Conversations with Andy Suarez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andy Suarez.

Hi Andy, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
My name is Chef Andy Suarez. I am a Private Chef/Chef instructor from Chicago. I was born and raised here to Mexican parents who decided to pursue the American dream for their families. I grew up on the southwest side, where the opportunities to succeed are minimal because of the lack of resources for minorities. My parents immigrated here in the late 1980s and settled in the Pilsen area in Chicago. Years later, they bought a home in the back of the yards where I spent most of my childhood. I was born in Chicago, and then my mom took us back to Mexico while my dad worked hard in the USA to send money to Mexico to help support us. I am one of 4 kids and grateful for my humble start in a hard-working middle-class working family.

I attended grade school in the back of the yards and eventually had to move since we had to move around a lot. Fast forward to high school, I wanted to become a soccer player to make a lot of money to help support my family. I was at the top of my class on grades and enjoyed playing violin, soccer, and tennis. It was until my late high school years that my dreams were not aligning with the situation of being a Mexican kid on the south side of Chicago that I eventually became scared of not being able to pursue my passions. College is rare for low- to middle-income Mexican families, so I decided to use something that came naturally to me: cooking. I was always an okay cook, but mom’s Mexican cooking was the start of it all. I was always happy to come home to a home-cooked meal that was well put together by mom’s amazing skills and dad’s hard-earned money. Nothing beats the flavors of mom’s gourmet cooking and dad’s hard-working attitude to provide delicious food for us daily. This inspired me to go to culinary school and pursue a career in something meaningful.

It is now 2010, the start of something new and way out of my comfort zone. I was surrounded by new faces and cultures in culinary school. I was only 17 at the time and felt like an outsider in school with adults that decided to pursue their dream of cooking. I was very talented at cooking and was always complimented by my friends and teachers in culinary school. I eventually had to work to pay for college, so I ended up working at Puma and Nike, selling shoes to pay for school and my bills. During this school period, I started believing I could make it out there as Chef. However, things don’t always go as planned. I had to stop school because it got too expensive, so I decided to attend community college and finish there. But things weren’t the same after getting a taste of my career of choice, so I worked very hard and eventually decided to take out more loans and go to another culinary school, where I was blessed with amazing mentors.

This transition of going back and forth between bills, school, and work led me to finish school at Robert Morris University with a bachelor’s in culinary management. Here I encounter friendships and amazing staff that recruited me to come to teach with them at one of their local small businesses teaching team-building corporate parties. This is 2014 now, and I was working as a line cook at the Art Institute of Chicago while in school and working retail jobs. All these things gave me the skills to fast forward to 2017 when I decided to pursue a solo career as a chef instructor and private Chef. This was by far the riskiest decision I had made, and for months I struggled to make enough money and almost gave up. I then started delivering pizzas for Aurelios in Chicago because I wouldn’t say I liked the environment of a restaurant setting and how I was treated. My teaching job at different venues did not provide me with enough money, but eventually, 2018 came, and I started picking up momentum.

I was always afraid of going back to working in restaurants or being the underdog. But it was also less stressful knowing you can leave your job and don’t have to worry anymore once you clock out. It is always hard to leave everything you love behind, but if my family was able to do it. There was no more looking back for me. I was able to work as many side gigs as I could to gain experience. I had already been a line cook, caterer, Chef, menu developer, food stylist, and many other things in this industry but never my boss. I was destined to wake up whenever I wanted and make my own money and menus. Things are finally looking out for me in 2018-2019 with my chef instructor and private chef jobs. But as the world turned for the worst in late 2019 and 2020, I researched many things to do. I was lucky enough to start teaching online virtual classes, and things were better. I was making more money than I could spend without leaving my house. I was finally financially stable and could help pay back my parents, who gave us everything. Many of my family members were not as lucky, but I always put my family first and decided to work as much as possible to help everyone during those hard times.

Eventually, I learned about my fun, personable virtual classes for kids and adults. I was teaching people from all over the world. I had people from Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and other parts of Europe requesting random times because of time zone issues. I started booking up 4 months in advance, and people on the waitlist were eager to book me. I couldn’t believe that I was allowed to experience the feeling of being successful in an industry where I suffered a lot. But that didn’t stop there as things returned somewhat normal. I was doing Private chef events, cooking classes, virtual classes, and many other side projects. My fiancé at the time and now wife had to start tagging along to help to spend time together because I became so busy, and now I was rewarded with the best sous chef.

Thank you for reading this, everyone. I can continue to write my story and how things were not always how they seemed, but working harder than others and sacrificing many things allowed me to be where I always wanted to be as a chef!!!! As always, don’t give up on your dreams or goals even if things don’t look like they will get better. Only you can improve them, so continue forward even though life is tough.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The main challenges were being Latino and having low resources to help achieve my dreams. The worst part is not being able to afford the education you want in this country. Other struggles came from within the ranks of people watching over you in the restaurant industry that always made you feel that you wouldn’t get far.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
– Private Chef and Culinary Instructor
– Specialty- International cuisine, including sushi, pasta, and much more popular cuisine but classically trained

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting?
Write down your ideas, get ready to work 24/7, and wear many hats. But also ask for help and network because you can’t do this alone. Trust me, I know hehe.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.Chefandysuarez.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chefsuarez8/?hl=en