Goodbye To All That: A journey from New York City consultant to California chef

10.04.2018 - Advanced Reporting (JOUR 3010)

               After a lucrative career in retail consulting, Alexis Rinaldi and her husband, Micheal, packed up their life in New York City and headed home to California in search of something more fulfilling. Despite graduating from one of the best business programs in the country, Rinaldi made the decision to go back to school — currently in the final stages of a six-month program at Culinary Lab. She is working as an apprentice at Studio, the epitome of fine dining in Laguna beach. Rinaldi traded in her slide decks and power suits, for dishes and a Toque Blanche; her culinary creations are her deliverables and hungry guests are now her clients to please.

Q: Where did you go to college and what did you study?

Alexis: I went to UVA (University of Virginia). I was in the undergrad business program, it was very good program it was easy to get a job out of school. I started at a management consulting firm focusing on retail right out of college. I did it for six years.

Q: What made you decide to make such a change in career?

Alexis: I knew I wanted to have kids eventually and I didn’t see any great female examples of having kids and doing a full-time career like that. I thought, am I really going to waste all this time with a job that isn’t really making a positive impact in my life other than a paycheck? I knew it wasn’t what I wanted, and I was kind of waiting until we moved to see what it was that I wanted. I felt like this is a chance for me to be selfish and do something I’ve always wanted to try.

Q: So, which culinary school did you go to?

Alexis: It’s called Culinary lab, the program itself lasted 6 months and I could have gone to school for several years, but I didn't think it was necessary. Working is a lot more important in this industry than going to school for it.

Q: Did you always have a love for cooking or was this a new-found interest when you moved back to California?

Alexis: It’s a big part of my family, for Basques (a small cultural group of people from the southern French region of the Pyrenees mountain range), food is a huge part of my culture, from my grandmother and my mom, it’s always bee sort of an innate thing. It wasn’t until my wedding that I thought I wanted to start a catering business, I thought I could do this so much better than the people we worked with for our wedding. I didn't realize catering is really hard and is actually the least flexible, so I sort of changed my stance on what I wanted to do after that.

Q: What is it like working at an upscale Laguna Beach resort restaurant?

Alexis: I work with very upscale clientele now. The average per person price of a meal at my restaurant is like $360. The people that come in have high expectations and because you work for a resort, you can’t be like a cool New York restaurant that doesn’t care about your allergies and dietary restrictions, so we have to make a lot of modifications which is super challenging.

Q: Would you say being a cook is easier or harder than being a consultant?

Alexis: [Being a cook] is definitely more fulfilling, but It's really arduous, physically really taxing. I make probably a fifth of what I made before and my coworkers are in shock that I would ever leave a job that paid so much, but you take such pride in the nights that are hard and getting them over with or, doing something new and really cool. I never felt this way about presenting a slide deck to a client.

Q: What is your favorite dish to eat or cook?

Alexis: Well I love to eat pizza ha ha. I have a little more rustic style I guess. The food I like to make is keeping true to what the product is like grilling beautiful vegetables and pairing them with weird nuts or granola or cool herbs or surprising people with combinations they wouldn't normally go after. I just try to push people a bit in what they're eating.

Q: Where do you see yourself going from here, after this apprenticeship?

Alexis: I've found in life that the more you have a very clear picture of what you want out of something, the less likely it is to happen so I’m just trying to learn as much as I can. Eventually I want to have my own business. I'm a very strategic thinker and if I don't get to do that I’m going to lose it. Right now, I'm just taking everything in.