Gerard Van Staden
April 3, 2022
Ron Ben-Israel’s Deep Dark Secret
September 10, 2022
The hardest thing for me to learn was You can’t do it on your own.
Your current and/or most recent restaurants
El Vez Fort Lauderdale
When and where were you born?
1974, bogota Colombia
What was your first job in food?
Campus catering university at Buffalo
What is your favorite thing about being a chef?
Freedom to express.
Did you have an “aha” moment when you knew you wanted to be a chef?
No surprises just hard work.
Best advice you ever got?
Focus and learn the process. Don’t focus on the outcome. You will get there.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?
Cod liver
Your favorite ingredient.
Roasted garlic
The ingredient that turns you off the most.
Durian
Your favorite tool.
My knife
What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not cooking.
Baking
What would you like to do before you get too old to do it.
Eat across Asia.
Tell us a deep dark secret (doesn’t have to be food related).
I had a bad sense memory with cumin and Now hate to cook with it.
How do you deal with the stress?
Besides, meds??? Don’t think about it.
How did becoming a chef change your life, your direction.
Opportunities are endless.
Who would you like to meet?
David Chang
Who would you like to cook for?
Anyone who apeciates food.
What was the hardest thing for you to learn? Or is there something you just can’t get right?
You can’t do it on your own.
Is there some little something you do for your family to make up for the time you’re not with them?
Make the time I have count.
Please give us a cooking tip that people might not know like “adding a little bit of oil to butter so it doesn’t burn.
Cacio de Pepe technique is so similar to the pasta version but is incredible on pizza.
Tell us a funny story from the kitchen
Too many to name.
