Java with Jamie: L.A. chef Samantha Quintero returns to her roots

If you're a "foodie," you know her as a winner of the Food Network TV show "Chopped." Now native Angeleno Samantha Quintero is taking the L.A. food scene by storm at the newly opened Bombo restaurant in West Hollywood.

Quintero invited us to the bar to try one of the restaurant's famous agave cocktails, and we learned that's not the only thing she's shaking up.

Quintero usually drinks her coffee black, but today she's shaking it up -- with reposado and agave.

Bombo, located at 603 North La Cienega Boulevard, right in the heart of West Hollywood, got a jolt of new design after it took over the space of E.P. & L.P. last spring.

"I feel like when you eat at Bombo you experience what for me it was like to grow up being Mexican American in L.A., anything from like the street corn to the carne asada," said Quintero. "So it really took me back to memory lane."

Quintero studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Pasadena, then headed out to Chicago. A bad breakup had her heading home to Los Angeles, where she made a name for herself at Night Market. But she always had dreams of returning to her Mexican roots.

"And I decided, 'You know what? I want to go work at Pujol [in Mexico City],' which is like one of the best restaurants in the world. And I sent them an email. They replied back, they said 'We'd love to have you.' Great. A week later I met my husband and I told them my plans. I was like, 'This is what I'm going to do. This is what I want.' And you know, I would say it was love at first sight because I didn't move. I stayed. It all worked out."

She got married, had two children and took a year off to figure out her next steps.

"Being a mom and being especially in this industry is crazy. It's a lot. You have to put in a lot of hours," said Quintero.

But she says the Botanical Hospitality Group sold her on getting back into the kitchen when they allowed her to create food that reminds her of growing up with her Mexican American immigrant parents in Echo Park.

"I feel like your destiny kind of leads you to where you should be. Sometimes it may seem like a difficult decision, but I think when you're there, you're just like, 'This is where I'm supposed to be,'" said Quintero.

Managing a restaurant while still being a mom can be tough, and while Samantha Quintero says you can have it all, you do need help -- that's where her mother and husband step in.

"If I'm not thinking about work, I'm thinking about home. And vice versa, if I'm at home, like there's no relax time for me," said Quintero. "I sometimes think like, you know, my mom, she worked really hard too, and I was just like, how did she do it? I feel like I can barely manage, you know?"

And yet somehow she managed to not just make it onto a reality TV show, but win it during season 54 of the Food Network's "Chopped."

"It was crazy. It was crazy beautiful. I could have not been more blessed to have met the people that I met. You know, I thought I was going to go in there and it was going to be really like egotistic energy and like, sabotaging, you know? But it wasn't, everybody was so lovely and so like positive and we were trying to help each other out, you know, like, 'Oh you have herbs?' Yeah. Like it was an amazing experience."

Besides reappearing, Quintero, who is just 32 years old, has another big dream.

"I've always wanted a restaurant of my own. And Bombo kind of is that, you know, it is my menu. Eventually I do just want to branch off and do my own thing, but I think that'll take some time."

I believe she'll get there. And believe it or not, cooking wasn't her first passion. Growing up here in L.A., Quintero says she originally wanted to be an actress. When that didn't pan out, she was a police cadet. Then a trip to Spain had her pivot from police officer to chef.