Cook seeks to use UCLA experience as ingredient for future success

The smell of tacos, Indian food and homemade ravioli wafts around the family’s small apartment from the cramped kitchen as Javier Bautista experiments with new recipes.

When Bautista was 22 years old and working in food preparation at a French restaurant, he couldn’t picture himself as a chef. Now, after almost 23 years working for UCLA Dining Services, Bautista plans to open his own restaurant using the tools he learned as a worker on the Hill.

Bautista came to UCLA in 1992 as a senior food server in Hedrick dining hall after working as an assistant cook in a handful of restaurants around Los Angeles and Hawaii. He currently works as a cook at Rendezvous at Hedrick.

Bautista said he hopes to take on more responsibilities with recipes and management, and eventually be promoted to principal cook.

Last year, Bautista applied for the Staff Enrichment Program at UCLA. The yearlong program gives employees vocational and professional development training as well as career counseling.

Once involved, he hatched the idea to open a Mexican restaurant with American fusion, and started saving money. Taking on food ordering and recipe finding has helped prepare him for his eventual move to his own restaurant, Bautista said.

Before he starts the business, he said he wants to work at UCLA for 30 years, giving him enough time to save money and retire, as well as time to do research on restaurant locations.

“Now I am getting all the knowledge to manage,” Bautista said. “I work with food costs. I do the orders. I’m calling vendors to make orders. I look at recipes now and how to keep the costs low.”

Bautista said he loves being able to find and create cost-effective recipes and experiment. For inspiration, he watches Hell’s Kitchen on TV, has subscribed to Food & Wine Magazine and uses his wife and two sons as his taste testers.

His favorite dishes to make are always Italian: lasagnas, pastas and ravioli for his family, he said. He also experiments with other cuisines, such as Indian and Latino.

“One day he went out and bought a bunch of cookbooks to start learning recipes, started cooking all types of foods in the kitchen and making us try everything,” said Rafael Bautista, his son who is a student at UC Merced.

Rafael Bautista said he remembers waking up to the smell of culinary experiments coming from the kitchen when he was growing up or staying home for a weekend.

Javier Bautista instilled the love of cuisine in his sons at a young age, but he also drove their desire to get an education, Rafael Bautista added.

“(My father) knew education was the key to success. He went to community college and took classes,” Rafael Bautista said. “He told us to get somewhere in life you have to be educated. If you don’t, the opportunities won’t be there for you.”

Javier Bautista said he is proud to have both of his sons in the University of California system, and that he is studying English and computers and will soon take a class in management.

Rendezvous at Hedrick dining management have noticed his drive and have given Bautista more responsibilities.

“I have never seen such determination in an individual to better themselves,” said Edward Westbrook, senior food service manager at Rendezvous at Hedrick dining. “He’s taking on things that other cooks in his position don’t do: inventory, analysis, ordering – we are very proud of that.”

Westbrook said he encourages his employees to not fall into the same routines, which Bautista has embraced by working more with management.

Bautista immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 1987. He said adjusting to a new lifestyle was a challenge, but he strives to give back to his community and open a restaurant that will appeal to a wide range of L.A. residents.

Owning his own restaurant would mean making his family proud and feeling like he reached the pinnacle of his career, he said.

“The first thing that I hear when you come to another country is that you have to learn the customs and language,” Bautista said. “And I’m still struggling but I’m still grateful for this country to give me these opportunities. I learned so much, I opened my eyes and my mind, everything that my country couldn’t give me.”