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!

GALLERY

Meet Chef De Cuisine Jonathan Garcia of Leoness Cellars, located in Temecula wine country. With Leoness being rated the #1 Winery Restaurant by USA Today’s 10 Best Reader’s Choice and Best Restaurant of the IE for 4 consecutive years you can imagine the level of responsibility Chef Garcia deals with on a day to day basis. Last week we got to sit down with chef and talk about his love for culinary arts, how important his team is, chef knives, and some new items he is working on for the holidays (like a translucent pie). Working at a french restaurant has taught him some key techniques that he has used to create unique dishes; for example the Demi-Glace they serve takes about 4 days to make from scratch and everything used is made in-house. Jonathan also talked about his love for traveling and how he always visits new restaurants whether it’s the taco shop on the corner or Michelin star fine dines you can always find inspiration in a dish. From there he takes the idea and recreates it in his own way, this can be looked at as artist inspiring artist. He explained his “style” as creative, never putting himself in a box he wants to create as much as possible even if it goes against tradition. We hope this story gives you a new perspective on culinary arts or inspires you to cook. Enjoy!

Sous Chef Joel Fritz preparing Bouillabaisse dish.

almost done…

Bouillabaisse: market fish, star anise, saffron orange, fennel, broth available on the menu now!

“At 12 I made my first 3 course meal from scratch for my mom on Mother’s Day and that’s where the love for cooking grew.”

— Jonathan Garcia

What inspired you?

I’ve always had a love for food. Ever since I could talk I’ve always wanted to go to fine dining restaurants for my birthday when other kids would choose Chuck E. Cheese. I would play “restaurant” growing up where I would have my mom make the food and we would treat the house as if it were a restaurant. At 12 I made my first 3 course meal from scratch for my mom on Mother’s Day and that’s where the love for cooking grew. I grew up in a single parent household and in high school my mom was going to school to get her masters at night and working during the day. One day I decided I want to step up and help out so I told my mom I wanted to cook dinners during the week so that it was one less thing to worry about. On the weekends I would get recipes from the internet or food network and we would go to the grocery store on Sundays and get what I needed to make dinner for the week. When I think about my life I always tie some of my best moments throughout with food whether it were eating a certain person’s food or eating with certain people. When I cook I’m inspired by trying to either tap into my diners nostalgia by bringing back those special memories they might have through my food or create great new memories for them to remember through their life. Just as I have throughout my life so far.

What advice do you have for the youth aspiring to become chefs/artist ?

My advice would be to keep grinding and working hard. It sounds cliche but hard work does pay off and I’m a testament to that. Being an up and coming chef is not for the faint of heart and is a very stressful, tiring, and rigorous journey but if you love it it’s all worth it. Night in and night out you have to sacrifice yourself for your diners and put them before yourself. You have to be ok with making mistakes because that’s what makes you a better chef or artist as long as you learn and don’t repeat them. As an artist you have to really love what you do because that’s what drives you every day and nothing else. Everything has to be for the love of the art. I love what I do and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.