We were lucky to catch up with Gigi Zimmermann recently and have shared our conversation below.
Gigi , thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
Talking, learning and working with other talented people/chefs. When it comes to getting creative, love talking to anyone that has the same love for food; it doesn’t matter where they come from, who they worked for, or how many years of experience each individual has, what’s important to me is how they represent themselves throughout their food. Lastly, I stay true to myself and what works for me, because at the end of the day I want create dishes that excite me, and represent my style.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am a private chef that focuses in private dining, private cooking classes, and collaborative work with other local chefs/restaurants. For each event I am part of, my goal is to make it as personalized as possible, so it feels unique to each client, and shows the time I have invested to make this as memorable as I can for them. Before becoming a private chef, I was the executive chef/owner of Joyce & Gigi’s kitchen, and that’s where the community got to experience my style of cooking, since closing back in 2018 I haven’t brought the old menu back, so my next dinner pop-up/collaboration will be just to bring back J&G’s kitchen dishes for one night only, so stay tuned as I will be sharing all of the details in the weeks to come.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I believe was my persistency, and not giving up that early at anything that I put my mind on. My advice will be; learn every aspect of the business you are pursuing with humbleness, and once you feel confident, be persistent at it and work hard, one day it will pay off.
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
Yes, there is… I am still working on my cookbook, I put a pause on it after having my second child, and facing some difficulties at getting it published after having the material ready, but I believe now might be the right time to pulled it out of the box, and finalize it. Hoping I am able to share more details at the end of 2023.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.chefgigiz.com
- Instagram: gigi_zimmermann
- Facebook: Gigliola Zimmermann
Image Credits
Rolo Cantu, Osman Tavilson.
