We recently connected with Aaron Pascual and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Aaron thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

I credit my parents for everything I have in my life right now. I’ve always looked at my father as the biggest role model in my life and my mother has always been the backbone and support of my family growing up. We didn’t grow up with much, but we always made it work. My parents always taught me to be faithful and resilient in all things and throughout childhood, it clearly showed. When situations got tough financially, my parents never showed signs of stress and always showed my sister and I that tough times don’t last. My mother always taught us that there is hope for tomorrow if we stayed rooted in our faith. They never gave up and always stayed strong when it seemed quite a few times that all hope was lost.

I modeled the same mentality in my life and career. In this Culinary Industry, things can get rather tough and there’s a saying that to make it in this business, you have to develop “thick skin” to make it through. Working alongside my father in several kitchen jobs as a teenager, I always noticed his coworkers question him how he always keeps a smile and never shows signs of stress, even in the worst of situations. He always just laughs it off and proceeds to have a successful shift/service. Now with myself managing my own crew and sets of kitchens, I get asked the same questions by many of my assistants/workers and it always makes me laugh. I just respond with, “I get it from my dad”.

I learned early on in my career that unnecessary stress causes several negative aspects in life. To me, if you can remain positive always and treat everyone around you with respect and kindness, the morale of your business, job or surrounding just goes through the roof. Treat people how you want to be treated. Also understand that as a leader or role model, your people will follow you. Stress and they’ll stress with you. Keep calm and joyful, they’ll get through anything with you. Always find a way to keep your composure.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a Child Nutrition Manager at Eanes Independent School District (ISD) here in Austin, TX. I am entering my second year and definitely love what I do everyday. My job is to oversee daily operations for our cafeterias in the school district, primarily the ones at our premier location at Westlake High School. Being the number one School District in the State of Texas definitely has it’s own sets of challenges with quality, consistency and giving our students and school employees/teachers that choose to dine with us that “wow factor”. I make it a point for my employees to cook from the heart and always give it their best whether it would be the main entrée or just a side dish. I want our food to rival any restaurant in the City of Austin, not just to have the best school food in Texas.

My Culinary Journey began at a very early age. I always wanted to hang out and play sports with my father like every other child my age, but with him being a Chef, he worked extensive hours. Unfortunately, I didn’t really spend much time bonding with him and I came to a realization that the only way I would be able to spend time with my father was through work. Thankfully, there were many opportunities in bonding through work and at the age of 8, I asked my dad if I can work with him on his special catering events. During these banquets that my father put together singlehandedly was where my true passion for the culinary art blossomed.

To this day, I have never seen anyone in the kitchen inspire me as much as my father. Working those catering events truly inspired me to pursue this career. One vivid memory I had was during a Christmas dinner. My father catered 60+ guests by himself and even got compliments from comedian and actor, Rob Schneider, who was at the Christmas party. When you see these things as a child, you only get inspired by what is going on around you. It made me want to pursue more and to seek out the next step. As time went on, I finally had the opportunity to truly work alongside my father in a “real industrial kitchen”.

At the age of 13, I worked for my father at a kitchen he managed in Toms River, NJ. This was the first time I saw my father in action with other employees admiring him as much as I have. Seeing him run a kitchen made me want to become the way he was. The way he leads employees instead of barking out orders is the same way I model my leadership style to everyday at any kitchen I’ve worked in.

I would eventually enroll in Vocational School during High School and it only developed my skillset and culinary knowledge further. It was the first time I was able to learn how to cook from others other than my dad. It was a different experience finally having someone yell at you to teach you how to cook and I caught on pretty quick that this industry was not just fun and games. I learned about the pressure in the kitchen and quickly learned that sense of urgency is key. Even though it was high stress, I did continue to develop my love for cooking and decided to pursue it further in college.

During college, I worked my first job without my father at the Manasquan River Golf Club. I can confidently say that this was the place I learned the most in my career. I was fortunate to learn under a Chef that never held back on teaching me everything he knew. Chef Maurice definitely showed me tough love walking into that kitchen for the first time and most importantly, he never gave up on me, even when I’ve had several costly mistakes. To have a great mentor is everything as a young culinarian and my advice to everyone that is new to the industry is to always listen and learn from what others have to show you. It is up to you to execute the delivery of your work, so might as well do what works best for you from learning from others around you.

Upon graduating from College, I knew that New Jersey wasn’t going to be my home forever. The cost of living was high and the job market for chefs are low unless you move to New York City. I decided it would be best to move to Houston, TX. When I visited Houston a few months prior to completing my Associates Degree, I absolutely fell in love with the city and I knew I wanted to make it my home. It’s a cliché down here when people say Texas feels like home and without a doubt, I truly felt welcomed to this great state. I moved down in July 2017, just one month after obtaining my degree and with the help of our family friends, the Tupas family, I was able to settle easily.

I knew I wanted to continue working in country clubs, and upon arriving in Texas, I’ve always heard great things about the River Oaks Country Club in Houston even while I was living in New Jersey. I still kept my options open and scouted other country clubs around the Houston area and found out the Houston Country Club was among best in the city. I applied to both, but I only would hear back from the Houston Country Club. In 2017, I did end up accepting the offer at the Houston Country Club and it continued to further my culinary knowledge. The kitchen had a rather large team and was a great experience to learn from each and every one of them. In 2018, I would receive a job offer to work for the place I’ve always wanted to work for since arriving in Texas, the River Oaks Country Club.

Working at River Oaks was also a great experience and it was a place I was able to hone my skills. In the a la carte kitchen, we would all have an opportunity to feature weekly specials and the possibilities and options were endless. We can pretty much bring in all the products we want in order to create amazing extravagant dishes. The team was made up of chefs from all different backgrounds and various different cooking techniques and styles. The River Oaks Country Club was a place where a Chef can show their skills and pick up different skills along the way. I would continue working at River Oaks up until May 2020 during the pandemic.

When my girlfriend at the time (wife now) told me that she wanted to move back to her hometown of Austin, TX, I was very hesitant. I would eventually give in because when the love of your life says she’s moving, it’s best that you follow her (haha). I knew I wanted to continue my career path working in country clubs and found myself working for the top country club in Austin, the Austin Country Club.

At the Austin Country Club, I once again found a mentor who had extensive knowledge in this industry, Chef Bob. I sincerely am thankful for him in giving me the opportunity to not only showcase my skills and give me freedom and many opportunities at the club, but also for helping me build upon everything I do. His knowledge in Asian food and Texas BBQ that he passed onto me are some of the foundations I apply everyday in menus for Eanes ISD. The Austin Country Club would be my home for the next year here in Austin, but I always felt I had a greater calling in my career. I realized I spent all my career working at country clubs, fine dining and working long hours, holidays and weekends. It had been physically and mentally taxing over the years and starting at a young age didn’t help. I also realized that there had to be more to cooking than just making food. I wanted to cook to impact people’s lives and that when I made the switch to working for Schools.

In June of 2021, I took over as the Child Nutrition Program Manager here at Eanes ISD in Austin, TX. I knew I had a greater calling and it was to educate the next generation in food. I was always taught to pass down my knowledge to whoever needs it and in this generation, cooking is a dying art. It’s not only satisfying to watch how students and kids react to great food, but for them to explore and ask what food is and for them to learn a new dish they love is everything. There is no greater satisfaction in life than to leave a positive impact in the next generation.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

What truly fuels my passion and journey in cooking is seeing how people react to great food. Having experience from feeding all a vast range of clientele only makes it better. From feeding celebrities and notable figures, to feeding your average diner, to feeding students these days, the satisfaction of it all remains the same. Seeing someone light up when they taste your food and introducing new types of cuisine to someone absolutely loves is a priceless experience. I make it a goal to educate the next generation on a dying and lost art, which is the culinary world. These days, everyone eats for convenience and it is disappointing to see how many world cuisines are now lost here in the United States.

To be living here in the U.S. is a blessing most take for granted and to have diversity the way it is in this country should only be taken advantage of when it comes to food. We are fortunate to have all ethnic backgrounds living in this country and to learn from everyone of them in their culture and food is what must be handed down to all generations. Culinarians, such as myself, should always be willing to learn and grow from these cuisines and hand them down to everyone. There’s always a saying when it comes to eating, “You’ll never know if you like it unless you try”.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

There were several jobs I’ve held in my life. Even though I dove head on with cooking as my first job, I’ve always looked for a way out. As many know, its a grueling industry and starting out young, it can be very intimidating being surrounded and working with people who have been doing this for over 15 years and so on. In my college years in New Jersey, I had my first job out of the industry doing carpentry and landscaping. Being young and full of energy, I definitely was drawn to the idea of having a career in those two fields, but I was never really good at it. Not even a year into carpentry, I left and went straight back to cooking.

Upon graduating college and moving to Houston, TX, I would once again “get tired” of being in the culinary industry and took up becoming a Certified Personal Trainer. I figured I love working out and making it into a career would be a match made in heaven, but I was completely wrong. Working at a gym part-time isn’t as it seems and I feel as if I had wasted so much money getting certified only to not make ends meet. So once again, cooking called me back and this time for good.

I spent a lot of the early stages of my career with a wandering mind. I always looked for something greater and realized that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. One root of this was that I never really took chances early on in my career. I would always play it safe. I would just do “good” at my job and not look to do “great” and move up to aim for a promotion. That is what caused me wanting to switch from career to career and that is what drains passion out of someone.

A tip I have for everyone, not just workers in the culinary industry, but to everyone at their job is to absolutely give it your all everyday. Do something you love with passion or don’t do it at all. If what you do in your career has a calling to you, but you feel like you’re just dragging along, change your mindset and absolutely love what you do. Make educated decisions in your career and always look to be better. Don’t just switch career to career out of emotion, instead evaluate everything in your job, life and financially and make an educated decision that will truly make you satisfied and happy.

Contact Info:

• Website: eanesisd.nutrislice.com/menu/westlake/lunch
• Instagram: @aj.pascual & @westlake.cafe
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/aaron-pascual-a10920179