The Interview

I wrote this for my culinary concepts and theories class.

The Sky Room sits atop the historic Breakers building in Long Beach California.  The building was once a swanky hotel but was converted into a retirement community back in the 1990’s. In fact, the trip up to the 14^th floor took a little longer than expected as several residents ambled slowly on and off between floors. Chef Stephanie Mancilla met me in the lobby of the former hotel which is full of high backed chairs, nautical items, the unmistakable smell of age, and 1920’s charm.

           After a long, slow trip up in which "Kevin," a resident of the former hotel, shuffled on and off the cramped elevator, walker in tow.  Once we reached the 14th floor, the elevator doors open up to the reception area which, along with the rest of the restaurant, is designed in the art deco style with a lot of curves, long lines, and rounded edges. Chef Mancilla gave me a tour of the dining room that sits 200 guests and has 360 degree views of downtown Long Beach and the harbor. “When the Grand Prix is happening, you can see everything!” said the chef. She led me into the kitchen area. “Now, don’t think the kitchen you’ll work in will anywhere near as big as the student kitchens. We don’t have walk in freezers or refrigerators here. It can get pretty tight on a busy night.” True, I hadn’t expected the kitchen to be as open as the classroom, but I was a little taken aback by the close quarters the kitchen staff worked in. According to the Chef, on a busy night there is a grill chef, a fish chef (called a poissonier), a garde manger chef who also handles dessert items, two cooks, herself and the executive chef. So much for personal space.  "You should see this place on a Saturday night! It's crazy!" Indeed.

            Stephanie Mancilla always wanted to work with food. At an early age she would help her mother in the kitchen and loved to bake. The first thing she was able to make on her own was a dutch apple pie. She parlayed that love of baking into a few side businesses that increased her passion for food. She graduated from the Kitchen Academy in 2005 and began working in the industry. She is the Sous Chef at the Sky Room, as well as the manager of the “Wine Down,” the wine and cheese bistro on the ground floor. “You have to be ready to work your ass off and you have to be ready to sweat!” She stressed the need to always work with a sense of urgency. “You have to hustle and work hard and be willing to do anything that needs to be done. I’ve rolled up my sleeves and washed dishes if I see the guys need help.That doesn't happen too often now, but you get the point.”

I asked her what I can expect in terms of a position in a professional kitchen once I’m done with school. “You’ll basically start at the bottom. If you present yourself well and show me that you can work hard and fast, I may bump you up to prep or line. I need to see that you are ready to a part of this kitchen!” Basically that shiny new culinary diploma won’t mean a thing if I can’t back it up with old fashioned blood, sweat, and tears. “The things is, a lot of people nowadays watch the Food Network and get a skewed view of the industry. It wasn’t seen as a glamorous occupation when I started out. Now everyone wants to do this because they think they’ll be the next celebrity chef. Everyone thinks they'll be a rockstar! You can’t come into this profession with that attitude because you’ll be in for a shock.” Lucky for me, I’m not one of those people.  However her analogy about being a rockstar is true. For every superstar that takes the stage and makes millions of dollars reaching the masses, there are millions of other hard working musicians slogging it out in the clubs, doing it for the love of the music. In my case it's for the love and passion of food.     

Apart from working hard and proving yourself, Chef Mancilla underlined the need to always keep your mind and your palate open to new flavors and ideas. “Always keep learning. You never know when you’ll discover a new flavor combination or a new way to combine different cuisines! Don’t get stuck with the same way of doing things and presenting dishes.” She said that lately she had been experimenting with different African and Asian flavors, trying to pair them with dishes from Mexico and South America. “Never be afraid to try this or that. If it doesn’t work out the way you expected, just change it up.”

While I didn’t have any preconceived notions about what it was to be a chef before I met with Chef Mancilla, she did give me a wonderful new perspective about what it really takes to translate a passion for food into a career. You have to be ready to work hard, sweat, and prove to the people in that kitchen that you have the drive to succeed. I was a little intimidated when I was first assigned this project, but in the end I really enjoyed it. Chef Mancilla was very welcoming and seemed to enjoy imparting her knowledge. I was even asked back when the kitchen was in full swing to get a sense of what it’s really like. She did give me one last bit of advice as I was leaving, “Invest in some comfortable shoes! There’s nothing worse than being on your feet all day in crappy shoes!”  

Prelude.

I’ve dreamed of being a chef ever since I was a little boy. I have fond memories of being in the cramped kitchen of our East LA apartment, watching my mom cook fantastic meals with expert-like efficiency. She was a stay-at-home-mom at the time and would make breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. Each day after school I would rush home to watch my mom cook in the hopes of being allowed to help prepare that day’s meal and learn the secrets of a hearty home cooked meal.

None of that is true. Except for the fact that my mom stayed home while I was growing up and cooked everything for us, nothing else is even remotely true. I would sort of float in and out of the kitchen depending on what my mom had going on. If beef was on the menu, I’d stalk the kitchen and steal a piece of raw meat like an opportunistic jackal and leg it out of there before the long reach of my mom’s expert strike could do any real damage. I still enjoy the raw stuff.

My brothers and I had chores same as other kids; we cleaned and made our beds and did whatever else our parents told us, but that never extended to the kitchen. For some reason my mom didn’t think it necessary to teach me how to cook, but she did spend a lot of time letting me know my bed making skills were lacking in precision. I didn’t really bother learning how to feed myself until I had to. That happened right after Erica and I got married.

See, back in the spring of the year 2000, after everyone realized the Y2K scare was just a lot of bullshit, we found ourselves married and living in Downey. For the first time in my young adult life I was expected to fend for myself while Erica went to school and worked various part-time jobs. We had very different schedules.  The way I saw it, I had a choice; I could starve, eat fast food every night, or learn to cook. I have to admit I considered just eating fast food every night as there was a fifties themed diner a few blocks away and I love onion rings and am inherently lazy. However, being newlyweds, we weren’t as financially stable as we are now and spending all that money on fast food wasn’t the best of choices. So I started to cook.

My first attempts were less than perfect. In fact, they were crap. I mean you have to understand I could barely cook a hot dog or scramble an egg properly. But I persevered. I have to hand it to Erica for sticking by my early attempts and not crushing my ambitious from the beginning. The hardest criticism she’d level at me was, “um…it was ok. I don’t want any more though.” Looking back I know they were not the most appetizing of dishes, but it did spark something in me. Apart from music, I’d never found something as artistically liberating as cooking. Much like my early attempts at music, my ambitions went well beyond my abilities at the time, but it didn’t stop me. I kept at it until I could make at least edible dishes.

Fast forward a decade and I’m now enrolled in culinary school. This blog will be sort of a journal of my experiences at school. I’ve only been there a month and I’ve already learned so much! I mean I know how to cut vegetables, but never at the level of precision. I’ll try to post as often as I can, however I only have a few days between classes to get all my work done. I never knew chefs gave so much homework!