From H-Street sponsored amateur skateboarder to career chef and now founder of True Cooks – a lifestyle brand and social media community which has developed a cult-like following among chefs – Chad Minton is not your typical Executive Chef. He kindly sat down with Chef’s Roll to talk about his early years, what the True Cooks family means to him and more.
From sponsored amateur skateboarder & career chef to starting lifestyle brand True Cooks – yours is an interesting story. What can you tell us about your early life?
From the age of about 12 I started competing in local skateboard contests and like any kid at the time, sent “sponsor me tapes” to all my favorite companies. H-Street actually replied and I ended up skating for them for a little over four years. I had a pretty normal upbringing until the time I hit 15. My family moved from Indianapolis, Indiana to Atlanta, Georgia. It was during my sophomore year of High School in Atlanta that my mother died in an automobile accident. There was a trace, legal limit, of alcohol in her system so the insurance policy was negated. I was left alone with absolutely nothing and no direction.
You’ve been quoted as saying: “skateboarding raised me and the kitchen saved me”, care to elaborate on this?
Growing up in skateboarding in the 1980’s gave me a much larger worldview than I would have had otherwise. While my peer group back home was stuck in school and doing prom and all the typical high school stuff – I created my own paradigm. I was out doing demos, traveling all over the country, meeting people and representing the companies that sponsored me as best I could. Skateboarding taught me humility, dedication & sacrifice, three qualities I believe you need to be a successful Chef. The mental focus and commitment needed to achieve goals I had previously thought were impossible – it’s all from skateboarding. I knew by the time I was 17 that I wasn’t going to make it as a professional and ended up spending a summer in Alaska working day labor jobs; I found my way into the kitchen from washing dishes. I thought my life was over standing in that dish pit but it had only just begun.
How did the concept for True Cooks originate & what was the objective behind it?
Over the last 25 years popular culture has shifted tremendously. With the proliferation of online shopping, niche markets have been able to get a foothold in the apparel industry. Historically dominant brands like Hilfiger or Polo now have to compete with the Diamond Supply, The Hundreds & Supremes of the world. When the street wear craze really blew-up several years ago with every sub-culture on earth represented by its own brand, from MMA to canoeing – it occurred to me that professional cooking or being a Chef is really a lifestyle decision – not just a job. There are so many things that are just for us, things only “we” get and companies were/are producing apparel geared toward Chefs that were clearly not being produced by Chefs. True Cooks is simply my love letter to the industry. I think a lot of readers would be shocked at how many culinary businesses are not owned or operated by Chefs.
True Cooks has developed something of a cult-like following among chefs and cooks – what do you think is it about the brand that resonates most with people?
I hope it’s the message “you’re not alone – there are others just like you!” that people enjoy most about the brand. We are giving people something they can feel that is coming from a very genuine place. We are also an inclusive community. If you cook, you are down with True Cooks. I was never interested in associating TC with food snobbery. Whether you work fine dining or flip eggs short order there are so many commonalities in what we do; these similarities should bring us together as Chefs. I’m interested in uniting cooks, bringing them together and providing people with networking opportunities instead of dividing them. In this day and age of social media the world has become so much smaller – I think anything that brings people together is beneficial.
Is being Exec. Chef at Highlands Inn, Carmel & running True Cooks a tough balance?
I should preface this by explaining the history of our property a little bit. For 25 years the Highlands was home to The Master’s of Food & Wine. This was an annual three-day event bringing the very best Chefs in the world together for multi course tastings. I have a drawer in the office with hand written recipes from Julia Child, Paul Bocuse, Jacques Pépin, Alain Ducasse, Thomas Keller, Michel Richard, and Jean-Louis Palladin – all the heaviest hitters have cooked here numerous times. The event out grew our property and has since transformed into the Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival. We have been working on a property-wide 5 million dollar renovation for the past 20 months. We are very excited it’s almost complete and to open our new restaurant next year which will coincide with the hotel’s 100-year anniversary. So to answer the question, “Yes”, it is very hard balancing the two but we have a great team here and that makes it all worthwhile.
We noticed you included a picture not just of yourself but your entire team for this article. Based on your company’s philosophy “humility, dedication, sacrifice” what can you tell us about the importance of community for True Cooks?
My role as Executive Chef is meaningless if I’m not creating opportunities for the people who work with me. I’m 100% dedicated to the success of those around me. I’ve had my picture in the paper plenty over my career – it’s time to shine light on others. Alvaro (our Executive Sous Chef) and I worked together at the Andaz 5th Avenue in New York. He came out a few months after I did. Over the past 20 months we have worked very diligently at getting away from some of the old-fashioned things the team was doing and I give 100% credit to Alvaro for the turnaround. He is so patient with me, the team and the renovation and is one of the very best Chefs I’ve ever worked with. He’s a good friend. As for Pancho (our new Sous Chef) we brought him onboard a few months ago and have True Cooks to thank for that! I met him at a party we threw in Los Angeles last year and then again at our big Gold Bar Party in New York. I was so impressed with his worldview, positivity and genuine good nature – when a position opened up we knew he was our guy. Since then we’ve also been able to add Oscar Mendez (one of mine and Alvaro’s favorite cooks from Andaz 5th Avenue) from NYC too. This is our family.
We’re giving people something they can feel that is coming from a very genuine place – if you cook, then you’re down with TrueCooks. – Chad Minton
How are you involved with the design process & how often do you come out with a new run?
I’m solely responsible for the design process – all of our logos, slogans and graphics are created by me. Earlier this year I started collaborating with a talented artist and we are just starting to see some of the work we’ve been doing. We also brought on the NYC based photographer SDJ – prior to his arrival I was doing all the photography myself too. We drop limited run items every month and do seasonal full run releases. Some stuff gets re-released and some stuff we only make once and it’s gone forever.
Plans into 2017 and beyond for True Cooks?
I am taking on a more active role in the manufacturing of hard goods. Everything we make gets sampled and tested and re-sampled until I’m happy with it. It’s an expensive and time-consuming process, but necessary. We have some big new items dropping in the fourth quarter of 2016. I’m the most excited about the duffel bag and the gold plated plating tweezers – actual True Cooks tools. We also have several fun collaborations planned, and, of course, we are excited about all the cool upcoming Chef’s Roll events!
