A Puerto Rican kid from the Bronx, went from cooking in the trenches to cooking for the world!
We took a trip to the desert to visit 5 star Chef De Cuisine, Steven “Chef Papi” Agosto. He welcomed us into his kitchen to show us what he has been working on for the upcoming spring menu. His restaurant Cielo, has been a 4 diamond award level restaurant for the last several years but just recently they were able to achieve best food,steak & overall restaurant (via Open Table). These accomplishments have inspired new goals, he now wants to be rated top 100 restaurant in the nation! He talks about how growing up in the Bronx helped form the chef he is today; his grandma was a big influence on him becoming a chef. She always prepared home-made meals from scratch, but he would not appreciate them until he went to the military. While in the service he became a self-taught chef, just trying to make anything better than the “cafeteria food” they were providing. Shortly after his time in the military he would attend culinary arts school & land his first restaurant job; not as a chef but as a dishwasher/prep. His willingness to learn and be better than the next man allowed him to promote within his field. In due time he worked his way up to becoming Chef De Cuisine, and now his goal is to make all of his cooks better and hopefully chefs one day.
INTERVIEW
Question 1: what inspired you ?
I get inspiration from everything around me. From my guest who travel over 3 hours to eat at my restaurant while passing 50 steakhouses on the way to my restaurant.
I get inspiration from everyone I work with, getting to know everyones background and letting everyone feel and be apart of the process. No greater feeling than motivating your staff to be great.
And finally getting inspiration from my family, from rebranding the classics your grandma use to cook, to having an autistic daughter who is a picky eater and you need to cook 3 different diners to make sure she is eating correctly. Without love and passion you would never make it.
Question 2: what advice do you have for the youth aspiring to be artist?
Look, I am gonna be straight forward.... Don’t make excuses! No matter how hard things get, no matter if the world is falling apart around you , it does not matter. I was never a kobe fan( I'm a NY Knicks fan lol) but one thing I respect is the mamba mentality. You have to have a killer mentality , nothing can get in the way of your dream, not your mother, father, brother , sister, friend, grandma. At the end of the day you control your own life and nobody can stop you from greatness. Every sweat, every tear, every hurting bone in your body should be pushing until the last bitter second; and it's all gonna be worth it at the end. Chef Papi out prattttt!
