We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brian “Chef Turok” Menendez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brian “Chef Turok” below.
Brian “Chef Turok”, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?
Hhmmm… To answer this question, I have to back a few years to expllain how I got to that point of sealing the deal. In 2010, I was the Executive Sous Chef at a Mexican restaurant in DTLA where I suffered a severe back injury. I was hit with great force with a wak-in fridge door metal handle right on my lower spine, in total ended up having three ruptured discs that stopped me from working for the next 5 years. After two years of dealing with severe pain and feeling as if I had lost my identity by not being able to work in the field that I love, I ended up getting severely depressed to the point where I was getting ready to give up.
When I realized what I was doing, I got mad at myself and at the situation I was in, and I began to fight, fight against my mindset and against my physical limitations by going to pain management for two years until 2014. In 2014, I went from taking 10 minutes to walk a single block with severe pain from the start of my accident to half my normal speed while adjusting to my limitations. At that point while being happy with how far I had come, I wanted to find a way to stay in the industry since I still could not work in a kitchen, so I started food writing- The Chonchudo Files.
Once I started blogging, I made great friends and networked with numerous Chefs and restaurant owners from doing tastings at their locations- it’s not always free how people like to think. I would go in and order a few different items so I could get a good feeling from the menu, talk to them about their food, what led to them opening their restaurant, pay for what I ordered, and take off and write about what I thought. Later on, I realized I needed to make money to pay my rent/bills as my worker’s comp/disability was running out. Stress and anxiety over bills is a hell of a motivator to figure things out.
In 2015, I contacted Chuy whom was working with Mariscos Jalisco at the time to catch up and see how they were doing- I met him and the owner when I did a hunt for the best ceviche in LA the previous year. In that phone call, I found that he had left, and was part owner of a coffee shop in Boyle Heights- Primera Taza Coffee House, where he was selling artisenal products. When I asked him if I could bring him a sample of my cheesecakes to try them out, he was very open and happy to try them out so I took them last money I had to buy all the ingredients in order to bake them. On May 6th, I took all four cheesecakes to him and cut one for him to try. I told him that if he likes them, I can sell them, if not, I thought to myself at least I tried.
As soon as he took his first bite, he pointed at them and said I want them! It took a little bit of restrain to hold back tears feeling that I wasn’t going to fail. The crazy thing about it is, that 30 minutes later Bill Esparza (at that time from LA Weekly, whom had created the biggest latino food festival- Tacolandia), showed up to Primera Taza, tried the cheesecake and has become his favorite cheesecake since then. Minutes later, a regular at the coffe house came in. when he tried the cheesecake, he said “Man, that’s the best damn cheesecake I’ve ever tried!”. When he said that, I told him that he just helped me find my tag line, and have kept it ever since. I honestly feel lucky, I was at the right place, at the right time to bring my business to fruition. Ever since then, I’ve been lucky to have them at various restaurants such as: Holbox Tlayuda LA, and Nick + Stef’s Steakhouse.
Brian “Chef Turok”, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name’s Brian, aka Chef Turok. The nickname Turok came about in High School when I was the main head of a tagging crew, my friends would call me that so I wouldn’t get burned with my real tagger name. At 18, I started doing Hip Hop/ DJing, and my name changed to JohnnyTurok. Once I went to Culinary School, my name naturally progressed to Chef Turok. I started learning to cook as a little kid watching and helping my mom in the kitchen. In High School, my first job was at a pizzeria but I didn’t last long, as I was a huge pothead and wasn’t fast enough. After finishing Culinary School, I got to work at some amazing restaurants including Providence, Joe’s Restaurant on Abbot Kinney, Hatfield’s, and Monsieur Marcel. Now, I’m the Chef/Owner of Turok’s Cheesecake, and love to give a hand heping families in need through various organizations like: Red Cross, Global Gift Foundation, St. John’s Movable Feast, Richstone Family Center, Esperanza Community Housing, AltaMed Heath Services, as well as donating/serving food to the homeless in Skid Row.
With Turok’s Cheesecakes, we pride ourselves in making The BEST DAMN Cheesecake That You’ll EVER Try! We pride ourselves in creating unique mascarpone based cheesecakes like Sangria, Creme Brulee, Mole, Umeshiso, and Avocado to name a few. The recipe was created in 2008, and began selling to restaurants in 2015. You can find our cheesecakes around Los Angeles, and at various food festivals including: Tacotopia/ Burgers & Beer in San Diego, East LA/OC Meets Napa, Endless Summer Beach Party, and many more to come!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I think we’ve all shared some resilience with the pandemic. We had to shut down at the beginning due to the severity and our family being immunocompromised. This made it really tough on us as we had to use all of our savings for our storefront to keep paying our bills, since our landlord never gave us a break messaging us every week before the rent was due. In July 2020, we decided to rebrand and reopen. Our previous name was too long and we wanted it to be simplified, so we went with Turok’s Cheesecakes. Once we opened, business was slow as not all the restaurants had opened, and one restaurant had given the dessert spot to one of their cooks- which I understood. Even though I understood, it was rough because the cook was doing it for fun and learning to bake while getting a steady paycheck, where as I make my living selling the cheesecakes.
Eventually I got the restaurant back, as well as the last of my regular restaurants. What made it tough with the last restaurant is that they went from a net-15 to a net-90 (which is the amount of days they take to pay their orders) due to the pandemic, so I was able to find catering gigs to help stay afloat because it’s rough waiting three months for payments. Luckily since then, I’ve been able to network with other catering companies to carry the cheesecakes on their menu to build the business back up. One thing that I’ve learned, don’t dwindle on the past or remain in the issues at hand, focus past all that to what you want and keep pushing to attain your goals in business.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
Honestly? It’s literally been from the ground up, I started selling by using the last $50 that I had to my name and buying the ingredients needed to make one small batch of cheesecakes. I was lucky enough to have made a lot of connections when I was in school to be able to go back and use their kitchen/equipment to bake for food festivals, to where I’ve been able to slowly buy my equipment over time including getting/upgrading my business vehicle. Every time that I make a sale, part goes to bills, and a small part goes to seeing what I can upgrade or what alse can I get that we need for the business, then we try and save to build up for our next business goal. We’d look forward to meeting investors in the future to bring our dream of a storefront to fruition.
Contact Info:
- Website: turokscheesecakes.com
- Instagram: @turokscheesecakes , @chefturok
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TuroksCheesecakes/
- Twitter: @Chef_Turok
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/turoks-cheesecakes-los-angeles