The chef came to the United States at the age of 17 with the dream of buying a motorcycle, but plans changed along the way and now he mixes Mexican, Italian and Greek food.
REDWOOD CITY. – Daniel Sánchez started as a taco maker in Mexico at the age of 13 and is now a chef who knows and fuses international dishes for his clients in the United States, both in his Mexican food truck and in his catering company.
In 1999, Daniel left his home in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, with the dream of buying a motorcycle to ride with his friends. However, after 24 years he is still in the United States, where his home, his family, his career as a chef of international food, his business and his life are.
The first approach that Daniel had with cooking was in Mexico when he was a teenager and worked in a taco shop, where he felt "that he did not work" since serving diners caused him joy and relaxation.
"I felt relaxed when I was working and there were a lot of people, I forgot about certain problems I had and I just relaxed and felt good, I didn't feel like I was working," the Mexican chef recalled his days as a taco maker in Mexico.
That experience gave him the ability to use knives, a situation that benefited him at age 17, when he had been a dishwasher in a Bay Area restaurant for two weeks and one of his bosses asked him to cover the tasks of a co-worker; Daniel completed the task in less than 20 minutes and this surprised the manager, since his colleagues did it in more than an hour and a half.
«Afterwards they told me: ?hey, you are not a dishwasher?, you know how to use knives?. I brought the enthusiasm, I was not waiting for them to tell me what to do, I wanted to learn more," he said.
A few weeks after arriving in the United States, the Mexican was already in charge of preparing salads and learning to make pizzas at his first job; The years passed and he became a cook, later becoming a chef: in charge of the kitchen, the menu, the cooks and the creativity in the dishes.
The pride of being a Mexican chef
Daniel said that he became so interested in the culinary field that he worked for more than 10 years without a break, which gave him the experience to professionally cook Italian, Mexican, Greek, Japanese, Mediterranean, American food, among other dishes from around the world. world.
In addition, he confessed that he worked in about 12 different restaurants in the span of a year with the aim of learning about food and the techniques to achieve the dishes.
Upon acquiring the knowledge empirically, chef Sánchez related that he became in charge of several kitchens and projects, in addition to starting his own catering business in his spare time.
"I worked so hard, that those who had gone to chef school did not know what I knew," he stressed.
He added that around 2000, there weren't that many Latinos in charge of kitchens, so he felt very proud to be a Mexican chef.
Daniel opined that migrants, especially Latinos, have fewer opportunities to be assigned to high-ranking positions, so he called on the community to prepare and "do it better than others."
«Things sometimes seem not to be so easy, but you have to insist and go on and on, you have to prepare yourself as much as you can in the area in which you are working and when they open a door for you, force that door. Even if you are tired, go on and on; And even if you feel like you're not going anywhere, you're going to get there, little by little».
Likewise, the chef admitted that when he travels to Mexico he likes to eat in the stalls on the streets "because they make the flavor so quickly and I think that is one of the things that I have learned, that you do not need a very luxurious or very large restaurant ; If you know how to cook and balance the flavors, you can make such delicious food and I really like that."
Photos: Daniel Sanchez
The Foodtruck
Beef and vegan tacos, burritos, quesadillas and Greek salad are some of the foods offered Daniel's Kitchen, the food truck where Daniel Sánchez delights his customers in front of the Safeway, located on Woodside Avenue, in Redwood City.
This project came into his life after the pandemic, another food truck and a lot of experience opening seven restaurants in California, where he checked and studied the market, created the menu and trained the kitchen staff.
After 10 years of work without vacations, Daniel left his stable job as a chef after a comment made by one of his bosses to dismiss his work, that's when he decided to use his savings to buy his first food truck and grow his catering service. .
«One of the owners told me: your work
you can do any of the ones here. And that offended me very ugly ».
Daniel recounted that he worked hard there, "as if it were his business and his money that he was taking care of," since he fought prices with suppliers and always looked for the best deals for the restaurant.
The first food truck It was Greek food and he worked under the call of the companies, but now he decided to combine his culinary knowledge to offer Mexican food and some Greek dishes with some changes, such as cauliflower or portobello tacos.
"Mexican food is a little bit more
more neutral, but what I did was add cauliflower tacos? cauliflower tacos? and vegan tacos with portobello, things a little different based on what I already worked on Italian, Mexican and other cuisines.
The Mexican chef varied the flavors to make a fusion, which he described as "not too aggressive, but somewhat balanced and so my food is for people in general, not just Mediterranean or Greek food."
Sánchez confessed that now he has as My goal is to open a restaurant, make a brand, and package dressings and other culinary ingredients.
Photos: Emily Morales P360P
goals change
Daniel's main goal was to raise money, return to Mexico and buy a motorcycle to ride with his friends in the streets of Guadalajara, Jalisco, where he is from and grew up without the economic opportunity to study.
«My life was beautiful, it was good, I did not manage to graduate from primary school, but I have always liked studies, I think I did not have the opportunity because my father died when I was seven years old, I had to work and help a little to the family, there was not that freedom to be able to study, “he confessed.
In adolescence, his routine was to wake up and work from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with an hour of rest and lunch, go home to bathe, and his student life was between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.; But this changed when he asked his brothers for money to buy the motorcycle and they answered that he had to earn the money, so Daniel arrived in the United States at the age of 17.
"They told me, hey! Well, come here for a year, if you want I'll pay for your trip, you come here, you take your money and you come back. "Money is easy, very easy, you just come and that's it," they said and it was not true, "narrated the Mexican.
Daniel Sánchez confessed that his first year in this country he was depressed, he had the money, but he did not feel "free to feel comfortable", and then he began to have friends, he met a woman and his plans changed when he found out that it would be dad. He now has two daughters: Daniela, 21, and Sofia, 18, of whom he is proud and instilled in them Mexican traditions, such as Day of the Dead. "Now I feel more at home, I feel more relaxed."
Get out of the comfort zone
The chef did not speak English when he arrived in the United States, but he has become interested in the language since his arrival and now communicates effectively with friends and acquaintances.
«I grabbed a tiny notebook in my bag and when I did not understand or did not know what it was, I wrote it as it is heard in Spanish, nothing to do with how it is written in English, but when I read it it sounded correct and that is how I went learning".
Daniel also studied at the Sequoia Adult School, where he spent about 3 years. In addition, he remembered that he wrote the words he wanted to say in a notebook and then read it in front of the manager when he wanted a day off.
"This was a way for me to get excited and try to learn something, I didn't want to stay in my comfort zone."
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