LUIS ALONSO
When Luis finished high school at 18, he had three very different professional aspirations; biology, architecture and cooking. He decided on this last choice because, according to him, it was “the most reasonable of the three ?! “ He also admits that the opportunities to travel that are possible in this industry also helped tipped the scales. For Luis, “cooking has always been a family affair”. He learned the rudiments of cooking next to his mother and grandmother in Madrid. Curious as he is, it was while reading the newspaper El Mondo that he discovered the Institute Paul Bocuse and he went for it !
The culinary arts classes given at the Institut Paul Bocuse were a great discovery for him.
The ambiance at the Clipper, the school’s student housing, was ideal for meeting and exchanging with others in many languages. Luis took his first steps in the kitchen during his first year internship at the hotel restaurant Lameloise(3 Michelin stars) in Burgundy with a chef who was very attentive yet demanding. Luis was able to discover another side of France, more rural and traditional, along with its excellent wines.
After his second internship which brought him to Chateau de la Chevre d’Or working with chef Philippe Labbé, he continued his studies with a third year (license professionnelle) in which the students distance themselves a little from the kitchen to delve into complimentary courses in management and finance.
To finish his studies, he chose to work in the St. Regis Hotel in Dana Point, a small town on the Californian coast near San Diego. Impressed by Luis’ profile, his languages and cooking abilities, the French chef Frédéeric Castan (having just arrived at the hotel himself) hired Luis for the post of junior chef de partie.
Since February, Luis has been in charge of the kitchen for banquets and events in the conference room. It is in this post where he feels the most fulfilled and can see himself evolving… It has even given him some ideas because he likes event planning and could very well, one day or another, open up his own shop when he returns to Europe. If he says that he was a little afraid to begin his career, Luis is happy- “It is a new life, fulfilled and enriched by traveling and meeting new people”.
