Life & Work with Emerson Majano

Today we’d like to introduce you to Emerson Majano.

Hi Emerson, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Everything started in 2006 when I was in my hometown in Honduras. My great-grandmother was the key for me to be in this career. When I was a kid, I grew up with my mom, dad, sister, and Grandmother. Most of the time, I spent the whole time with my great-grandma; she would take me to school and feed me. With time, my great-grandma had to use her garden for something that would be beneficial for us. She started growing her vegetables since money was a problem in our house. We used to use a propane gas stove. We couldn’t use that because my dad was so particular about us using this stove because we don’t have money to buy another propane to keep cooking, so we have to be wise on when to use that stove. My great-grandma was so creative that she made it on top of a wooden table, her clay stove with bricks and clay. My responsibility was to go to the abandoned yards to find dry wood to make a fire for the clay stove. With time, I started being curious about how great grandma would kill her chickens, cows, lambs, and calves, and at the same time how she made her cheese, cream, feeding chickens, her organic eggs, and many, many other things. My great-grandma saw my curiosity in the kitchen, and she brought me to her kitchen and taught me basic cooking like (making refried beans, rice, fried eggs, etc. I was so in love with everything that I was able to light up the stove with wood.

One day, my dad came home early from work without saying anything, and he found me in the kitchen. He brought me inside the house and hit me badly until my legs were bleeding and told me in Spanish I NEVER WANNA SEE YOU IN A KITCHEN, THAT’S NOT A PLACE FOR men, THAT’S A WOMEN’s JOB, WHEN YOU GET MARRIED YOUR WIFE HAVE TO HAVE FOOD READY FOR YOU IF I FIND YOU IN THE KITCHEN AGAIN, IT WILL BE WORST YOU NEED TO DO THINGS THAT A MEN DOES LIKE BEING A DOCTOR, A DRIVER, A MECHANIC OR A CONSTRUCTION WORKER NO WOMEN THINGS I remember I cried, my legs were in pain, and heartbroken because what made me happy I was not able to do but, my great grandma was supper mad at my dad that she hugged me and told me MI NINO (MY BABY) DON’T LISTEN TO YOUR DAD, HE IS COMPLETELY WRONG,) my dad was a very sexist man; we were scared of him. My great-grandma told me she would prove my dad wrong.

With time, my great grandma would bring me inside the kitchen, hiding from my dad, and when we would hear the engine of the bus we had in Honduras, I would dirt myself with something that way I don’t smell like the smoke of my great grandma’s kitchen.

We did that for over two years, hiding from my dad until one day, she showed me my NOW favorite movie ever, RATATOUILLE. My Abuelita showed me that movie and waited to show me the part where the chefs were in the kitchen. And when that part came she said this, “You see all of those chefs there? There is only one woman in that kitchen, your dad is wrong; that touched my heart and made me think my dad was wrong”. Then Masterchef came out to a Spanish version in Honduras, and in that season Chef Monti Carlo was competing. I was so inspired by Chef Ramsay and Monti that they both were my favorite celebrity chefs and inspiration. My great-grandma told me, “You see that’s a real cooking competition and men are there, YOUR DAD IS WRONG”.

MY abuelita was everything to me. In 2011 on February 15 (my birthday day) she told me, “Hijo (son) I wish you all the best, and one of my biggest wishes is to see you doing what makes YOU happy, what you enjoy, I hope your dad never forces you to do things you don’t wanna perform if you ever perform a career, choose something that you enjoy doing it and makes you happy, I love you and I’m here to protect you, smile and one day I will see you succeeding in television just like the ones we saw in that TV competition, you will do great things and change peoples life, cooking from the heart and sharing love with food.”

Five months later, my abuelita passed away, on July 11, 2011, at 9:47 pm, my grandma gave me her last correction. Once I saw my Abuelita die in front of us, I couldn’t believe it when I started saying that she was sleeping and not dead. I lost half of me (I can’t explain how terrible I felt); her lessons have always been with me until now.

In 2016, I had to emigrate to the US because of violence and extortion, and if I hadn’t left the country I would have been dead by now because of the gangsters that operate there, i lost many family members because of violence. I saw gangsters killing my friends because they would not cooperate with them to move drugs. I regretted many times and many times, my mom and I were being hit by them with guns, their own hands, and traumatizing us more. I moved to the US and when I arrived to the US with my mom, we were not feeling welcomed since people were discriminating against us. And many students at the school I used to go to in Hanford (near Fresno) were bullying me, discriminating against me, and telling me “Go back to your country” calling me beaner, and then I started dealing with anxiety, depression, and having many traumas.

I missed my Abuelita so much because of other reasons, we moved from Hanford to LA, and everything was different. Mostly everyone speaks Spanish. We used to sleep on the floor at my uncle’s house, and our pillows were our clothes for the next day. We slept on the floor for two years, and I started going to school at Santee High School. I felt different; I felt welcomed.

One day I was in my ELD class with Mrs. Flores and after class, she asked me a question in Spanish that said “Emerson, what do you wanna do in life after high school?” I was confused because I had in my head what my dad said and what my grandma said. I responded to that teacher. “I think I wanna be a doctor (even tho I was scared of needles), but I love cooking too she said “We don’t have a nursing program, but we have a cooking program during school time and after school”. Then I got connected with the chef of the school and no experience, Zero English and that chef involved me in the kitchen, I learned everything with hands-on because I didn’t know how to understand English by that time.

I got connected to C-CAP, and the competitions were in English. And I was nervous because I didn’t know anything about English.

I had a friend in HS (Brayan Garcia; we are still friends) who used to translate every single thing from class (I am deeply grateful to him because he would stop doing whatever his recipe was to translate my recipes and directions) with time, C-CAP will not only teach me about cooking but yes on how to express myself in public since I always wanted to be in TV.

I made it to Job Shadows and Job training with not a word of English but learning everything and had the HONOR to meet my celebrity chef star Monti Carlo. I cried and was shocked that I met the person I saw on TV with my grandma; I cried and told my grandma in heaven that I met Monti!! Since then the door has opened more and more to me in the industry thanks to C-CAP which showed me how to speak properly and be a professional. My English started getting better and better and I made it to the final competitions and won the scholarship to ICE in Pasadena for the Health supportive Culinary Art program I was the first person in my family to graduate and go to high school/ and culinary school. I would never have gotten into school if it wasn’t for C-CAP, coming from Honduras as an undocumented immigrant to be in culinary school and now working hard to achieve the goal that my great grandma and I have, which is to be in TV sharing love with food and changing much life with my story, motivating more students that are in the same place I was undocumented immigrants with no hope and showing them that it’s always an opportunity if you work hard and smart for it and C-CAP changed my life completely.

Now, I proudly can say I have worked for great people like Gordon Ramsay, Jonathan Club and at the same time being an event/private chef. Being a mentor volunteer for C-CAP Los Angeles and now being the chef/food Consultant at Surfas Culinary District and besides that I have become a mentor.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t been easy! The language was the first barrier, and then experiencing discrimination with my mom was the other thing that drove me to depression that almost killed me.

Money was another struggle since we were not able to work; we were living on 10 dollars weekly, our supermarket was the 99 cents store for two years, we didn’t have anything, just our clothes and surviving on 10 dollars for the week buying what was necessary even when I craved a chip I had to hold myself because we didn’t have money.

Experiencing that, I think made me the creative person I am in the kitchen because I was able to make eggs in many different ways. It was hard and sad, but then I got my work permit and finally was able to work. Still didn’t have enough English but Chef Steve Samson from Rossoblu allowed me to work for him at his restaurant since then, everything started to change. It wasn’t easy since I had to go to school from 7:30 am to 2:45 and go to work at 3:00 pm, running after school to get to work on time.

It was exhausting working late-night shifts and waking up super early to be in school on time.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I now work for Surfas Culinary District as a Chef Consultant. I make sure I help customers to build recipes, and help them with specialty ingredients, at the same time they have a small Cafe that I also help them run in the kitchen. I am a very multitasking person. I specialize in healthy food, plant-based, Italian, and Latin cuisine. I help friends in food events. I mentor other students my age that are also in the culinary pathway. I am known for my empanadas salads pasta and many other foods but mostly I am known because I’m the dancing chef in the kitchen, (the funny one) the one that’s always smiling and giving love through my food.

I am most proud of how many lives I have inspired, how many people I have inspired with my food that I have been able to have control of my anxiety and depression, that I have little by little I have been achieving my goals.

What sets me apart from others is that in the kitchen, I can be myself, funny, crazy, and with authentic food, never forgetting my roots and where I come from.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
One of the lessons I think we all have learned due to Covid 19 crisis is that many of us have become aware of how much we need other people and how much we can move forward if we are united. That community is essential as well as technology. As a survivor, me and my mom had covid in 2020, and my mom had it from almost four months; I almost loose her. I had it for three months, and the biggest lesson for us was united we can win!

Many people were out of business and not motivated but then, technology came and honestly, it helped us all.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: chefemersonmajano
• Facebook: Emerson Majano