Magical Dining - Featured Chefs

Orlando Magical Dining Month offers a terrific opportunity to experience new restaurants -- and visit old favorites -- at fraction of the regular cost of the meal. It's also a chance to sample the cuisine of some of the most talented chefs in town. Central Florida is home to a number of dedicated culinary professionals with a passion for presenting fine food. I asked some of them recently about what drives them to be a chef; I've compiled their answers here. You can find more information about their restaurants and read my reviews at ScottJosephOrlando.com.

Vincent Gagliano, chef/owner, Chez Vincent

Did you have professional culinary training?
I had an apprenticeship in France that lasted three years. You work in the restaurant three weeks and you go to school one week.

What was your first professional kitchen job?
Dishwasher. I was 15 working at a restaurant in my hometown in France.

What's the best (culinary) advice you ever received?
Love what you do.

If you weren't a chef, what would you be?
I would build something with my hands, maybe be a carpenter.

What's your advice to anyone thinking about becoming a chef?
You need to love what you do and be passionate about it. Don't' do it for the money; do it because you love it.

What would you choose for your last meal?
Foie gras.

Robert Mason, executive chef, Fiorella's

Did you have professional culinary training?
I did a three-year apprenticeship with Ermes Paulin, a master chef from Italy, at the Americana Grill in San Francisco.

What was your first professional kitchen job?
My first kitchen job was at Grison's Steakhouse, in the suburbs, as a prep cook.

What's the best (culinary) advice you ever received?
I think chef Ermes gave me the best advice: to be a chef, to be great, you have to do the right thing even when no one is looking.

If you weren't a chef, what would you be?
I would probably work with children, in some form or fashion. I'd like to be a special needs teacher.

What's your advice to anyone thinking about becoming a chef?
My advice is to make sure you love what you do, because if you don't really love it in your heart, it can be really difficult.

What would you choose for your last meal?
I would to go to San Francisco to the Blowfish and have some sushi.

Brandon McGlamery, executive chef, Luma on Park

Did you have professional culinary training?
Yes, California Culinary Academy and the Beringer School for American Chefs.

What was your first professional kitchen job?
I was a dishwasher when I was 14 or 15 years old. Later, I was a bartender, but I wanted to cook, and I finally got a job in the kitchen at a restaurant called Distango.

What's the best (culinary) advice you ever received?
Sometimes you have to slow down so you can speed up. That was from Jeremiah Towers. Also, Thomas Keller told me, "It's only food; you have to think smarter than it."

If you weren't a chef, what would you be?
An architect or a fly fisherman.

What's your advice to anyone thinking about becoming a chef?
Be the first in, last out. Be open to everything. Work hard, keep your nose down, and work for a variety of chefs that you respect.

What would you choose for your last meal?
It would be between our pasta Bolognese at Luma and my wife's' tacos.

Donna Scala, executive chef/owner, La Luce by Donna Scala

Did you have professional culinary training?
No, my grandfather was in the hotel restaurant business. He had chefs come from all over, and I learned from them.

What was your first professional kitchen job?
In my own place Donarcy's, in Sausalito, in 1981.

What's the best (culinary) advice you ever received?
Use fresh ingredients and keep it simple.

If you weren't a chef, what would you be?
I would probably be in fashion or politics.

What's your advice to anyone thinking about becoming a chef?
Have a lot of passion for what you do and teach the people that are around you. And taste your food. Taste, taste, taste.

What would you choose for your last meal?
A great pasta dish.

James Slattery, executive chef, Big Fin Seafood Kitchen

Did you have professional culinary training?
No, I did not, not in the sense of a school. Basically, I decided that the best bet was to go to work for a top notch restaurateur. Emeril Lagasse was opening his restaurant at CityWalk at the time, and I got a job there.

What was your first professional kitchen job?
I put myself through college getting my bachelors and masters in chemistry working in a pizza joint in Cocoa. They just needed a dishwasher, but they knew I wanted to cook and I got a chance to learn how to make dough from scratch.

What's the best (culinary) advice you ever received?
Work smart, not hard.

If you weren't a chef, what would you be?
I'd probably still be a chemist. But I'm still extremely pleased that I made the change that I did.

What's your advice to anyone thinking about becoming a chef?
They need to work in the industry before thinking about going to culinary school. It's not for everyone. You lose a lot of family life, there are late hours. If you're in it for the money, you're in the wrong business. But if you enjoy seeing someone take a bite of your food and get a big smile on their face - there's nothing like it.

What would you choose for your last meal?
It would have to be Asian inspired, something like a pad thai or a shabu shabu. Those are some of the flavors that I really love. Some of my first memories of food are from growing up in the Philippines.

Juan Mercado, executive chef, Prickly Pear

Did you have professional culinary training?

It's more experience training than professional. I grew up in a family that had restaurants.

What was your first professional kitchen job?

At Portofino Bay hotel, in Delfino Riveria [now Bice], I was lead cook. That's when I learned about Northern Italian cuisine.

What's the best (culinary) advice you ever received?

My grandma told to to always cook with love, and that's the key.

If you weren't a chef, what would you be?

I would be a teacher. I like kids; I went to college to be a pre-school teacher.

What's your advice to anyone thinking about becoming a chef?

If they like cooking, just start cooking and working in restaurants.

What would you choose for your last meal?

I would choose stewed fish with vegetables. I love fish.

Eduardo Remusat, executive chef, HUE

Did you have professional culinary training?

Yes, I went to culinary school in London, at Le Cordon Bleu.

What was your first professional kitchen job?

That was 18 years ago at the Hilton Hotel in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I was a dishwasher.

What's the best (culinary) advice you ever received?

Listen. Learn how to listen, from your dishwasher to your head chef. Everybody has something to say.

If you weren't a chef, what would you be?

Definitely something related to the arts -- music or painting.

What's your advice to anyone thinking about becoming a chef?

Understand about flavor, because that's something that can get you a long way.

What would you choose for your last meal?

Rice and beans and a fried egg that my aunt in Brazil prepares.