Like this chef Miami opened her first restaurant at 22

Chef Adrianne Calvo I didn’t plan to grow to be one of the most influential chefs in Miami or anywhere. In fact, her journey began by mistake.

“I was incorrectly placed in the class of culinary art in high school,” he says Influence of restaurants Host Shawn Walchef with Calia bbq media. “Total accident. But when Johnson & Wales came to make a demo, I felt like they were talking to me directly. It was my lightning blow.”

Then there was full agility. Calvo I began to participate in culinary competitions to boost money for studies. Her food began to win in taste, not trends. No smoke or foam, only taste. One judge urged her to write down a cookbook about her winning recipes. She was only 18 years old.

“At first I didn’t even want to do it,” he says with a laugh. “But then I was No, I’m going to do it. “The result was Maximum tasteHer first of many cookbooks.

This book ended in the manufacturer’s hands The Montel Williams Show. One telephone conversation (and three suspension, because she thought it was a joke from a friend) later she was taken to New York as the youngest writer of the book by Williams. She didn’t know that it might even be his last program. She cooked lives, unaware that she hated them. He took three bite and stunned the room:

“I hated scallops for 45 years,” Williams said at the time. “This girl made me love them.”

This moment was catapulting Maximum taste Sales and gave Calvo the capital to launch her first restaurant at the age of only 22 years old.

Love letters to the chef

The opening night was not effective. “I hid under a bar sink,” he admits. “I had full crash. But the only way out was.”

Her first location was a shop shop with an area of ​​3000 square feet in a quiet area, away from the place where people anticipate finding Buzzworthy Restaurant. “If you come to a restaurant, you come there,” he recalls. “There was nothing around us.”

Without a license for alcohol, without a built-in pedestrian traffic, only a flood of individuals on the opening night and a 22-year-old chef overwhelmed by the burden of all this. “I remember how I thought What did I do?“Says.

But she and her team went through all night. “It was blur,” he adds. (*22*)

The growth of restaurants comes from long hours, great food and significant experience of guests. But social media gave her something more. It helped her connect outside the 4 partitions. Her manager, Mike, encouraged her to establish a Facebook page.

Calvo began to share night specialties and photos from behind the scenes. “One night a server came to me and said:” The table wants the dish you published today. ” Then I realized that social media could expand experience outside the album. “

Then there was a flood of handwritten notes from guests on the back of receipts. Incentive. Praise. Thanks.

“They knew that I came back there 12 hours a day on the line,” he says. “These messages were my fuel. I call them love letters to the chef. I published them [and] Oroś, because they testify to all blood, sweat and tears. “

Today, Calvo has over a million followers on Instagram, awarded many times Podcast and launches many concepts, including Cracked by the chef Adriannewhich is currently at the Hard Rock stadium in Miami.

But the foundation stays the same: tell the story, be authentic and cook as you mean. “You don’t have to invent food,” says Calvo. “You just have to do something that people want long after the plate disappears.”

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