Meet Ruby Lopez, California Central Valley's hottest new executive chef
LODI — One of the hottest new executive chefs in California's Central Valley is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month by serving up not only incredible dishes at her restaurant but also an inspiring story of how she got there.
The fertile fields of San Joaquin County help grow many things—but there's one you can't see until you visit The Exchange 1874. It's an upscale farm-to-fork restaurant just outside of Lodi in Woodbridge.
Inside these rustic walls, it's not the produce being cut or the fresh ingredients being perfected on a plate but a person who sprouted from these fields into the kitchen and beyond.
Meet Ruby Lopez, a rising culinary star. How she got here—well, you'll find that off the menu.
One of six girls, Lopez comes from a farm-working family, led by her grandmother who spent countless hours in fields and her mother who worked at a cannery.
"My mom worked all day and all night just to try and provide for us," she said.
Her father's footprint is also firmly planted in Lopez's past and present.
"Actually, my father grew up down the street from here, so I remember just walking to the corner store right here and it just brings back so many childhood memories," she said.
The pride oozes like the fresh ingredients this executive chef puts together.
"My mom is really proud of me. She loves everything that I do," Lopez said. "She's a simple lady so she doesn't get the whole aspect of what I do, but she loves it."
The first ingredient to every success story is oftentimes the most intriguing. That's the case with Lopez, who began her journey washing dishes for another Lodi restaurant 24 years ago.
Before the plates could dry, she was being noticed. A top chef from New York had her help him in the kitchen one day and said this:
"'You should not be doing dishes. I need you to come help me in this kitchen. You have the talent,' and from there that pretty much gave me expectations," Lopex said.
We expected Lopez to cut our interview short at any point during our visit. After all, she has a kitchen to run.
"I can do this with my eyes closed," she said. "I know the kitchen so well."
It's a farm-to-fork find in the valley of fertile fields from a top chef who is as smooth in the kitchen as the sounds of jazz playing in her restaurant's bar.
Ruby Lopez hits all the right notes one plate at a time.