Today we’d like to introduce you to Peter Lee.
Hi Peter, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I didn’t start cooking until my late teens/early twenties during college. I started to fall in love with it and ended up dropping out of college to attend culinary school to see what happens. I honestly thought it’d be a year to two-year stint until I got it out of my system but one year turned to two and now it’s been 17 years in the industry.
I attended culinary school in Pasadena and my first restaurant job was at a BJ’s pizzeria and brewery. From there, I moved to Catalina, then Napa Valley. Later moving back to the LA area working at Osteria Mozza and Gusto. Next to Las Vegas, where I worked at Joel Robuchon at the MGM Grand.
Santa Barbara came calling through a former boss and I ended up as Executive Chef at Loquita, a Spanish restaurant. I thought I’d be here for a couple of years but have now been here since 2016 having found a place my wife and I are proud to call home.
We started the search for our restaurant space in 2019 and thought we had found the perfect space near the end of the year. I gave notice to the owners and signed the lease in early 2020. My last day at Loquita was March 14th, 2020 and was supposed to be meeting contractors the following day. March 15th, 2020 ended up being the quarantine shutdown and changed everyone’s plans, especially ours. After a couple of nerve wrecking months we were able to retract our lease and refunded our money that was in escrow.
With a newfound lease on life, my wife and I decided to change our strategy from fine dining to casual and started our pop-up out of our apartment. We decided to call it Secret Bao as we weren’t permitted by the city to be operating a pop-up out of our apartment. Word got out and we got real busy, quickly outgrowing our tiny 600-square-foot apartment. We ended up doing pop-ups at Handlebar Coffee Roasters, where we had a seven months tenure. The lines were hour-long, kitchen was tiny, but some of the most fun I’ve personally had cooking professionally.
Afterward, we found our forever home at 1201 Anacapa Street, home of Secret Bao, where we opened in March of 2021. It’s been a bit over two years now but it feels like just yesterday that we signed the lease and opened. We are forever thankful that everything’s worked out and continually trying to make the restaurant better each and every day.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Secret Bao?
We are a small mom-and-pop restaurant that is doing our best to offer high-quality, unique food in Santa Barbara. Our specialties and namesake are Bao’s, however our version instead of being stuffed is more of a taco style. We’ve tested, changed and ended up making our bao recipe from scratch. I believe what sets us apart are the small things. Ordering high-quality ingredients, making most everything in-house, quality control and the time and effort we put in training our team. I’m proud of the word-of-mouth notoriety we have achieved without having to dump thousands of dollars in a marketing team. I’d like the readers to know that the Santa Barbara restaurant scene is evolving and getting better each year.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
People can best work with us by emailing us at [email protected] or supporting us by coming to the restaurant with friends and sharing your experience on social media.
Contact Info:
- Website: secretbaosb.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/secretbao
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/secretbao/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/secret-bao-santa-barbara
Image Credits
Carter Hiyama
