Meet Angelo Francisco of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Angelo Francisco.

Hi Angelo, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
As a teen growing up in Hawthorne, I was getting into a lot of trouble. I didn’t really have any ideas of what I wanted to do after high school, but I knew I didn’t want to go to college.

A major life changing event occurred during my junior year of high school. I woke up and realized I had to get my life together or I was going to end up in jail or dead.

I was watching the food network and I realized that I wanted to get into cooking.

A police officer in Hawthorne who was in charge of community outreach was helping my friend, and mentoring her. He wrote an article about her in the local news and I showed it to my mom. She was really close with my friend. My mom reached out to the police officer after reading the news article. She had told him about how I wanted to get into cooking, and he wanted to help. He had a tv show on food network back in the day.

One day, he sat me down for a talk.
He told me how he could help, and in that moment I had nothing to lose. I took
him up on the offer and he helped get me into the kitchen.

I staged on the weekends at a restaurant in downtown LA. I spent 2 year at that restaurant and I learned so much. To this day it was one of the hardest things I’ve done, but it also made me who I am now.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road.
I moved from a small town in the Philippines to Los Angeles when I was nine, and that was a drastic culture shock.

Also working in a professional restaurant at 17 with zero experience I would say was one of the hardest moments in my life. There were a lot of days I wanted to quit. For an entire year I came into work scared every day. I still think about those moments, but it also shaped me to be more resilient in the kitchen.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I started working in kitchens at 17, and have been in the industry for about 12 years now. I currently run a restaurant in East Hollywood. This has been my first CDC position and it has been an amazing learning experience.

I also do tattoos. Before the pandemic I became a tattoo apprentice. I was working at the restaurant and going to the tattoo shop right after work.

So now I currently run a restaurant and tattoo restaurant industry folks on my off days.

How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I would just like for people to support their local restaurants in their neighborhoods as much as they can.

It’s been a tough couple years for restaurants, and a lot of good ones had to close their doors. Instead of showing support to me, I would just like for the readers to extend that into their local restaurants who play such vital roles in our community.

Image Credits
Victor Alvarez

Instagram: victorisaacalvarez