SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6TH, 6PM STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE SHOWROOM HUNTINGTON BEACH
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TICKETS
General Seating $55.00 per person Includes: guaranteed seating, samples of each chef’s dishes, and one pour of each Vino Vidi Vici wine VIP Front Row Seating $80.00 per person Only 12 seats available! Includes: priority access and service, front row seating, larger food portions and two pours of each Vino Vidi Vici wine
Standards of Excellence Kitchen & Bath Showroom 16001 Gothard Street Huntington Beach, CA 92647 800-783-5390
Chefs Paul Cao and Phi Nguyen are graduates from UCLA and Cal State Fullerton. Upon graduating, they quickly found out that the regular 9 to 5 grind was not for them. They went against the grain and both enrolled at the Art Institute of Orange County at different points in their career. Their love for cooking took off from here. Paul worked his way up to Chef de Cuisine at Marc Cohen’s Opah in Irvine. Later he moved on to become Sous Chef at Michael Mina’s Stonehill Tavern in Dana Point. Most recently he worked for Chef Jason Niederkorn at Café del Rey in Marina Del Rey. Phi shares a similar cooking lineage with Paul. Phi started his cooking career at The Loft inside the Montage Resort, Laguna Beach where he quickly moved up the line. He then followed Chef Brian Black to Michael Mina’s Stonehill Tavern in Dana Point. At these restaurants they honed their skills and developed their style which is very different but extremely similar at the same time. They share a passion for competition which drives them everyday to become the best. They have partnered with Minh Pham, a graduate from UCI, and started The Burnt Truck. They serve gourmet sliders along with other interesting small plates to keep things new. All in all, they just want to cook great food and make people happy along the way.
Chef James Harris found his passion for cooking and experimenting in the kitchen at a very early age, which led him to the Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. Upon graduation he spent several years practicing and perfecting his skills working under several talented chefs until he got his first big role as the Sous Chef at French 75. In February of this year he brought those talents to the Royal Hawaiian in Laguna Beach, which was in need of a kitchen makeover. He has combined his fine dining style with the kitschy personality of Royal Hawaiian to create an outstanding menu. In this short amount of time guests have already come to love his new menu items as well as improvements and twists on popular signature dishes. Harris recently took 2nd place in the ‘I Love Poke’ Festival, which featured many outstanding chefs in Orange County. This young chef has a passion for being in the kitchen and is always eager to try a new idea or concept he saw, read, or dreamed of. In his spare time Harris enjoys spending it with his new wife and baby daughter.