Noemi Gutierrez is executive chef at Zelo in Pacific Place. She grew up in Madrid in a house with an orchard and vegetable garden, an influence that's obvious in her produce-heavy cooking. Her father is from the Canary Islands, where she attended catering college. After that came stints at five-star hotels and with some of Spain's leading chefs. Gutierrez has worked with masters of molecular gastronomy and pastry, but her own style is as much about healthy plates as technical wizardry. The drive to cook came from her family background, but there is a little twist.
It wasn't my father's influence. My father cooked traditional Canary Islands dishes, but he travelled a lot. My mother can't cook and I didn't want to eat plain rice every day, so I started making food for the family when I was 12 years old. That's when I started to learn about cuisine.
Yes, that was Ferran Adria's Seville hotel. It was the same style as El Bulli, but it had two Michelin stars. It won an award for serving the best breakfast in the world.
I made breakfasts, I worked on jams, flavoured butters such as coffee or fisherman's, and fruit juices. Every day there were three versions of each and I got to work on all of them over the course of a week.
I didn't see much of Adria. I was working for Rafael Morales and it was only for three months.