Chef Challenge

Mom taught me how to cook at a young age. When most ages were playing in the fields or the streets, I was actually baking cookies with my buddies and that’s where I learned how to cook.

My favorite dish that I’m really known for is my fettuccine alfredo dish. Real buttery, heavy cream, chicken breast. Nothing healthy and good about it. But all fat and delicious.

I didn’t get into this to win. The reason why I got involved is it’s because it’s all about the students, and this is another way for us to reach out to them and provide them with another resource or a recipe on the food they can cook with, and the reality is we all know CSC is gonna win the challenge anyway

Do not like: seafood. Just don’t like seafood.

Most exciting thing about cooking is not only being able to cook for our students, but also our interactions with them. Our nutrition students spend time and intern with us and rotate in our kitchen, sharing our knowledge and experience is probably the highlight of things I get to do. Over the years I’ve been here, working with the students directly has really been the highlight of my time working in UC Davis.

I’ve always cooked, it was more of a necessity. I have a younger sister and she’s 2 years younger than me. Growing up, my parents were always at work so we always had to figure some things out. So I was always cooking and trying new things out. After that, I learned a lot from my dad. That got the confidence going until I entered the industry. I learned as I went. After a few years of that, I went to culinary school and I trained classically French. It was mostly the fact that I was willing to try things out. I think that’s the key, being willing to mess up and expose yourself. That’s the key to growing as a chef as well, being okay with messing up.

I cannot do tomatoes most of the time. When it’s peak season, I can do tomatoes. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s the texture, the gelatinous of it, the acidity of it. Ever since I was little, it was always a fight with my parents because they love them. They put salt on them and bite them like apples and I just couldn’t do it.

Favorite dish to cook is beef bourguignon. It’s very technic driven. It started off as peasant food, and now it’s very much, in my opinion, very much for the chef. There’s a lot of technic. You need to be very patient with the paste, you need to be very precise when to remove the meat, so a lot of that…cooking the dish, has a lot to do with pleasing the chef. I like things like that, I like doing things for the chef. At the end of the day, the amount of work and time put into it, it’s a loved dish.

I love cooking in general because I’ve always liked pleasing, serving, the business of service, and always has been an outlet for me as an artist. I love working at UC Davis because it brings on many different challenges. Throughout the year, we bring in various events, big outside events, a lot of small recipes, things that are local, things that are in different ways. I love the idea of having a certain pattern you follow but then taking it over and doing your own twist to it. I love having to work with other people and bring what I know and sharing it with other people. Working on campus brings that opportunity.

Random facts: lived in Egypt for a while, was vegetarian for 6 years, done marathons around the state, into boxing.

Our team is going to win because we are very much driven by passion. We have great innovation. Unique part of our team: everybody is on the same page that at the end of the day, before any individual comes flavor. So before me, comes flavor. So it’s not just one person coming up with an idea, it really is multiple brains and plaettes and people that have been in the career for years. Getting together and putting our heads together to make great dishes. Before us, comes great flavor.

When I was 16, I got a job at the Beverly Garland Hotel under an executive chef named Dale Keith. He taught me, brought me in. I was probably cooking for 3-4 days, I didn’t follow instructions, and so I was put into the dish room for about 6 months. Then he brought me out and tried it again. From then on, he took me under his wing for about 5 years.

I’ve to Thailand 3 times and there’s something I guarantee I won’t eat, it’s Durian. The smell, the taste, the texture. You will never find me eating Durian.

Right now, I would say I’m really into curries – yellow curries, red curries, vegetable curries.

What’s exciting about working in UC Davis is that we’re constantly getting better. New students walk in every quarter. And we constantly modify the menu to make things better. To make things more conducive to students, and we get feedback from them so we can design the menu to fit what their wants and needs are.

Challenges: the speed at which things go. I’m just used to things at a faster pace of getting things done. But the excitement just comes from that each year, we get new resources from different parts of campus.

Random fact: won a break dancing competition when I was 12 years old – 38 contestants.

I think I’m going win because I have a great group of sous-chefs. They put a lot of time and effort into it. There’s great competition with the other chefs, but I think we’ve put a lot of time and effort into it and we’re going to take it home.

We’re [Cuarto DC] a little bit smaller, so we have a little bit better food… but don’t tell anybody.

When I reconnected with my father, he was really into cooking and that’s how I got to know him better. He was also like, “Ah, you’ll never learn, you’ll never do it.” So to be that spiteful teenager, I was like, “I’m gonna do it better than you and I’m gonna prove it to you.” And 15 years later I’m still in it.

Not a lobster or shrimp or crab person. To me, they’re like “squish”…like an ocean bug. So I like to have steak

Favorite thing is the community. I’ve been on campus for 6 years now. I grew up coming to campus cause my grandpa was an engineer. It definitely feels like home and everyone I work with and the students…everyone that I work with, they’re all great. Everyone has each other’s back.

Favorite dish to cook: depends on the mood, it’s constantly changing. I could be obsessed with pasta for like a month and so that month, we make pasta in different ways until you just get burnt out. And then, alright, we go down this alley and we keep on experimenting. So really, it’s what’s going on. Usually, when people ask me that, I say that it’s whatever my wife wants for dinner that night.

Find me mostly at Scrubs Café or The Gunrock.

When I was about 16 years old I went to work for Renzo Vernaise in Mill Valley and he taught me how to cook.

There are not many food that I don’t like, but one food I absolutely can’t keep in my mouth or swallow is Sea Urchin. I was very excited to try it, but my gag reflect tripped and could I not keep it down. Then when I traveled to Southern Italy, I was excited to try fresh Sea Urchin but the same thing happened.

Anybody who knows me, knows that I’m all about pizza. I’m not a prescriptivist when it comes to pizza. I think all pizza toppings are legitimate. I even put pineapple kimchi on my Pizza sometimes. It’s delicious.

Favorite thing about working for UC Davis, definitely not the commute. But I think my favorite thing about working at UC Davis is all the great students, it really does help keep you young. It sounds like a cliché, but it really is true.

Random fact: I don’t really want students to know this but there’s been a rumor that I’m a huge fan of supernatural romance novels

I’m not certain I’m going to win but the best competitor should definitely win. But for me, working here at Davis, it’s not about the competition, it’s the community and that’s what these Chef Challenges for me are all about. Bringing people together and having fun with the rest of the Student Housing and Dining Services team.

What’s this in my pocket? Well, before the official Chef Challenge started, there was a little contest we like to call The First Challenge. Challenge 1, tater tot challenge, I was the champion. I’m the only 2 time champion. I’m not saying that’s a brag, I’m saying it because it’s true.