Adrian Calvo has a long list of impressive titles. Award-winning Miami-based restaurateur, bestselling cookbook author, Emmy nominee Youtube show host, podcaster, viral Instagram designer, nonprofit founder, and chef all top Calvo’s list of accomplishments and she’s far from done yet.
For more than 15 years, Calvo has brought « maximum flavor » to his two restaurants, Chef Adrianne’s Vineyard Restaurant and Bar and Cracked by Chef Adrianne, as well as his cookbooks, and it all happened by accident .
Adrianne Calvo found her passion as a chef after a simple mistake in high school
When Calvo experienced confusion in her high school schedule, her path changed quickly and dramatically. She planned to take a journalism class, but was instead enrolled in a cooking class. She said it was the best mistake ever.
« By accident, or was it meant to be? » I always wanted to be a journalist. I loved telling stories. I really saw myself in this area in my adult life. I had taken television production and journalism classes in high school until freshman year, then freshman year, the first day of school and they put me in a cooking class by mistake. And at that point, you had to wait like two weeks for the counselors to pull you out and put you in the class that you really had demand for,” she told The Blast exclusively.
“The first week, Johnson & Wales University, one of the leading culinary universities in America, came to do a demonstration and it was like they were talking only to me. That day, from my freshman year of high school, all I wanted to do was become a chef. I became completely obsessed with culinary art and later in my career showed myself that there would be a lot of storytelling through food.
It didn’t take long to realize that being a chef was his calling. When she was in culinary school, she was not interested in fancy dishes, but in maximum flavor. She entered culinary competitions at school with the idea that she wanted her dishes to make people think long after they tasted them. This approach continues to pay off.
After graduating, she published her first cookbook aptly titled “Maximum Flavor” and became the youngest cookbook author at just 20 years old.
With the money she made from the sale of her cookbooks, Calvo opened her first restaurant, Chef Adrianne’s Vineyard Restaurant and Bar.
When opening her first restaurant at the age of 22 with no restaurant experience, Calvo said she encountered many obstacles, but that didn’t stop her.
“I opened a farm-to-table restaurant in a modest strip mall in suburban Miami, when people hadn’t heard of farm-to-table in Miami. People had only heard of Cuban cuisine in Miami. And there was no social media for me to go out there and say, look what I’m doing back then,” she told The Blast.
“You had to wait for the newspaper to come and review the restaurant, talk about you and put you on the map. Well, who could write about a 22 year old chef with no pedigree, no nothing, in a mall? There was nothing to write.
Calvo took the approach that she would simply make the best dish possible day after day and eventually people would show up. And that’s exactly what happened.
Adrianne Calvo created a foundation after the death of her sister
As Calvo’s career took off incredibly, his personal life took a sad turn. Her younger sister, Jennifer, died from a rare form of cancer, leading her to give up cooking for a while, until she saw an ad for affordable restaurant space. It sparked something in her and made her think about what her sister always said about our time on earth: “We have to make it count.” »
“My younger sister had died of a very rare tongue cancer. And it was a very difficult and educational time in my life. She died when she was 20 and I was 21 and just out of culinary school. She would never be able to eat again and for me it was like I never wanted to cook for people again. And later that changed,” she said.
« At the time when she thought she was going to get better, we all thought she was going to get better, her mission, every day, she said, ‘When I get better, Adrianne, we are going to help the children of their cancer hospitals like St. Jude because I can’t believe how much your life has been turned upside down. When she passed away, that became my mission.
So Calvo launched the Make It Count Foundation. Through the foundation, she can help support various organizations, such as St. Jude Children’s Hospital.
The Foundation’s mission strives to « make meaningful contributions to diverse charitable causes through personal and practical involvement, » according to the website. “With every interaction we have with those in need, we really make it count!” »
Adrianne Calvo shares her advice and plans for a future project
For anyone new to cooking, Calvo shared some simple tips.
“I think as cheesy as it sounds, you really have to love it. You have to be sure you love it,” she said. “Because if you love it, you will overcome every obstacle that comes your way and every obstacle and you will find that courage within you and you will find that strength to overcome everything that comes your way.”
What future for Calvo, who has already accomplished so much? She would like to produce a series for a streaming service that tells the story of a young girl who succeeds in « the toughest industry there is. »
“We’re in a situation right now where people are talking about the end of the culinary industry and because of the pandemic, many restaurants have closed their doors,” she said. “And now, with inflation and all that, well, how do we deal with it?
