Introducing OCC Alum Chef Gabriel Caliendo,
Corporate Executive Chef and Vice President R&D for Lazy Dog Restaurants.
Where are you from? I have been
living in California for over 30 years in Orange County.
What did you study while you were at OCC?
I studied Advanced Culinary Arts,
Catering, and Restaurant Management, so those are the four degrees I got with
my Associates as an Apprentice Cook.
What have you been up to since attending the
Culinary program at OCC? At the time that
I started the culinary program I was with the Ritz Carton in Laguna Niguel. I did
my apprenticeship there through the Department of Labor, Orange Coast College,
and the Ritz Carlton. That was a three-year
apprenticeship. Then I graduated the program, and then I continued to work at the
Ritz Carlton in different chef positions.
After graduating, I was offered position at Orange Coast College as a Chef
Instructor. So really the first thing I
did after graduating was to become an instructor. I think I graduated in ‘97
and my first year teaching was ’98, so really I went straight from the program
into teaching. But I had a lot of
culinary experience before I started taking the classes. I did that for about 5
years, where I continued to work as a chef at the Ritz Carlton and teach
Culinary Arts at Orange Coast College.
Then I left both positions to start The Lazy Dog Restaurant and bar as
the culinary partner.
Can you tell us more about your work at The
Lazy Dog? In 2003, we opened the
first Lazy Dog, and basically my position was to develop the culinary parts, the
kitchen design, the menus, equipment, products, kind of just sourcing all of
that stuff, all the training of the chefs and cooks, purchasing, design,
development—there was a lot of stuff that went into that. Fast forward, that was 2003, so we’re 12
years into it. And I’m sitting in the parking
lot talking to you from our newest opening in Downey! This will be our 19th Lazy Dog. By the end of the year we will have 23 Lazy Dogs.
How has attending OCC influenced your career? OCC was a great foundation for the business acumen that was
required. Cooking in a kitchen somewhere, you learn a lot about cooking, but
it’s hard to learn about the business that way.
That was one of the best things. Getting that education on food costing
and overall business sense.
What advice would offer to current students
about getting started in the food industry? I used to do this every day the first day when
I was teaching at OCC. I would go around and ask everyone in the class what
they wanted to do. That would give me some direction in terms of how to teach
them something. The next day I’d ask
them all where they are working right now.
It was always interesting to me when you had a big disconnect. For
instance, I had many students that would say “I want to be a chef”, but they would
be working at Blockbuster Video. My biggest advice then and now is, if you’re
serious about being in the restaurant business you have to work in the restaurant
business. It is unbelievable how many people think that they are going to be a
chef or own a restaurant and they don’t even have a job in a kitchen. They have no idea what the industry is
like. So in order to be successful, most
importantly, you have to work in the field.
And then once you do that, I always suggest to people to try to go work
for somebody that emulates the type of business you want to be in. If you want to do a Chinese restaurant, go
work at a Chinese restaurant. If you
want to do Mediterranean, go find the best Mediterranean restaurant and work
for them.
If
you could take a two week intensive workshop to study and perfect any
culinary-related skill anywhere in the world, what would you study & where?
I’d like to take a 2 week
course in cheesemaking. If I could do it
anywhere I would do it in France. I am making
a lot of cheese at home right now, so it would be fun to do that.
What’s
the best piece of advice you were given about the industry when you started
out? My parents were in the business, and they just
always taught me not to be wasteful with anything. Whether it was paper or food, they were
always very concerned with making sure they didn’t waste anything. That’s something that is super important,
because really, the restaurant business is a game of pennies. Just a little bit of waste can make or break
whether you are able to stay open and have a profitable business.
Favorite
non-slip shoes: I really
like the Mozo brand. I like them because
they are very light! When you are on
your feet all day, it’s nice to have light shoes. And my other trick for shoes is that I always
have two brand new pairs. So I buy two
pairs at the same time and then halfway through the day I change my shoes out
so it’s like a fresh pair of shoes.
Kitchen
tool you cannot live without: There are so many!
The one thing that really makes life much easier is an immersion
blender.
Ingredient you cannot live without: I would have to go down to the basics, which would be salt. You could not live without salt.
One of your favorite dining experiences: My favorite food and favorite way to eat is sushi at Japanese restaurants. By far the attention to detail, the purity of the ingredients, and the stripped down essence of what you get…the best dining experiences I have had is at a good quality Japanese sushi restaurant.
Restaurant in CA you would most like to visit: The French Laundry
Restaurant in the world you would most like to visit: I’d love to go to NOMA.
Favorite cookbook: I love Nobu, which covers the Japanese stuff. And they are old now, but I still enjoy my Charlie Trotter books. He was one of the creators of nouvelle cuisine in the US and his books are still very cool.
Favorite family food tradition: I love my mom’s Feast of the 7 seas, which is a Christmas meal that’s all based on different seafood courses that you eat on Christmas Eve. She makes killer stuff like crab, marinara sauce with shrimp and shellfish. And a chilled shrimp salad with olives and celery and tomatoes, lemon and olive oil. It’s so good.
Tell us about a chef you admire: There’s a lot of them out there. I really admire Mario Batali, and I just
like what he and his partners have done with Eataly and all of his restaurants.
Lidia and Joe Bastianich, mother and son, they are his partners in Eataly. Everything in Eataly is from their farm or
their vineyard or their butcher. Really smart business sense and at the same
time, a really good cook.
Favorite comfort food: There’s a lot of comfort food that I like. Good old spaghetti and sauce is one of the comfort foods for me! I grew up eating that. That would be my Italian comfort food. One of my favorite Mexican comfort foods is just a quick quesadilla. When I’m busy I’ll just take a tortilla with some cheese and melt it and have a quick quesadilla. And American style, if I was going to sit down and have a really good comfort meal, I love a pot pie, when it’s nice, fresh made, homemade pot pie!
