We all want to move up the ladder, but how does one skip a couple of steps and soar right to the top? The answer is, you don’t. We spoke with three of Austin’s industry stars to learn more about their career paths and all the hard work that brought them to the top. Philip Speer started off as a pastry chef and is now the owner of Bonhomie. Rene Ybarbo was a General Manager in a small town and stepped down to server when he moved to Austin. And Bryan Gonzales started as a busboy and is now the Director of Marketing for the El Chile Group.
When Uchi first opened its doors in 2010, Austin fell in love with two things: the elevated Japanese cuisine and Philip Speer’s extraordinary desserts. Philip Speer started as a baker at Cook’s Night Out in a Fresh Plus grocery store and worked in several scratch bakeries for the next five years. He took his first pastry chef job at the Granite Cafe in 1999 before becoming a pastry chef at Uchi, and then went on to become Director of Culinary Operations at Uchi, Uchiko, and St. Philip. In 2017, Philip opened his first, highly anticipated restaurant in Austin called Bonhomie.
“At a young age I knew I had interest in being a pastry chef, so I began in the industry as a baker at Cook’s Night Out, in Fresh Plus grocery store. I worked in several scratch bakeries for the next five years, Texas French Bread, Quack’s Bakery, Sweetish Hill Bakery until I decided to move to restaurants. I took my first pastry chef job at the Granite Cafe in 1999. I stayed in restaurants as a pastry chef until my position at Uchi grew in 2010 or so.
“As a pastry chef, it was never in my career trajectory to become an executive chef or restaurant owner. I always wanted to work for someone and not have the risk or stress of owning my own restaurant. But as a pastry chef, I saw a cap of what I can do and how much I can make. Unless I wanted to work for $40,000 for the rest of my life, I made sure that wherever I worked, I learned everything in the restaurant. A pastry chef is such a luxury in so many restaurants. You can run a restaurant without a pastry chef. We don’t even have a pastry chef in our restaurant right now. When dealing with labor issues and maintaining margins in the restaurant, the pastry chef is a luxury and is usually the first to go.
“I always knew, when working for independent restaurants, if I became more valuable than a pastry chef and just created desserts, I wouldn’t be as expendable. From the very beginning, I took an interest beyond just making desserts and really learned the entire restaurant.
“When I landed at Uchi and moved from a pastry chef starting at $28,000 a year to leaving as culinary director with a six-figure salary and a partnership in the company, I would say that’s quite a move up the ladder. That wasn’t due to just being there all the time but creating value as a pastry chef and everywhere else I could succeed and excel. I learned the entire business of the restaurant, sustaining culture, and creativity—everything from food costs to food margins.
“As the company grew and hired a director of operations, I clung to him and learned everything I could from restaurant operations. I would find people that I could learn from, download all the info that I could, and then use it for the next project.
“From organizing teams, hiring, and putting the right people in the right places to opening restaurants, ordering equipment, and laying out menus—all of that came from knowing I had limited value as a specialized chef. As a pastry chef, I knew I could only do so much and only make so much money. But if I went beyond that, I could learn more and become more valuable and make more money and grow into other positions but still have a lot of passion for pastry.”—Philip Speer, owner of Bonhomie
Rene Ybarbo, the General Manager at Italic, started as a host in Victoria, Texas when he transitioned to a server, bartender, and then manager in a couple of years. He spent 6 years managing restaurants in Victoria before looking into Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. When Rene moved to Austin, he decided to step back and apply for a server role at Arro.
For a manager, to step backwards on the restaurant ladder to a server position takes a lot of pride. Rene shares why he stepped back in order to step forward.
“I’ve been in this industry for 15 years – I started when I was 21 and now I’m 36. Take it slow. Don’t think anything comes overnight. It all comes with time and due diligence. You put your time and effort into each place. If you’re going to a restaurant and you’re offered management with little to no experience then maybe that’s not the best.
“When I started I would ask myself, ‘Do I want to put this much effort into a server job?’ I was going home and studying six hours a night just to keep up but it was all worth it and it all made sense to me. All that information and everything I learned I still now carry with me through any restaurant job and excel just by keeping at it.
“I knew when to step back and know my limits. I needed more time to focus on little steps of fine dining and coming to a bigger city, I needed to learn what service should entail.
“It’s been a fun five years here in Austin. I had 4 different ELM [Restaurant Group] jobs in one year – trying to keep up with the different menus and the concepts of doing everything was hard but keeping at it and studying definitely paid off at the end.—Rene Ybarbo, General Manager at Italic
Bryan Gonzales, Director of Marketing of the El Chile Group, started as a busboy at a sushi joint when he bugged the manager for a server position. From there, he became a bartender and then the general manager. When the company started to grow and needed a marketing strategy, Bryan pestered the owner of the company for a marketing position.
“It’s really about creating your own opportunity. If you ask for what you want, the worst anyone can tell you is ‘no.’ But hey, at least you put yourself out there – you took a risk and created an opportunity to better yourself. With the right foundation, you can poise yourself to really start climbing the ladder.
“I started as a busboy at Sushi Zushi when I was 18. As soon as there was an opening for cashier and driver at the to-go station, I volunteered and took it. Once I mastered those positions, I actually didn’t wait for an opportunity to present itself for the next step forward . I constantly told my manager that I really wanted to be a server. I would sit with the servers in their station on my breaks and ask them to quiz me on the menus and give me any tips they had to remember what was what.
“After I served for a year or so, I wanted more. The next logical step was to learn the bar, and having a desire to learn is essential to creating your own opportunities. When the company started opening locations, they selected me as the GM. In a corporate meeting as a manager, we were talking about marketing strategies. The owner and the management team was looking for a dedicated marketing person and would ideally be someone with the knowledge of the restaurant and our target markets. I put myself out there and said, ‘Oh hey, that’s me.’
The owner asked me to draw up a publicity campaign so I did. I created a PowerPoint presentation and told him everything that I would do to promote Sushi Zushi in Austin. Facebook and Twitter were just coming online so I was sure to include that in my presentation.
“After opening four locations for Sushi Zushi, I moved to El Chile Group as their as Director of Marketing. You have to be hungry to create your own opportunity. Both figuratively and literally.”—Bryan Gonzales, Director of Marketing at Alcomar