Celebrity Chef is Changing the Face of Local Dining

If your idea of Sunday supper is eating meatloaf while catching up with your grandparents, think again. Local celebrity chef Jake Gandolfo is changing the face of family-style dining, while helping to take the Santa Cruz food scene to a whole new level.

Gandolfo’s idea for his Sunday Supper derived from the times he spent around the dinner table with his own family and the connections they made through food.

“Whether it was barbecue or my grandmother’s polenta, dinner was about the connection,” Gandolfo said. “That’s what I’m trying to promote. People need to slow it down and take a couple of hours to enjoy each other’s company with food and wine.”

Gandolfo, a Felton resident, has been making strides in the culinary community since appearing on the Fox television show MasterChef with Chef Gordon Ramsay last summer. The show, which was a competition for amateur cooks, gave Gandolfo the opportunity to hone his culinary skills and leave his job in construction to follow his passion.

“I was just a working-class stiff and a closet cook,” Gandolfo said. “The show gave me the opportunity to check out something new and step into a whole new world.”

Always wanting to pursue a culinary career, he took full advantage of the opportunity to be mentored by Ramsay and by James Beard-nominated Chicago chef, Graham Elliot.

“My whole drive to do this was to have the opportunity to work with these guys,” Gandolfo said. “You stand in the room with a guy like Graham Elliot, and you get better by osmosis alone, by breathing the same air—just being there elevates your game.”

Though his career in the food industry was kick-started with his appearance on the show, Gandolfo, who has no formal culinary training, says he has been cooking for someone in some capacity since he was 5 years old.

“I’m pretty much self-taught,” he said. “I have a great ability to watch people and really pick up technique and learn. And when I get in the room with somebody that is better than me, I’m in total sponge mode. All the ego is gone, and I’m a little student.”

Since finishing the show in sixth place, Gandolfo has been busy running his own catering company, Custom Culinary Concepts. He has also been working toward educating people on the importance of being local and sustainable in their food selections.

Some of his earliest memories are of canning vegetables from the family garden with this mother, so he knows the value of eating local.

“It’s a crucial time right now,” he said. “There are way more people getting involved in gardening and growing herbs, and really starting to care about local purveyors. I’m definitely digging the sustainable, local vibe.”

And there is no better place to be in the middle of the Locavore movement than Santa Cruz County, he says, which is a big part of his Sunday Suppers.

“It will be a real underground vibe,” Gandolfo said. “I want to have interaction and engage people in culinary discussion.”

With each course he brings out, Gandolfo plans to discuss his motivation and inspiration and may even show diners a few techniques along the way, like how to finish a sauce or a knife skill.

“I want people to take their time with it. We’ll have five courses, and we will talk our way through each course, and really get involved and interact. It’s engaging, and you might stand to learn something.”

There is also another aspect of Gandolfo’s dinner that will be different.

“The fun part is that I am going to decide what you are going to eat,” he said. “You have no say. You just give the reigns over to me. Just come into my world for the night.”

He knows this kind of dinner is not for everyone, but he guarantees it will be a great time for those willing to trust him.

“Let me take control, and we will have fun,” he said. “It’s going to be a great ride.”

Jake Gandolfo’s next Sunday Supper is on Feb. 27, 6-9 p.m., at Center Street Grill, 1001 Center St., Santa Cruz. Tickets are $40 for a five-course, fixed-price dinner. To buy tickets, visit sundaysuppersessions227.eventbrite.com/. Seating is limited to 50 people.