Meet Marcus Roberto of Personal Pizza Chef in Hermosa Beach

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marcus Roberto.

Marcus, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the city that eats the most pizza in the world after New York and where 34% of the population are Italians immigrants or Italian descendants. Basically, it is the place where my story as a pizza chef started.

When I moved to California in late 2005 I was impressed with almost everything I saw — the quality of life, different people from all over the world, impressive culinary diversity, and lots of opportunities. The only thing that did not impress me at all was American pizza, It was extreme industrialized and the really poor quality.
At that point, I saw a business opportunity because the pizza we made in Sao Paulo was totally different. The Paulistana pizza, as we call it, has always been known as the best pizza in Brazil because of the quality of the ingredients and the creativity of the toppings.

I spent the next few months finding a way to pursue this dream of putting up a pizza business. It wasn’t really clear to me back then if I would put a pizzeria or something else. All I know is that I want to bring Brazilian Pizza style to America.

Finally, I decided to attend a pizza school in Brazil, so I took a leap of faith, went back to Sao Paolo, and took my first pizza chef degree. At that time, I did not know that this decision would change my life, after getting my diploma I was in love for the art of making pizzas and I knew it this is what I really wanted to do for the rest of my life.

I returned to America and started to train with my friends. I began calling my Brazilian friends and made pizza for them for fun. I did that for 1 year until the Brazilian community in Los Angeles began to know about my parties. Not long after, the parties began to grow bigger and bigger. Until one day someone approached me with an idea that took my business endeavors to the next level.

The wife of my Brazilian friend, a Peruvian named Mayra, was at one of my parties and asked me if I could make pizzas for her birthday party. That question changed my vision because back then my only goal was to open a pizzeria. I had never thought of working as a personal chef specializing in pizzas. I accepted the challenge and the party was a success.

It turned out that I left a really good impression in that party and then very slowly, in an organic way, my business started to grow. In 2015, after two years doing parties I decided to leave my part time job to invest in my dream full time. In the beginning, it was not as lucrative as I expected it to be but gradually the number of events increased. For every opportunity that was given to me, I always made sure that I did my best.

My work ethic has earned me a good reputation and this led me to one client after another. Around 90% of my new customers are referrals from previous clients! In 2016, I started working with some caterers in Los Angeles. That’s when I discovered that there is no limit to this business! I saw that there was also a great opportunity for big events like weddings, debuts, and so on.

At the end of 2016, I bought my mobile pizza ovens and at the start of 2017, I opened my pizza catering company with the capacity to serve up to 600 guests. I am now at this stage where I am once again focusing on giving my best, ensuring the high quality of my service and product, and allowing my catering business to grow in an organic way, like the personal chef.

I’m already doing what I love and every milestone is a step toward fulfilling the vision I have for my company — to be the leading pizzeria in California. I know that all of that will happen at the right time. My plan is to continue serving my clients who have been with me from the beginning (this can never change), work excellently in my personal chef service, expand my pizza catering, and hopefully open a pizza store next year that will serve the entire city of Los Angeles.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Definitely not, at that time I was just a Brazilian immigrant with a dream. But in reality, I had no money, had to work to support my family and my son who was three years old at that time. I also did not speak English very well so it was very difficult.

I remember it was a joy when I could schedule a party. There were times when a month would go by without any party booking and it was tough. All of these happened during my first 3 years as a personal pizza chef. But I was determined that no matter what, I would give my best in every event I would serve and not worry about the rest because I knew people would come back to look for me. And they did!

Please tell us about Personal Pizza Chef.
Personal Pizza Chef is a personal chef service specializing in making gourmet pizzas and salads in the comfort of your home. In 2017, I introduced my mobile pizza station so I can serve at big events with up to 600 people.

I take pride in my ability to provide a unique pizza experience for my clients and their guests. One of my clients told me, “Marcus, the best thing about having you in my house is that my guests have no idea how good this will be.” That was definitely one of the best things I’ve heard about my services and that kind of feedback is also the reason why I work really hard to make sure that all my clients feel the same way.

What sets me apart from the rest is the dedication and creativity that I put into what I do. I personally don’t believe in competition because there is a huge market in the pizza industry. What I do believe is that satisfied clients will always come back. My customers repeatedly avail of my services because they feel the love I put in my food and they really appreciate that.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I don’t think I wouldn’t change much because for every single mistake I did, I learned a lesson and that definitely made me understand more about my business and be more confident at the same time, it is definitely better to make most of the mistakes when you are starting a business then later on, I actually think this is what supposed to happen to any new Entrepreneur.

Contact Info:

• Website: personalpizzachef.com
• Phone: 310-9918217
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @personalpizzachef
• Facebook: @personalpizzachef
• Twitter: @personalpizzachef
• Yelp: Personal Pizza Chef