Full Interview

Harold Jurado has had a lifelong love affair with Filipino and Japanese flavors and ingredients, and he has had a career that has included some of the top dining establishments in Chicago, including his own izakaya (a casual, Japanese pub-style restaurant). Still, he wanted to learn and do more. This led to an executive chef position with Bon Appétit Management Company (BAMCO), working at the campus of a Silicon Valley tech giant known for its gold standard employee perks.

Despite Jurado’s deep roots in Chicago—where he had been working most recently at the creative Japanese restaurant Yushu and was named one of the region’s 2015 Rising Stars by StarChefs—it was pretty much a no-brainer to make the move to the San Francisco Bay Area and a position on the cutting edge of Business & Industry foodservice.

“I saw so many new tech startups in Chicago combining app-based food delivery with high-volume commissary operations, and I could see that this was the wave of the future for the food industry,” says Jurado. “I wanted to learn the necessary skills to be a part of it. There will always be room for mom-and-pops and creative independent, chef-driven restaurants, but I wanted to have what it takes to be able to scale up a concept for regional, national or even worldwide expansion.”

With BAMCO, which is widely respected for both its operational discipline and its culinary and sourcing innovation, Jurado is getting that experience. He’s also utilizing the recipes and techniques he learned from his Filipino mother and developed further during his restaurant days to bring his Asian-inspired food to hundreds of people a day.

At his new post, the chef helped open and is now in charge of an Asian noodle bar that offers a rotating array of proteins, broth, sauces and à la carte vegetable additions, as well as a pickle and toppings bar. This mix-and-match approach allows customers to build whatever meal they want—and then do it again a different way the next day.

The noodle bar concept has been so successful that it was not uncommon for Jurado and his staff to serve 1,600 orders a day when it was new, a number that has now settled down to a steady 800-1,000.

This is in marked contrast to Jurado’s experience with his own Chicago restaurant, Chizakaya. “We might serve 40-250 people on any given night, and it was great to be face-to-face with that many people and touch them with my food. But this is a whole different level of engagement with customers, where I can affect their day and also offer them a healthier meal choice.”

In the hopes of one day bringing this concept to a wider audience, Jurado has created a flexible format that is supportive of the evolving menu, influenced by his experience with ramen and other Japanese specialties.

Volume of service alone has been a learning experience for the chef, for example preparing 400 pounds of meat rather than 40, all the while complying with BAMCO’s rigorous requirements for food safety and documentation.

The key product for the concept, however, is broth—to the tune of 20 gallons a day. “We have to build bold, satisfying flavor into every batch,” explains Jurado. For this, he relies on Kikkoman Kotteri Mirin, a sweet rice wine used in traditional Japanese cooking, as well as Kikkoman Soy Sauce and Tamari Soy Sauce.

“The mirin and soy sauce create a kind of flavor platform for all of our broths to build on,” continues the chef. “Of course we add vegetables, herbs and other seasonings, but Kikkoman sauces give broth structure and backbone and help create a bold flavor profile.”

As a new generation of Asian-American chefs emerge, we see a new personal style of Asian-inspired food with a strong base in their family culture but which also reflects their American upbringing. It’s more than just fusion. It’s a dynamic table of food that is reflective of their personal and authentic cross-cultural experiences.