INTERVIEW: Linda Rodriguez

Linda Rodriguez is executive chef at Hachi, the modern Japanese restaurant at the Red Rock Resort.


When the Red Rock Resort opened in 2006, Hachi was not part of the restaurant lineup. It took a little while longer to finish the restaurant up. How did that work?
Linda Rodriguez: Actually it was about a year before everything was set up, just a year. It was still dirt and sand when Red Rock was opened They just couldn’t find a chef to create a restaurant in time. But for me it was a good deal that it wasn’t opened by somebody else, that it was fresh and built right in front of our eyes. It gave us time to really prepare for training and staffing and menu development.


And this was your first adventure to Vegas from New York?
Yes, I came from New York. I had been living there almost 20 years. I was born in the Philippines and both my mom and dad are from there. I came to the States when I was seven years old. We traveled around, stayed in California a little while, and then my dad was stationed in Japan for three years. Then we came back to Florida, and from there I sort of headed out and worked in a lot of restaurants, from there to Louisiana. I was in New Orleans a little while, and it was there I started cooking. My experience before then was waiting tables, bartending. Not until Louisiana, where I worked for a classical French restaurant in Baton Rouge, did I get in the kitchen. There was a lady chef there who kinda inspired me. We got really close, she let me in her kitchen, and I started training there. She really pushed me to go to school, to go to CIA in New York. So drove all the way from the South up to New York and went to school. On weekends I would go to New York City since it was just a couple hours train ride away, and I really tried to knock on doors of really nice restaurants in New York and try to work for free. I saw a lot of exposure doing that. After school I had to go back to the city. I thought, why not stay? It was so vibrant, the food capital, and I moved in with a friend in the city and eventually found my place. I worked in a few places. My first paying job was at River Cafe in Brooklyn, under the Brooklyn Bridge. And after a couple years I heard about this Japanese restaurant coming called Nobu. Nobody knew it at the time. But I was able to get my foot in the door and I got a job at Nobu. Ever since that, I've been doing Japanese, ever since. And that gave me the opportunity travel to Europe and open Nobu in London in the Metropolitan Hotel. It was an awesome experience, and that’s where I met my husband. After London, I came back to New York and thought I'd stay with Nobu, but I ended up getting hunted down for my first executive chef job at BondSt. I was there for nine years. I also had the opportunity to go to Mexico City for two years and open a restaurant from the owners of Bond St.


You really have been all over, and worked in some of the most intense restaurant cities in the world. Has that experience made it easy or difficult to develop your own style?
It has helped me to cultivate my style a lot. With my classical French training and experience at a classical school, with working in Baton Rouge with a really great lady chef, and with my Asian background -- she was French Vietnamese, also, so she was cooking classical French in the restaurant but at lunchtime cooking Vietnamese, Chinese, Cajun, Indian -- it has given me this great base. Everything else came with that. I was very fortunate to have someone that really took me under her wing. A lot of what I do comes from her.


So how did you end up in Vegas at the Red Rock?
I was in New York. I was getting calls from Vegas all the time, headhunters. Usually I'd hang up. But I drew interest in this one because it's not on the Strip. We were thinking of doing our own place in Brooklyn. But it was really expensive. So we thought, let’s talk to Station Casinos. We had no idea what Station was. We talked to them, and they agreed to fly us over to check on the property in Summerlin and see Vegas. Last time I was in Vegas I was really young, and it was just desert. I didn’t remember much of what it was. It has grown so much, and it's especially beautiful over here. And it sure beats New York weather. We saw the property and talked to all the people, checked everything out, did research, and decided to take a chance.


What made you want to stay away from the Strip?
I'm just so used to local clientele. I've never been to the Strip, not since I was little. In my mind it was just a place for tourists. I never really knew how big it was over here right now. But, you know ... I wouldn’t work in Disneyland. I didn’t want to be stuck working in that kind of vibe. Finding out Station Casinos was more local, that seemed more attractive. And we have a lot of regulars.


Did Station always want a Japanese restaurant?
It was always going to be Japanese. I told them they were crazy. They wouldn’t listen to me.


Have you tried lots of Japanese and sushi restaurants around town and in your neighborhood?
We've hit them all, just to see how far sushi has gotten in Vegas. The difference is the East Coast is more traditional, while the West Coast is more...


California?
Yeah. and that did change our thoughts about what kind of sushi we were going to do. For a while, we were still feeling it out, but I think finally we're feeling it right now. Traditional is boring. It has to be fun.


So now that you're settled, what are your impressions of the restaurant and food scene in Vegas?
It’s definitely here. Maybe it's five years behind, especially with sushi. It’s weird. I never thought seaweed salad would sell here but it's selling like hotcakes. I didn’t think people would appreciate the different colors and textures, or the different kinds of textures in fish. I really didn't know if they would order it or not. Things are bit more exotic on the fish side at hachi, but we're introducing it slowly. It's not bad. We're trying to educate without being too pushy. In New York, you can put cod sperm in a martini glass and people would order it just to try it out. Here, you have to be more careful, ease it in a little bit, introduce it. Give it a try. It can be frustrating sometimes but I don’t mind it, because in a way we're kind of lifting up the community a little bit.


Where do you like to eat when you get a chance to try something new?
We mostly eat at Chinatown. It's pretty good. Thank god they have a Chinatown here. We found a couple cook places recently that we like in the neighborhood. Nora’s is pretty good. We wanna go back again. Marche Bacchus also is okay. Little by little we are finding places. We’re just simple people, too. We like to go somewhere the food is cooked properly. It doesn’t have to be foo-foo. I think Summerlin is missing a great bistro place. Most of time we eat Asian, Malaysian food, Thai food. Authentic Asian things are here, and for Indian food you can find a couple places that are pretty good.


What do you think is most unique about the Hachi menu right now?
The small plates are working out pretty good. We know we have to bend a little bit with the economy, so we really worked those plates out, the cost and the presentation. It gives people more tastes. You can order vive or six different things instead of just appetizer and entree. We don’t get to go out too much but when we do, when I find a good place, I know I want to try everything. So that's why we're doing the 38 under 8 menu. And we didn’t want to call it tapas. It's just 38 under 8 right now.



Is working in a big, beautiful casino resort everything you thought it would be?
I really had no idea. I was so green. I've never worked in a corporate or casino environment in my life. And I've learned a lot along the way. It's tough to get a light bulb changed. It’s corporate. You can’t just fire people like you used to. "I got to talk to who?" But I've learned a lot about that stuff, how to manage in the corporate world. My husband says I'm good at it but I just try to treat everyone right, go through the process. If I had to do it again I would really pinpoint everything so it wouldn’t be difficult. But so far I enjoy it. I really do. When we took this opportunity in a casino, we thought a lot about taking a risk, or what happens if don’t like it. Really, we are so lucky here because of the economy. If we tried doing it on our own in Brooklyn or New York, we'd be going through hardships like a lot of people. The casino draws people in, and they definitely help with advertising and PR. We are very fortunate to be in a beautiful casino like Red Rock.