66: Part I: From Vegas Strip to Hell's Kitchen: The Culinary Journey of James Trees

Michael Dugan: 0:52

Born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, James Trees began his culinary career as a teenager at the Mirage Hotel and Casino on the Strip. Prior to attending the Culinary Institute of America, then rising through the ranks under chefs including Heston Blumenthal, Eric Rippert, Bradley Ogden, Michael Mina, Akasha Richmond, and Ray Garcia, he opened multiple restaurants across the. U. S. as Corporate Sous Chef for the Mina Group and spent several seasons behind the scenes with Gordon Ramsay on Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen. I am so excited to welcome to the show, Gordon Ramsay. Chef James Treece. Hi guys. James, thanks for doing this. Really excited that you're here. I just want to share a quick story about how we connected for our listeners and for your listeners. We flew into Vegas a couple weeks ago and we went to the U2 concert at the Sphere. What I didn't realize that A lot of things were going to unfold in that weekend, including connecting to my Aunt BJ, my cousin Christina, and Joe Kane. And Joe is Christina's husband. And all these things evolved. On Friday night, we flew in, and at 6. 30, about 6. 40, we were at the Rio. Just outside of the strip. And my aunt picked us up and she whisked us away to

James Trees: 2:08

Al Solito Posto

Michael Dugan: 2:10

and this incredible family experience unfolded because Joe is a partner there with you. And then this all came about because we were going to Esther's kitchen for brunch on Saturday. So we show up at Esther's kitchen, we're sitting down having this amazing meal. My wife loves it. I love it. We just felt. So welcomed in this restaurant and this chef comes out of the back and stands there next to us and says, I'm James trees. And Joe texted me and said, I should come out and say, hello, the next thing we're sitting down for half an hour, having a conversation with you and you made us feel so welcome. And I had to say, why don't you come on the show? And I'm so honored to have you. It's

James Trees: 2:55

an honor to be here and thank you so much for checking out the restaurants and being a part of it. And we're just lucky that we have the opportunity to do things like that and get to see people and meet people who are coming into town and might think that Vegas is just this 1. 2 mile stripper road down the middle of it. Yeah. Realize there's 2. 7 million people living around in the valley. And that's funny because a lot of the Things that you hear about in Vegas are about the wild crazy parties and all that, and how we have these huge clubs and how these big name restaurants. Outside of that, there's a real community full of working professionals, families, and stuff like that. And I really feel like it's our job to create the restaurants that Las Vegas needs. Or it'll all be chains and corporations and stuff like that. And that's where Jeff and Joe and I got together and create created Al Solito Posto. Because there wasn't that kind of neighborhood restaurant up in Summerlin. And we definitely wanted to add that to the portfolio and make it something that was really special, like maybe. 500 feet, 300 feet from that space. I have eight as well. And my team over there is just amazing as well. And I feel so good that you guys came in on a Friday night and had an

Michael Dugan: 4:22

amazing it was incredible. Oh,

James Trees: 4:25

Saturday, you're right down at Esther's. And wow,

Michael Dugan: 4:28

That's a beautiful thing. The experience that we had was indescribable. My wife loves Italian. And we got married in Southern Italy in this little town called Gravina and Gravina in Puglia in the Puglia region in Southern Italy. And she introduced me to the Italian culture about 20 years ago. I fell in love with it. I started learning about the food and the culture and the people. I remember talking to my aunt. Who I hadn't talked to for years and we were coming to Vegas. She was so excited. She goes, you gotta meet Joe or connect with Joe. I had connected with him very briefly, but meeting him again was amazing. See my cousin, Christina was amazing. See my aunt, but we all did it at your restaurant and the service and the hospitality and the people. That's what I never got a chance to tell you. And here I am telling it to you on our podcast, but you know what? It's a very special thing. It's a very special memory that you created for us that we will never forget.

James Trees: 5:24

And the team over there, Chris Mattson and Adam Rios is my chef there. They are just the best of the best. And honestly I've never known a person like Joe, who's just a straightforward, straight, caring, cares about what we do, cares about the restaurants. I mean, like you couldn't ask to have a better partner than Jeff and Joe. They're amazing.

Michael Dugan: 5:49

That's awesome. And so as we get into it now, we're going to dive in an interview, but I wanted to share that with you. And that's why this all came about. And it's very special. Let's jump into this. Let's start with, can you introduce us to your culinary background? What led you to become a chef? And was there anything early on in your childhood that really sparked that

James Trees: 6:10

interest? So the way I got involved with cooking At the very beginning was there was a vocational technical school called ATTC here in Las Vegas. And I was had a crush on this girl. And she said in the middle of German class, she was like, Hey, we should go to this and see what's going on. Cause we can get out of German doing, yeah. Doing German class. Terrible. I was so bad at it. I don't even know why. But she was cute. So I was like, okay, cool. So we went into this thing and they talked about all these different programs, electrical, nursing, cooking, horticulture, which was a big thing. Cause obviously Bellagio had just was about to open and they had this giant thing and they needed interns. So they started this horticulture thing and also landscaping around Las Vegas is huge. Yeah, so I got to go to this thing and I, and. The girl, her name was Amanda Whitehouse. And she was like, she's like, Oh, I think I'm going to take your cooking class. This'll be a lot of fun. And I was like, sure. I'll take a cooking class with you. I'll also carry your books and walk behind you or do whatever you want. I love it. Oh

Michael Dugan: 7:20

my God.

James Trees: 7:21

And so the next year we signed up for that thing and then we show up and I show up and she never showed up. Oh, wow. Not to do it. No, we're doing taking these culinary classes. Okay. It's cooking. I got to learn how to cook. And then I found out that really cooking is three of my favorite things rolled into one. And that is it's art, it's science and it's history. Take those three things. and apply them to food, it explains a lot about the world. In general, because you have the science, which is the actual cooking, the chemistry part of what we do every day, which is we take food and we manipulate it through using heat, cold chemicals, all different things. Sure. So that's one thing. And then the second thing is everything tastes good and obviously I like food. You have art, which is like the way that you can take your idea and put it onto a plate. And then history is the bridge that takes the science part and the art part and puts them together in a cohesive way where it makes sense. So when I found that out, I was hooked. And at the same time, obviously like the food network had just started, I remember watching Sarah Moulton and. Mario Batali, they had this crazy show called Iron Chef, where these guys would get like the most random ingredients and create this amazing dishes with them. And it was all in Japanese and I was like, I'm into this. All right, this is cool. And I literally used to fall asleep at night watching Iron Chef. Wow. And it was cool. Great. So that's how I got started. And basically the way I ended up as an intern was there was an internship available during your second year. And if you wanted to go do it, and honestly, the people in my class were not that, they really didn't care about like cooking. They didn't think of this motivated class in high school. And I was like, I want to go to the Mirage. I know my best friend's dad works at the Mirage. He says it's the best place. He says Steve Wynn is the best dude ever. Let's go there. All right. And so I really rallied and made sure I did everything. Obviously I was top of my class because I was I think this ATTC was for students who really didn't do good in school. So they needed a vocational thing. I was, I got 1380 on my SATs and could have gone to Pepperdine. But decided not to because I wanted to cook.

Michael Dugan: 9:57

No, I get it. I totally get

James Trees: 9:58

it. Tell that back in 1997 or 1996. Not a good choice. Oh yeah. Looking back, it worked out but that's how I ended up getting the internship at the Mirage. And then I got in there and the first day I was in the butcher shop and they said, you work from, you go, I have my first two hours at school, which is second and third period, cause I, Don't wake up early. But back then I didn't, I would go to second, third period. And then I would go to the mirage and I would work and we were supposed to work for three hours. And I was like, okay, cool. I'll work for three hours. And they gave me these tri tips that we were cutting down into stew meat. And they gave me a 55 gallon barrel of that. And they're like, here's how you cut it. Here's a great all day. Yeah. And I stayed there. Until I finished the barrel, it was 11 hours later. My hands were completely frozen because this is a completely different butcher shop. And I watched the shift change. And finally the chef was like, the head butcher at the Mirage was like, Oh, you're really into this, aren't you? And I was like, yeah. And he's like, all right, we'll see you tomorrow. I came back the next day and did 11 hours again and did 11 hours again. And I was leaving at midnight, and at the end. And so you do butcher shop, then you do main kitchen, then you do all these things and I do the Italian kitchen and the steakhouse and I got sounds like cooking

Michael Dugan: 11:27

school to me. Oh, it was, here's the thing,

James Trees: 11:29

is the

Michael Dugan: 11:30

same internship, it aligns,

James Trees: 11:32

right? Yeah. It was the same internship as the CIA people doing. Yeah. Yeah. So people who were going to the ccia A were doing the same internship as I was doing when I was 16. So when I turned 17, I was like, oh, I need to get a job. I need to get a car, and this and that. And they were like, yeah. And a girl . Why don't, yeah, why don't you. Why don't you work here? And I was like, yes, please. Yes. And so I had stayed. So what I, after the few, for a few months, I had met chef Freddie Rouge and chef Freddie was the room chef. That was like the chef of the restaurant, which would end up becoming Alex Strada kitchen, then Renoir. Oh, wow. Which is a two Michelin star restaurant. And so I got to work with them and that was a huge opportunity. And I remember I would cut like a gallon of tomato concasse and the chef would just throw it in the sauce because it wasn't good enough. It wasn't cut perfect enough. Yeah. All those things from the ground up, like peeling shrimp, like I can peel shrimp faster than any human being ever. Like it's my favorite thing to do because like I learned how to do it. I learned how to do it. I just did it and did it. Peeling potatoes. I peeled so much potatoes. I made so much mushroom soup, right? I milled so many cases of tomatoes, like whatever the crappiest job in the kitchen was. That's what I did. And then when I got my job, my first job that I had to do was put away food. Sweep the kitchens and then kill garlic. Like the amount of garlic I have peeled when I worked for Luke Palladino, we were, it was six quarts of garlic every single day, hand peeled. Oh, wow. And wow. I had no. Reservation about it. I would just attack it, whatever the worst job was. I wanted that one and I wanted to knock it out and do it the best and get faster at it. And that's, I just became obsessed and I was obsessed with that. And I graduated high school, worked for about a year and a half. And then my mom was like, okay, cool. Do you want to be a line cook for your whole life? And I was like, yes. And she was like, No, she had a master's 64, ended up getting her doctorate later on in her life. And she was an educator and she was like, you need to go to school. She's like, where did your bosses go to school? And I was like, Oh, in New York. And being a kid from Vegas, that was not, that was never going to be in the cards for me. And she said, it is in the cards for you. Let's make it happen. Let's see what we can do. And here you go. And now I have, this is so

Michael Dugan: 14:07

awesome. Oh, it's so awesome, man. I've interviewed several chefs and friends from CIA. So this means a lot to hear that. Cause it's just really cool. Really cool. You didn't

James Trees: 14:17

have the money for me to go to school. That wasn't like really a thing. So my aunt Esther actually, I had some money saved, but your aunt Esther. Oh my

Michael Dugan: 14:26

God. Okay. All right. It was

James Trees: 14:28

the one who wrote it together. She wrote the check for my room and board. Cause I didn't know what room and board was. I didn't know what terms were. So I like decided I wanted to do this and I was like, Oh, I'm 8, 000 short. She's I'll pay for it. And so she gave me the opportunity. To go to CIA, like without her, there wouldn't have been, this would not have happened. And obviously later on down the road, I named one of my first restaurant Esther's Kitchen after her. That's what I

Michael Dugan: 14:56

was going to ask. And then, oh my God, what a story. That's incredible.

James Trees: 15:00

And then when I got to school, I was the poorest kid in school. You have to remember like this, like in 1998 and 2000, when I actually went, sorry, in 2000, when I went to CIA, Basically the way kids got into Cornell when they didn't have the grades is they went to CIA for two years and then transferred because Cornell is the Ivy league transfer for CIA. So that was a way for screw ups to get into an Ivy league school to make their rich mommy and daddy really happy. And I was there cause I wanted to cook and I wanted to learn everything that was about food. I hit the ground running. And the first thing I did was I got a job at the school serving tables, like great hall. And I learned, I got to know every chef. I got to know who they were. I got to, my classes were great. I had amazing instructors and I just, wow. It wouldn't have been, it was

Michael Dugan: 15:57

your favorite. Who's your favorite

James Trees: 15:58

instructor? I have a couple. I have a couple. Chef in Drini chef in Drini was a Swiss chef. And even though he was more Italian than Swiss and chef in Drini had lived in Canada and had a couple of different restaurants, and then he decided to come be a, an instructor at CIA because he wanted to become a certified master chef. And that was a lot of the chefs that we had, they wanted to be CMCs and you had to have education credits and that was part of it, and then he had to take the test because rule was he didn't give anybody an A. And I remember that I had him for skills one and I was like, this is our first kitchen class. I have to have an A no matter what I've been working at five star restaurants and I remember, I can't, I don't even think I could do it anymore. I probably could, but I remember that the first time he was like, all right, we're going to go through knife skills. And I finished all my knife skills, super fast. He looked at everything while I'm like sweeping the floor because there was nothing else to do. And he's can you tournay? And I was like, yeah, chef, I can tournay. And so he showed me, okay, can you tornate a vegetable like this? And I said, absolutely chef. And I'm a cocky 19 year old me, which is, of course, I was a fucking pain in the ass. I tornate a potato behind my back for him. And he looked at it and he said, Oh, that's a B. It is really like cocky. Instead of an A. I obviously had never seen anyone the first day of cooking school, walk in and build a tornado potato behind their back. And it was funny because The kids in the class, I was immediately the least liked person in my class. Oh my God. They

Michael Dugan: 17:40

were all jealous.

James Trees: 17:41

I don't, I think it was that, I think it was intimidating for them, that here's this kid from Vegas. And, I didn't, there was no other kids from Vegas there at the time. Vegas was just emerging as this culinary place and. The explosion of the Bellagio had just happened. And that was like one of those things where I was like, set my mark. Like here I am. So what we had was, Chef Andrini begrudgingly at the end of skills one gave me an A minus.

Michael Dugan: 18:08

Oh my God. That's

James Trees: 18:09

awesome. begrudgingly. And it wasn't like one of those things where it was like there were certain skill sets that we had and that had to reach at a certain time. And obviously they were very basic. Like you had to be able to. Dice and dice, two onions and slice two onions in five minutes. And I was like, kids were getting thrown out of the school cause they couldn't accomplish that, right? Because they're nice. They weren't there. They weren't taking it seriously. They wouldn't do all these things. And I was just, I thought it was hilarious. And so I was like, I was like, okay, I can do this. This is not a hard thing for me. But it was like, it's funny because one of the cooks, one of the, one of the kids who was in my class was this transfer student from Brazil and his Brazilian rich father had paid to send him here and he could not do it and chef Andreani failed him right now. This guy I, And his name's slipping my mind, but obviously I'll remember it later, but he's the lead judge for top chef in Brazil. And he fell behind in, at CIA because CIA standards were so strict at that time that if you could not accomplish a task that was like a required task, You failed that class and had to retake it. If you refilled that class twice, you got kicked out of school for 90 days and had to restart. And that was like coming up through that. I had done all my partying when I was, before I went to school, really And I was just locked in. I loved it. I love school. I had so much fun there. Here's the thing is, I didn't learn as much as everyone else because I didn't have to learn as much as everyone else. Okay. Things I got to learn there, like how to, how to do pate on crude, how to do charcuterie, stuff like that. The garbage classes, the pastry classes, those were my favorite classes. And then all the other classes were really easy and I just got to cook and this was, you A lot of fun. But I got to work with chef Andrini on a certified master chef test. I got to work with chef Griffiths on a certified master chef test and those were really cool things and good experience and opportunity for

Michael Dugan: 20:17

me. What is a certified master chef test for our

James Trees: 20:20

audience? All right. So it's actually a couple of different days. Back in the day it was like 10, 000, which was a huge amount of money now, right? Yeah. It's 20 years ago. They were spending this money. To take a test. And so basically it's the ACF which is the American chef foundation or certified chef foundation. And they have different levels in the top level you can gain with certified master chef. And. I haven't really followed up with the ACF as I'm not really looking to become a certified chef of any way. I think I already, I have an honorary degree.

Michael Dugan: 20:58

Okay.

James Trees: 20:59

I get it. Sure. These chefs were really going for it and they had to have a commis or helper with their. With their with their test and that go me was like their sous chef and basically it's a two man team, like the book whose door, right? Except for your goals to score points and to make sure that everything's perfect. So when I came in and I already had two years of five star, five diamond training under Luke Palladino, Alessandro Strada. And a bunch of other people. I was like the person they were like, Hey, do you want a chef? Would ask me like, Hey, do you want to go play some racquetball? Okay, sure. I'll go play racquetball with you, chef. No problem. And I go play racquetball with them and they'd be like, I need some help. I'm taking the certified chef. And I would like, so I became like the guy for a couple of these guys who would help them and chef Rudy Johnson and chef Griffiths and chef and Drini and all these guys were getting ready. And so I was part of their Komi team and got to be a part of that process. And that was really cool. And that was a lot of fun too. Wow.

Michael Dugan: 22:04

So that was CIA. And then,

James Trees: 22:07

yeah. And then I had to go back to the real world. So getting

Michael Dugan: 22:10

to the real world let's dive into. How did you end up on the food channel? Like I know you did chopped and a couple of other shows. What was that like? I know the audience would love to know that. And so would I. In part two, we'll delve into the behind the scenes world of James trees, offering an exclusive glimpse into his culinary journey. Follow along as we join him on the food channel and with Gordon Ramsey and explore the world of kitchen nightmares and Hell's Kitchen. Stay tuned for this captivating culinary adventure.