Uncommon Minds
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Uncommon Minds
A Taste of Puerto Rico
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Shelly and the Uncommon Minds crew visit beautiful Puerto Rico and sit down with local chef, William De Jesús Tirado to chat about flavors, culture, and how food really does connect in unique and always welcoming ways. Relax and make sure you're not too hungry as you take in the stories of how William got his start and how he sets himself apart while always staying true to his roots.
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Welcome to Uncommon Mind, where we sit down with truly amazing innovators and unique practitioners across common fields who think outside the boxes and carve their own path to success. I'm your host, Shelly Henrique Sneal. Let's lean into another great episode right now. Hi, William.
SPEAKER_02Hi. How are you?
SPEAKER_00I'm good. I'm good. How are you doing today?
SPEAKER_02I'm great. I'm great. I'm really glad to be here and to have this conversation with you.
SPEAKER_00I am really happy about it too because number one, it was so organic and very authentic the way it came together.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And those are always the best times to have these kinds of conversations. Of course, we wouldn't be having this conversation if you weren't really good at what you do.
SPEAKER_02Oh, thank you for that.
SPEAKER_00So we've been here since the beginning of this week getting fat.
SPEAKER_01That's a way to look at it, but you're just having fun and enjoying your time. So part of it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, I mean, honestly, we've been really well fed and nourished. And I mean, that's so much a part of having a good time. We've been eating really fresh ingredients and really healthy meals. And it's also food that is feeding our soul, which is really important, right? So what you do as a chef is so much a core part of how we as human beings really survive and thrive. If you don't have a good meal, it can make your day or it can break your day. And so being able to take that into account and know that is really what you carry with you every day is such an important thing. And I always love to find out about where people started. Okay. How did you get to this point where you knew this is what you wanted to do? You wanted to cook, you wanted to feed people, make them feel good and happy, and obviously want to come back. So where are you from? What is your origin story? And who is your first teacher?
SPEAKER_02Let's see. The first thing, um, from Calle, Puerto Rico, is a place well known from Guabade, which a lot of tourists, where they come to Puerto Rico, they send them to Comer Lechon, which is pork, is a special thing in Calle where I was born. And I have been always from Calle. Like I was born and I'm raised and also living in Calle. So it is a place that I really love. For me, it has everything. It's like country, it's fresh, and you're really close to the main cities. So, where did I start cooking as something that I wanted to do? It was when I was a little child, I used to always look at how my grandmother was in the kitchen, how she prepared the meals, because my mom had me at a really young age. So she was working hard and trying to make a living while raising two childs. So she always made the food kind of in a rush because she had to work, then leave for study, and that food didn't always taste that good. Yeah. But when my grandmother was taking care of me from the breakfast to the lunch to the dinners, it was always great. And I remember that my mom used to complain when I was in my grandmother's house, and she said, I made that same food and you don't eat it like you're eating it right now. And I always put a face like, Well, mom, she didn't have the touch. But I didn't understand it at that point. But now I understand why the food tasted like that. Because it was made in such a rush that there wasn't time to build the layers of flavor that I know now how to build them. But looking at my grandmother while she was cooking, it was always something that that she was really focused on everything that she was doing. And one of the special things that is kind of like a funny thing is that when she was making fricacet, which is one of my favorite meals.
SPEAKER_00Fricasi chicken, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Fricase chicken, which is something that you can build so much flavor to it. But one of the key ingredients is alcohol. And my grandmother, since I was a little child, I remember she was really religious, really strict, she didn't drink, she didn't go out, she didn't parry, she was always taking care of the house, taking care of her children, and also taking care of me because my mom was studying and she was working. And it was really interesting to see her with a beer or with a bottle of wine in her hand because I knew how she was with religion and the way she lived. But when I talked to her and when I tested that food, it was something so flavorful that I always like, why is she with a beer? Why is she doing that? And no, uh, the alcohol is not gonna make it to the plate. It's just a layer of flavor that I'm putting it, and I'm like, oh, so that really got me interested in cooking because I felt that difference of my mom's cooking and of my grandmother's cooking. So that's kind of where everything started.
SPEAKER_00That's wonderful, that's so good. And it sounds like because she was so patient with her process, she had to also be patient with you to show you what she was doing, yeah, so that you could take it in over the years. That's a beautiful story. That's so wonderful, wonderful. Well, thank goodness for her. And I'm sure she is smiling down at you now. She's probably very proud.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, she is. I had the opportunity because she passed away a few months ago, or six months ago. And I had one the last day that I spent with her, I spent it talking with her from all the experiences that I'm having now and telling her in person that she was the one that really got me into cooking from the perspective of how to build those flavors, how to be just in the moment. Because when she was cooking, it was just that she wasn't just cooking and looking at the TV or doing something else. She was into the song. And later on, as I started in the industry of working, yes, you fell in love with different techniques or you aspire to become as a certain chef. Let's say Bobby Flay, which is one of the chefs that I always look up to because of his versatility and everything that he's done in the industry. But the way she did it, the passion that she always in the food, that was something that for me is one of the key ingredients of my food right now.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, the energy you put in is the energy that I put in.
SPEAKER_02Energy to focus, just being there, yes, and putting the intention, not just making food just to eat, it's just to express how I love people or how I love you through food.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02Because for me, food is love, yes, and it's a way to share moments, to create experiences, to nourish your body, and for me, just something that makes everything work well.
SPEAKER_00That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Are there any dishes that are not on any menu? A dish that is so sacred to you or sacred to the culture of Puerto Rico that makes it so that it's very rare or something that people rarely ask for, something that you rarely serve. Are there any dishes quite like that?
SPEAKER_02Well, uh thinking about it, not because Puerto Rican food is just something that is so versatile. You have places with chicken, pork, fishes, and the thing is that I always try to find a way if some if someone wants to try local cuisine to make them arroz con gandules, pernil, pork, which is pork, uh rice, which it's just something that I try to find a way to share those main dinners that we have on Christmas, on family reunions. And as I went to culinary school, I learned that there's different ways that you can make those dishes. Let's say if I am gonna do the dinner for somebody that I'm not able to be in their place probably, because work that the way that we do it, it has to be like in the oven for six to seven hours. Oh wow. So it's a long process, and in not, you know, you don't have the time always to be in somebody's Airbnb or home for those hours. Right. So what I do is just I pre-cook half of the process, then I stop, and then I end the cooking process at the place. Oh so there's ways that you can make all these really typical main dishes that we eat here in Puerto Rico. Yes. So to say that is there's something that is really hard to make for someone that wants to try local food, I just say just it just depends on their on the people's taste. Right. Because I have been requested that people want to try just seafood and they don't want to eat pork. So for me, it's just like, oh, you're not gonna eat verniel with a roastung and dule because I know how much flavor are in those plates. But if the person doesn't eat pork or doesn't eat chicken, well, they're just missing out on those flavors. But for me, I always try to go to that direction of the flavor that they ask in and also to share the flavors of Puerto Rico.
SPEAKER_00That's wonderful. I'm really actually wonderfully surprised that there isn't such a dish because it speaks to how welcoming the culture is. Yeah. We have everything for everybody, and we want you to try as much of it as possible. And even if you have limitations or dietary restrictions, there's still a way we can season it to your liking or come very close to it. So I think that speaks a lot to the culture and how open it is. Yeah. And that's truly indicative too of Caribbean influences, Latino influences. That is exactly what those cultures are like. And Puerto Rico is such a beautiful blend of all of that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's the thing with Puerto Rican food. For me, it's something that it has a lot of different places blend together. Because at one time here in Puerto Rico, you had people from all different countries. Yes. Because the location of Puerto Rico is something that is just really, really, really important to the United States, to the world, because it's just in the center, and you can get people coming off from all places, and you had them in one time. So you had African influences, Spanish influences, all the countries of the world at one time were here in Puerto Rico. Yeah. Through all the years. So it's a place that is constantly evolving because it's constantly getting so much information from all these places. And also in the cuisine, is you can see that in most of the dishes, you can find things from different countries coming together into a dinner, into a plate. Right. So that for me was really important when I started developing my menus because at first I thought that for me to be a private chef, I had to be an expert in cuisine from all the countries. And that's something that was giving me this questioning about if I was able to just start in this career of private chefing. But then figuring out most of the requests of tourists were for local cuisine. And I was surprised because I thought that people were just gonna be asking for fresh pasta or curries, all these different dishes, but they want to try the local food. And I said, if they want to try the local food, and that's what I really love to cook, let me just focus on being kind of like an ambassador of my story, my cuisine, all these dishes that I really love since I was a child. So now I can share them and just focus on what I really love to do. And while I think I'm really good at it. So that was really important because at the end, I can blend all these different techniques from different countries, or let's say French, French technique, which I was taught in culinary school. But for me, it's just something that I'm gonna use all that I know about this experience that I have in restaurants and the different chefs that I have worked with, but getting them all together in Puerto Rican cuisine. Yes, yes, like mixing all these techniques of how you build flavors, using the recipes that I learned from my grandmother, but now mixing these techniques, this knowledge of how you can elevate that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So that's what I'm focused on right now, and that's what I think Puerto Rico is really and you're so so good at it, and it's so unique because the other night when we had the salmon, that glaze was so delicious. And when we talked to you about what was in it, and you started by saying guava pulp, I think, or passion food pulp. Yeah, what and then you said, Oh yeah, and soy sauce. Yeah, but the fact that you started there and you talked about it's passion food pulp, we were like, Wait, what? How did that happen? How did you create it? So delicious. Thank you. Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_02What I was saying is that I really fell in love with cuisine to my grandmother, but also watching these cooking shows on the TV, it was something that for me was like really entertaining because I was seeing this person making these awesome dishes, but also in a pretty kitchen, in a really good vibe, and blending all these techniques. And I said, like, I just knew that if you want to sear uh chicken breast, you just put it in the pan, and you can just put salt and pepper, and it can taste good. But seeing this chef taking it to another level with different seasonings, with different oils, and I said, Oh, so you can take it to another level. For me, how my grandmother made it, it was the top level. Oh, but now seeing these industry chefs, now seeing how the industry of culinary art is, is it was something that opened a universe for me. So that's when I say I really want to become a cook. I want to know how to cook because it's something that if at the first time I didn't really know what I was gonna do professionally, because at first I fell in love with music. I had a band and we played in some pubs, and I thought I wanted to be a rock star, and that's one of the main things that I really want to do. But it's really hard, and it's really hard because right now it's different because you have platforms, you have so many tools you can use. But at that time, I'm 38 years old. At that time, it was really hard to make it in that industry of music. So I was thinking, if I'm going to work, I want to work in something that I enjoy at least. So I don't see myself in other type of work, but cooking is something that I like to do. So if I'm gonna get paid for cooking, that's the kind of work that I, you know, that I will do. But the thing is, after I ended up culinary school, I started doing my crafting, my internship, and I found out that it's different from the TV shows. It's really different because kitchen can be kind of crazy so it's not the pretty kitchen that you see on the TV show. It's not the same calmness that you see on the TV shows. But I like it also, you know, I like the rush, I like the adrenaline. But as looking at long term, I say, like, how many years I can keep up with this adrenaline, with this 10, 12, 14 hour long days of work.
SPEAKER_00And are those kinds of things of as far as the stress level, the pace, and the hours mostly when you're in a professional kitchen working at a restaurant or something like that? What's the difference between, or is it the same as a private chef, right? Because there's a difference. And some people in culinary school say, okay, I want to be that person. I want to be in a restaurant, and I want to be the lead chef in this restaurant, and that's what I want to do. And then there's you that said at some point, yes, and there's also a passion that I want to do, and I want to do it as a private chef where I'm bringing it to people. What is the difference for you and what made you decide to go this route as opposed to staying the other path?
SPEAKER_02Well, the thing is that I didn't know that this route of private chef even existed, to be honest, because I just knew about cooks and sous chefs and executive chefs. The private chef thing here in Puerto Rico is something that is it's kind of new. It's just something that is it hasn't developed so much as in the states that you have a movement of private chefs and home cooks that are doing really great in their businesses. But here is something that I just found out two years ago that you can be a private chef for tourist, for people that want to try foods, and they can hire a private chef and enjoy their vacation while having someone making these foods for them. The only thing that I knew when I started cooking was just the old, you know, the old structure of the secondary chef, being a sous chef, starting as a cook, or you even can start as a dishwasher and then just claim out the leather. So I was just focusing on doing my work and grow with time. Yes. But then I started and I found out that I wasn't able to grow to that structure because I started just cooking. I took a basic course and did the internship and just focused on cooking because, as I said, as I saw my grandmother, she just focused on cooking and brought up. So that was my main focus. I wasn't focused on creating menus or learning how to plan ingredients. My main goal was just tell me what to do and I will do it. And it like it was a basic course, they didn't have this depth of knowledge to share with the people that got that course. They just showed you how to handle the knife, how to do center cuts, just the basic stuff. It was a basic culinary course. Okay. So as I was working, I saw these other chefs that they were just great, like making things from scratch and creating menus and growing up from that ladder really fast. And I was like, why am I not being able to do that? And that I wasn't analyzing myself as a cook and as experience, I found out that I was a fast learner, but I didn't have those abilities of creating the menus or of blending different ingredients. So at one time I said, I need to stop. I need to stop because I'm just going from kitchen to kitchen, figuring out these things that I find that are not so good because my main idea of being a cook was the TV show chef, being calm, enjoying your moment, cooking something that you love and you want to share, but I'm now in the kitchen doing what the executive chef tells me to do, sometimes not in a really good manner. So all those experiences and that I need to focus. If I want to keep doing this, I really need to learn how to blend those ingredients, how to create those menus. So that was a really important time because I stopped working as a cook and I enrolled in La Escuela Hotelera de San Juan, which is a famous school here in Puerto Rico, one of the best schools of culinary arts. And I just went for it. I said, I'm gonna focus now on learning everything that I didn't focus before. Not just cooking. Now I want to learn the process, now I want to learn the different methods. Yeah, now I want to learn how to create a menu, and that was my main goal to squeeze as much as I could that opportunity. Yeah, and that really changed everything for me.
SPEAKER_00That's wonderful, and now it's more fun.
SPEAKER_02Now it's more fun while doing after I was cooking always with doubt. Yes, with doubt that is this gonna taste good? Yes, because. Because I was just doing what the suit chef or the secretary is telling me, but I learned that. But then if I went to my house and wanted to do something for myself, I was limited. But now with this knowledge, I can just enjoy because I know how to control the temperatures. I know what this ingredient can bring to the table. And also getting all these other new experiences that I had after the culinary school, there have been experience that I now I can absorb more. Right. Because I see it differently. And the thing is that as a private chef, the difference is that you can have that experience that is really close to what I had in mind at the first time, like in the cooking shows. You can be calm in a pretty kitchen, you can share what you really like and what you really love. And you can also be calm because you know what you're doing. You're really in the zone making these layers of flavor for people. So the difference for me, and the moment that I started like looking at this as an opportunity was because one of my professors in culinary school, he was a private chef also. Besides teaching, he was a private chef. And one day he told me if I wanted to join him in an activity that he had. And I said, of course, because like I said, now I'll focus on learning, not just cooking. So I went with him, and when we entered to this house, it was an awesome kitchen. And I was like, oh my god, I was just impressed how beautiful the kitchen was. And he was just with his jacko, really professional, and we give that experience, and everything well went so well. And after that, he gave me a tip. Also, he sent me like here's this, but this is just the tip, I'm not paying you right now. And the money was probably more than I could make in a day in the regular kitchen. And I was like, This is just a tip, and I guess. And I was like, How much are you making for this activity? And he told me what he was making, and I was like, So you can make that here in Puerto Rico as a private chef, and I was like, Oh my god, and he told me, Yeah, and you can do it also if you want. And I'm just really grateful because sometimes chefs can be really like restrained of what they share with with you. Sure. Most of the time, the recipes, they don't like share it. And but he was really, he saw the passion that I had, he saw what I really wanted to do in this new because at the first time when I got that basic course of culinari, I was like 21. And the moment that I decided to stop and go and enroll into this school, I was 35. Oh so it was different because other years I was just trying to make it happen, yeah, but I was limited of the knowledge. So I stopped, and then in this new opportunity, I was I was the oldest of my schoolinary of the group, and I saw them like I saw myself at the beginning, just focusing on going bias and cooking. And I said, like, oh my god, you don't know what you're doing. You need to learn this important information, but you know, I don't blame them because I went through my journey and my journey has been great. I have learned from every obstacle that I have and gone through. So right now he opened the doors for me. Yeah, he opened the door for me. He told me there is this platform, you can go there, you can create your profile, and you can start doing this by yourself.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_02And I just work for it.
SPEAKER_00I love that. I that's such a wonderful story about how you had a mentor, and now when you were early on and different learning experiences, and now you are a mentor to others. And I am so glad that we've gotten the opportunity to hear that from you because I think listeners who are following in those same footsteps, or even if they're in other industries, can really take something from that. And so, to close out, I want to do two different things. I'm gonna throw out some words, and I want to see what comes up for you as a chef with those words. So, this is a rapid fire segment before we close out that I would really love to do. And I want to throw the words I'm gonna throw out for you though, William, are gonna be ingredients. Okay, okay. Let's see. So I'm just gonna I'm gonna just give you three of them. So the first one is beans.
SPEAKER_02Beans, I just think of depth of flavor, I just think of protein, I just think of dinners, relaxation. Those are the things that I come to mind when I think of beans, and it might be kind of weird, but those are the words that I came to.
SPEAKER_00Well, it's kind of cozy. This everything you said was like this cozy kind of thing. Like if you're having something with beans, it's like warm.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, as a very for beans, I I remember like one of the things from here in Puerto Rico when you went to school and you came back to school and you were let the boss left you and you started walking to your house. Yeah, is it was really typical at dinner time to smell the flavor of somebody cooking beans in their house. So as I was walking to my house and I started to smell the flavor, the those flavors of of bean cooking, uh, I just felt like, oh my god, that's somebody cooking bean. And it just like makes you happy and it just like relaxation because you're now going home.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's so beautiful. That's awesome. My mother has the same story, but it's with bread. With her brother grew up, and even they were growing up in rural Jamaica, they would say, anytime they're on their way home in the afternoon, freshly baked bread at the bakery on the windowsill. Don't forget about the part where they would steal little pieces of the bread, but it's so good, right? So that those smells that remind you of that, that's beautiful. Okay, so that's beans. Okay, the second one, second word I'm gonna throw out there for you is vinegar.
SPEAKER_02Wow, vinegar. That's something that for me, vinegar comes to mind acid. And besides acid, I'm trying to find the other to how to express this word because vinegar is an ingredient that I didn't thought it was important at first, but now after all these years of learning, I have found out that vinegar can be a potent ingredient in most of the preparation. Yeah, even in the Caribbean one. So for me, I think that vinegar will go with the word on value or probably misuse, let's say.
SPEAKER_00Yes. That's good, that's powerful. And the third one, sugar.
SPEAKER_02Sugar. Sugar, your sweetness is happiness. Sugar is everything. Sweetness is happiness.
SPEAKER_00Is there any dish that you don't use sugar in? Or do you find that you use it in so many dishes it's hard to figure out what you don't use it in?
SPEAKER_02Well, it's hard because right now, the way that I try to cook, I try to get all the balance or all the key flavors, let's say acid, let's say sweetness, let's say texture-wise, crunch. So when I think of a dish right now, I think of all those balanced flavors. And for me, then sugar needs to be because it balanced. And also acid needs to be because it balanced sugar. So right now, for me, that's important. Yeah. To have all the textures and all the key things balanced. That's wonderful.
SPEAKER_00William, this has been great and such a wonderful learning experience. One of the things that we do on uncommon minds at the very end, before we say goodbye to every guest, is we ask them to share something that is uncommon about something in their work that's not commonly known or understood about the work. For you though, I'd like it to also be a message to people who are younger in this career or new to the career, because you may decide to be in the career, you may not be age-wise, you may not be young, but you want to do it. What would you say to people who are just starting out in their careers as a chef that is important to know, but also not very commonly known? Something that you think is important for them to know, but not commonly known, that you too have discovered in your past.
SPEAKER_02Well, for me, it's just a thing of believing in yourself and just going at it with uh open mind for everything that can come up. Because when you start, like at first, as I said that I thought that I needed to have all these international menus so I can be a good private chef, it was something that it was not necessary. So when you start, you tend to first look at the obstacles, what I'm not good at, what can maybe come up, or maybe I start when I have all this equipment, or just focus on starting. On starting and believing in yourself and having an open mind that you can you will find challenges, you will find things that you thought it will go a certain way, but you need to be also flexible and adapt yourself to those challenges. So for me, someone is starting it, just go for it, start and obviously just make sure that you're doing things right, be professional, be polite with people. You need to love people to do this kind of work because you're dealing with different people constantly. So you need to really like to be around people, to serve, to create experiences, because if you just do it for the money or just to go by, it's something that probably you will do it, but it won't have the same impact because I know there's a lot of private chefs around the world, but you can see a difference even in the reviews. When you read a review, you can see a review that it just says, Oh, good food, excellent, or you can see a review that says, I had this great time, I make these beautiful memories, the food. I felt that it was made with so much love. And you see a difference when you make things with passion, with professionalism, and also openly to all those challenges. So for me, I think that's the most important part. Not limit yourself with the things that you don't have, just go with what you have and then just grow with issues being.
SPEAKER_00That's fantastic. Thank you so much. Thank you for being a guest on Uncommon Minds. Thank you. You would switch every minute of it.
SPEAKER_02Me too. Thank you. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00All right. Thanks for joining us for another amazing episode of Uncommon Minds. If you like what you've heard, please like, share, and subscribe on any of the major podcast platforms. And if you are on Instagram, please follow us at Uncommon Minds Pod. We'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts. Also, like and share the information that you see there because it's always fun and it's always uncommon. See you soon. This podcast was edited by Resonate Recordings.