--- title: "Chef PJ Calapa: Inside the Culinary Strategy and Precision Required to Build a Standout Dining Destination" url: "https://authoritymag.co/articles/chef-pj-calapa-inside-the-culinary-strategy-and-precision-required-to-build-a-standout-dining-de" publisher: "Authority Magazine" author: "Authority Magazine Editorial Staff" authorUrl: "https://authoritymag.co/authors/authority-magazine-editorial-staff" interviewee: "Chef PJ Calapa" company: "Scampi" category: "Business" datePublished: "2021-12-12T17:47:18.548Z" dateModified: "2026-11-12T17:08:12.318Z" tags: "Business" --- # Chef PJ Calapa: Inside the Culinary Strategy and Precision Required to Build a Standout Dining Destination *The chef and owner of Scampi shares how a relentless commitment to organization, smart mentorship, and timeless flavor combinations transformed his career in the high-stakes New York restaurant industry.* > The restaurant business is already really tough, but if you communicate with your team about what you want and what you need, you can stay ahead of natural resentment. It will lead to a longer shelf life of being a chef. --- As *part of our series about the lessons from influential ‘TasteMakers’, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewingChef PJ Calapa.* *Chef PJ Calapa is the chef and owner of Scampi in the Flatiron District. Named as a tribute to one of Calapa’s favorite restaurants from his childhood in Texas, Scampi offers a thoughtful menu that showcases both the land and sea with delicately composed crudos, handmade pastas, seasonal vegetables procured from the greenmarket, and masterfully-prepared grilled items.* *Having grown up in the Mexican border town of Brownsville, Texas, PJ Calapa was exposed to a range of cuisines and flavors at an early age. As a child, he began working in his grandmother’s kitchen and later in his grandfather’s wholesale fish business. Calapa continued to nurture his culinary passion during his undergraduate studies at Texas A&M University, and then moved to New York to attend the Culinary Institute of America. After graduation, Calapa worked at Bouley in Tribeca, Eleven Madison Park, and Nobu 57, where he started as a line cook and quickly rose through the ranks to become executive sous chef. It was at Nobu 57 that Calapa learned about the delicate art of Japanese cuisine, which still informs his vision for fine dining.* *In 2010, Calapa joined Chef Michael White’s Altamarea Group to help launch Ai Fiori, which earned three stars from The New York Times, a Michelin star, and a 2013 StarChefs Rising Star Chef Award. Calapa then opened as executive chef Costata and the Campagna and the Barn at the Bedford Post Inn. In the Summer of 2016, Calapa left the Altamarea Group to open two new projects of his own. In the Spring of 2017, Calapa opened The Spaniard, his interpretation of an iconic New York Tavern in the West Village of Manhattan, followed by Scampi in the Flatiron District.* --- **Thank you so much for doing this with us! Do you have a specific type of food that you focus on? What was it that first drew you to cooking that type of food? Can you share a story about that with us?** I focus mostly on Italian food, but I certainly don’t limit myself to one cuisine. My father’s side of the family is Italian so I grew up inspired by those flavors. There’s nothing like my grandma’s eggplant parm, it will always be a cherished memory of mine. The combination of tomato and cheese, how the eggplant absorbs all of the flavors, it taught me about balance and that dish inspires my cooking to this day. **Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that happened to you since you became a chef or restauranteur? What was the lesson or take away you took out of that story?** I was invited to cook for a high profile individual, a former president to be exact, at another high profile individual’s home in New York City. The event was an intimate dinner party with celebrities and politicians. You can imagine the tight security surrounding this gathering! Every individual, including service staff and guests, was checked at the door and every box I brought with me was thoroughly searched through. As I began to unload my items including prepped items, cooking utensils, and general mise en place, I realized that I had forgotten a wine key. Wine was crucial to what I was cooking that night, so I needed to run out and get one, there was no way around it. I left and went to the nearest place I could find one. Needless to say, the secret service was not happy about me walking back in with a wine key in my pocket. The lesson is: don’t forget anything when you’re doing off site events. I’ve since then created the craziest prep lists and I triple check them. **Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey? How did you overcome this obstacle?** When I started in New York City in 2004, my first job was at Bouley. It was the fanciest restaurant in the city at the time. Per Se hadn’t opened yet and fine dining was still only being done in a handful of restaurants. Bouley was the toughest kitchen I had worked in and I was young with zero experience. Normally, they would never allow someone with such little experience as me to work there, but I met the chef at an event and took a shot by asking him if he would hire me. In that kitchen, I learned the hard way that I needed to be more organized. I was already a fast cook, but I was getting most of my prep done the day-of. I watched the guys around me not working as hard, but putting out the same amount of product as me. By working in that kitchen, I learned to work smarter, not harder. I gained a sense of understanding of the order of the day in a professional and high-caliber kitchen. I learned how to be more organized, and I still take those lessons with me to this day, 17 years later. **In your experience, what is the key to creating a dish that customers are crazy about?** This is a two-fold answer for me. You need to make something a customer has had before, but make it the best that they’ve ever had it. You also need to surprise them with something a little unexpected. Food can be deeply connected to memories and as a chef, you have the chance to create nostalgia for a food memory. For example, at Scampi we offer our signature Mafaldini Scampi. It’s a classic shrimp scampi, but we use a unique shape of pasta and we make it the best version by using the best ingredients. We use a silky lobster stock, and we go the extra step by making homemade pasta. So while a guest would recognize shrimp scampi, they’re familiar with it, they’ve likely had it before, but they haven’t had it this way. Another example that I think we do well with is the Bomba Burger.Everyone is familiar with a hamburger, but what makes ours special is the bomba sauce that we spread on the toasted bun. **Personally, what is the ‘perfect meal for you’?** In my opinion, the perfect meal isn’t made just by the food itself, but by the company the food is enjoyed with. The feeling before, after, and during a meal is important in creating these special memories, and to me, that means being surrounded by my friends and family. If I could picture my perfect meal, I’m on the beach, I’m surrounded by my friends and family, and we’re eating raw fish that we just caught. **Where does your inspiration for creating come from? Is there something that you turn to for a daily creativity boost?** I love riffs on classics. I enjoy reading old cookbooks and watching old cooking shows, the really old ones from the 80s. Flavor combinations are timeless, so even if a dish is something I’d never serve at a restaurant because it’s outdated by several decades, I can still be inspired and make something of it in a modern form. **Are you working on any new or exciting projects now? What impact do you think this will have?** I’ve recently been playing around with pizza, something I never thought I would do. Over the pandemic, I made a few pizzas for my friends and family, and now I’m obsessed. I’m experimenting with a new style, it’s not revolutionary, but it’s super fun and delicious. **What advice would you give to other chefs or restauranteurs to thrive and avoid burnout?** Trust the team around you, and communicate. It’s taken me years to understand that. The restaurant business is already really tough, but if you communicate with your team about what you want and what you need, you can stay ahead of natural resentment. It will lead to a longer shelf life of being a chef. **Thank you for all that. Now we are ready for the main question of the interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started as a Restauranteur or Chef” and why? Please share a story or an example for each.** 1. Stay patient 2. Understand that your time in a restaurant is like school. You’re learning everyday, whether it’s good or bad, you’re still learning. 3. When it doesn’t feel right, it’s okay to move on. 4. Stay as organized as you possibly can. Once the doors open and the tickets start printing, you lose control. If you keep control over every factor that you’re able to, it will be easier to succeed. 5. Enjoy it. Even when it’s hard, enjoy it. **What’s the one dish people have to try if they visit your establishment?** Our Mafaldini Scampi. It’s a cool homage to a classic dish, but also to the five and a half years that I worked with Michael White at Altamarea Restaurant Group**.**Now I’m making it my way. **You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.** To continue to instill kindness in restaurants and remember that we’re just making food and drinks, we’re not saving the world. If we can turn someone’s day around, they might do that to someone else. We can try to improve the health and mental state of people in general. **Thank you so much for these insights. This was very inspirational!** --- Source: https://authoritymag.co/articles/chef-pj-calapa-inside-the-culinary-strategy-and-precision-required-to-build-a-standout-dining-de (Authority Magazine, Business). Interviewee answers are first-person statements of the guest. Index of all pages: https://authoritymag.co/llms.txt