I hit my teenage years, I led a life that was not taking me down a good path. However, I somehow managed to hold down a kitchen job. In the kitchen I found family, friends and comradely. I began to grow in my passion for food and I found it was a positive focus for a mixed up kid. I held down a couple line cook positions around town and started to really enjoy Mexican food, particularly tacos, which were easy to come by with the dozens of taco trucks that scattered my neighborhood. I also began traveling to Jamaica (where my lovely wife of ten years is originally from). I was amazed by the bold flavors of island food. These two cuisines, Latin and Caribbean, show up in a lot of my dishes, I just enjoy the flavors.

Thank God I have matured a bit since my younger days :-). I am now a committed Christian and a family man. The Lord has blessed me to have worked as a GM, a Chef de Cuisine and I am now the Chef/Owner of my own pop up restaurant and luxury personal chef business "Spice."At my pop ups I endeavor to bring in a lot of very unique, exciting ingredients so that it's an exciting experience for my guests. It's also exciting for me as a chef too, having a chance to work with new ingredients for the first time. Lately I have also been doing a lot of foraging...adding local wild edibles to my menus for that extra something. At the end of the day, my focus remains very similar to when I started...make great food and make people happy hope that by bringing my pop up restaurant to my community and bringing my cuisine into people's homes doing private chef work, that I can pass on the joy that food has brought me.

Live, Love and Eat!

Race To The Top

A Kid From Jersey City

Chef Eliott Sanchez

My name is Eliott Sanchez, I hail from Jersey City New Jersey, which is one of the most culturally dense, and diverse cities in the country. I myself am a testament to Jersey City’s “melting pot” culture, because I am half Puerto Rican, and half Uruguayan. Although both are Spanish speaking countries, they are geographically 3582 miles apart, making the nuances of their culture and cuisine very different. So I was very lucky to have experienced such rich cultural diversity from a young age. I grew up watching and learning in the kitchens of both my Puerto Rican and Uruguayan grandmothers. My love for cooking began simply as a love for eating, which then became a fascination with how the food was prepared, (That, and I got tired of eating cereal all the time, so I needed to learn how to cook).

Food was what brought us together at the table as a family, and those big family dinners hold some of my fondest childhood memories. Cooking is my inextinguishable passion, which started from humble and unlikely roots, but has since become a fulfilling career. It all started when I was 14 years old, (and like most kids that age), I had no idea which direction my life was headed in. My high school at the time had culinary arts as an elective, (which I took, only because I thought it would be an easy A). The chef instructor I worked with saw something in me, he saw a spark of interest in the craft of cooking, which over the course of four years, he helped to cultivate into a true passion. He showed me how to articulate my love for food into a career. He believed in me when no one else did, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

My first job in the industry was at a diner in the Jersey City heights. I was 15 years old, and I only took the job because I needed to save up some money to buy a car, (I had no clue at the time that I wanted to be a chef), I was a regular customer there for most of my young life, so when I asked for a job, the owner was happy to take me in. It was a humble (albeit legendary) burger joint, and it was there that I planted my roots, and begun to learn how to work in a real world kitchen environment. I ended up staying there for two years until I had enough money to buy my first car.

I ended up taking my second job just to pay for my gas, and car insurance (I still was not 100% sure I wanted to be a chef). I became a cook at a chain restaurant in Secaucus NJ just to keep the “ball rolling” seeing as how my last kitchen job went so well. My very first day on the job was a Friday night. It was busy as hell, and I was overwhelmed. There were tickets coming so fast, I could barely keep track. I damn near quit half way into the dinner service. But I remembered my chef’s wise words in my head “The job you want to quit on the first day is the best job you’ll ever have”. He taught me that great chefs are forged through adversity, and if I was not being challenged, I would never be able to grow. I stayed there for another 9 months, then left. My coworkers were mostly immigrants, and did not share my same aspirations, and upbringings. They all worked incredibly hard, and they had my respect. But I knew they were not “great”, they did not want to be. They were only there for a paycheck every week (hell, so was I), but I knew I was different from them. I had knowledge of the business, and an ever-growing desire to be something more. I knew I had to do something to deviate myself from mediocrity. I was not sure I wanted to be a chef, but I was damn sure I wanted to be good at my craft.

These epiphanies lead me to enrolling at the Hudson County Community College Culinary Arts Institute in Jersey City. I was 18 years old, and already had experience in two restaurants, and a four year culinary arts program, so I had a “leg up” on my fellow students. I remember the day I got my first set of knives, and chef whites. I suited up, looked at myself in the mirror, and I saw something. I saw a young man who had heart, focus, and potential to succeed. I was entirely too far along the road to look back at that point… and I am glad that I never did.

Throughout culinary school, I continued to work. My third restaurant job was at a busy French bistro in downtown Jersey City. I lied to them about my age, and my experience level (telling them that I was 23), hoping they wouldn’t see me as just a “kid”, and hopefully treat me better than I was treated in my previous restaurant. Little did I know that I would be taking on the most formative challenge of my entire life? I worked 50+ hours per week at the restaurant, and I went to school full time. My co-cooks were a young pirate crew of cooks from all over the world. They all worked towards a common goal, and cooked in a magnificent symphony of teamwork that left me in awe. The kitchen was very small, so every move you made had to be incredibly efficient. This was difficult for me because I am 6’4”, and the other cooks were 5’5”, so they moved with a speed that my awkward and lanky body could not keep up with. This was the first time in my life that I was working in an environment where everyone wanted to be great chefs, and I was just a kid who was in way over his head.

There was one night at that restaurant that I will never forget. I had just worked 13 hours straight, brunch, lunch, and dinner back to back to back for the entire weekend, so by Sunday night, I was exhausted. This was a level of exhaustion that I had never felt in my entire life. I walked out of the kitchen after my shift drenched in sweat, covered with cuts, burns, and very disoriented. I sat down by a tree to collect myself, but ended up passing out. I woke up at 6 a.m. the next morning looking, and feeling like total shit… and I had to get to class at my culinary school 7 a.m. That was my most defining moment of my career. I had reached my absolute limit, and didn’t have the strength left to stand, but somehow came back to do it all over again. That’s when I knew… it was love. It just had to be love, because love makes you do crazy things, and anyone who is willing to eat that amount of adversity on a daily basis is completely insane. That is what all chefs have in common; complete, and utter insanity. It is the very glue that keeps us together. I stayed at that restaurant for a mere 5 months, and then moved on to my next journey.

The years following lead me to four other restaurants around NJ, including the critically acclaimed “Ursino” in Union NJ. It was there that I began to fine tune my talents, and create the greatest cuisine I have ever made, (or eaten). I worked with a small team of culinary geniuses who had a passion, and knowledge of the craft that far exceeded my own. We had a 4.5 acre farm attached to the restaurant that provided most of our produce that we used on our menu. I was in heaven. I felt like all of the challenges I had faced up to that point had prepared me for this step in the direction of excellence. I knew I was no average “cook”; I had years of experience, a college degree, and a stack of cookbooks nearly as tall as I was. I knew what it would take to become a great chef, and was ready, and willing to take the initiative. Sadly, after only 6 months of cooking at “Ursino”, the restaurant closed down.

"Now, I am in the process of taking my next big step in my career. I have already requested a stage at “Per se” restaurant in NYC. I am still eagerly waiting for their call. Success is not an esoteric entity, and I am not “special” in any way. I am just a crazy kid from Jersey City, who won’t take “No” for an answer."

CHEF HAT CO.

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