From corporate America to the kitchen, chef Raul Rivera's career has taken quite a turn. But with his new venture, he feels more fulfilled than ever.
It was one of his most important life events 23 years ago, and it was the catalyst that ultimately inspired him to transition into his love of cooking.
Raul Rivera survived 9/11. He worked on the first Twin Towers to be damaged and lived to tell the story.
He was a kid from the Bronx, and like many kids, he didn't get enough attention in the kitchen while his mother, aunt, and grandmother prepared meals.
“When I asked, 'Do any of you remember making pastels at Titi's house when you were a kid?' And it just kind of grew from there. A lot of young people picked up recipes from older generations. We found that we were not collecting ,” he said.
Therefore, Rivera felt it was his duty to do so.
In a way, he went back to his childhood to make up for lost time in the kitchen.
“So I started interviewing people. I started asking a few people, 'How did you make this pastel?' How did you make this? how did you make it? ” he explained. “I had a really good friend of mine, and her mom said, 'Hey, let's sit down. Let's see how we made these pastels.'” So for me, it was: It was an experience where the older generation really taught me how she did things. ”
Little did he know that this was the beginning of Roborays.
Rivera said she started testing recipes on her family and then started cooking for friends. He didn't take it seriously to make money, just to have fun and see it as a hobby.
But Rivera said once her friends and family got a taste of the food, they encouraged her to take it more seriously.
Chef Raul admits this is quite an axis from corporate America, but he has found that cooking is something he loves. It makes him feel something. That's important because life is short. It's a lesson he learned at the forefront of his mind more than 20 years ago.
“My office was facing the Statue of Liberty, and the next thing I knew, I felt and heard this loud bang,” Rivera said.
It was September 11, 2001. Rivera worked as vice president of IT operations at a small startup company that recently located in the World Trade Center towers. That morning, as he was preparing for his presentation, the unthinkable happened.
“The next thing I knew, I saw fire and debris going past my window. I knew this wasn't good,” Rivera explained. “I immediately called her wife and told her something bad had happened.”
Rivera remembers that within minutes, complete and utter chaos occurred. Everyone was literally running for their lives.
“We were on Route 46.th Floor, apparently the elevator is not working at the moment. We all started walking into the stairwell. “It started with everyone running and jumping and trying to get off, skipping three or four steps,” he said.
While in the stairwell, Rivera said the bottom floor door was locked, trapping hundreds of panicked people in the stairwell, which became crowded and filled with smoke from the open door. He said he had started.
“As people try to come out of the stairs to go to the other stairs, the door opens and smoke starts pouring into the stairs. People are screaming, a lot of swearing, a lot of people fighting and shouting at each other. “I'm doing it,” he explained.
At that moment, firefighters broke through the stairway door from below and began running up the stairs to the top. When they went back down, it was a different place.
“At that point, firefighters started carrying the burnt victims down the stairs on their shoulders. You can see people with severe burns and submerged in water. They were all soaking wet,” Rivera said. said.
Rivera said it was only after the crowd was allowed to file through the stairwell and onto the main concourse on the first floor that he was able to grasp the gravity of the situation. The tower was attacked and people were dying.
“People were jumping off buildings. There wasn't even a corpse. It had body parts everywhere. And everything was covered in gray ash, so I didn't know what it was.” he explained.
Rivera said when he got out of the building, he ran down the street and could see the devastation in full view.
“I saw both buildings on fire. I saw smoke rising and now there was only one smoke. It was very difficult to understand that the building had collapsed. “It was difficult,” he said. “That's the building I was in. That's the building that fell in first.”
Rivera said the lessons he learned that day gave him the reason to change direction 23 years later.
Life is short. Do what you like. Do what makes you happy. Be grateful for what you have.
“The 9/11 experience taught me to be grateful for the gifts God has given me, and one of those gifts is my passion for cooking,” he explained.
“That whole experience brought about a huge change in my personality. I used to be a very short-tempered and impatient person. Since that day, I have learned to be patient and not take tomorrow for granted. , I learned how to take it easy.”
So he returned to the world of cooking. That's why he opened LoboReys, a Latin fusion restaurant in Trumbull.
He believes his passion for cooking is what makes his dishes special.
“For me, it's from my kitchen to your kitchen. It's the same food I make at home for my family,” Rivera said.
His cooking is from the heart.
“I love it, so it gets my creative juices flowing. I put on some Spanish music. I understand everything. I start sautéing the ingredients. Slicing, dicing, etc. Once you start doing that, you’re in a completely different zone,” he explained.
Although he is Puerto Rican from the Bronx, he said his cooking pays homage to all Latin cuisine. In other words, you get a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
“My background is Puerto Rican, but my family is from Puerto Rico and I'm a second-generation New York native. For me, it's like being able to bring some Latin flavor here,” Rivera said.
LoboReys is located at 4235 Madison Ave. in Trumbull and offers grab-and-go meals, prepared meals and catering services.
Rivera said his next step is to renovate a recently purchased food trailer and bring his Latin fusion cuisine to the streets.
