It’s all work and no play for Meliton Mecinas at Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. “Some think once you’re an executive chef, you hide in the office every day,” says Mecinas, who oversees five Resort dining operations. “Not me. I still cook on the line three or four times a week. And when I go home, I cook for my kids, too.”

Along with his four brothers, “Mel” Mecinas followed his father into the business, working under him at a family-style chain restaurant in Los Angeles. Not the most glamorous entrée, perhaps, but the experience still guides him, particularly his father’s reverence for organisation, hard work and stick-to-it-iveness. “He was the kind of father you think only good things about. He’d say, ‘Every day, you’re going to get better,’ and then he’d work late to make sure it happened.”

Glamour followed soon enough. At 19, Mecinas signed on with Joaquim Splichal, the chef-owner of Patina and other LA hot spots. Though he had “no clue” what he was doing, Mecinas drew on his father’s values of optimism and stuck with Splichal for nine years, which formed the backbone of his training. At Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara, Mecinas often cooked for Julia Child, including creating the second course for her 90th birthday celebration. He keeps a photo of her in his office.

A stickler for freshness and quality, Mecinas plumbs local producers for provisions and inspiration. He is wary of cookbooks, building dishes though experimentation before even contemplating a recipe. “If you see something new, you’ve got to try something with it. That’s how you become a good cook.”

The technique has worked wonders at Crescent Moon, where Mecinas took only an inkling of Mexican cuisine, combined it with techniques he’d learned from his mother and came up with “modern Mexican” dishes such as jícama sweet crab taco and diver scallops with chorizo and sweet corn risotto in lobster sauce. Doubtless, Julia would have been dazzled.

Read about Meliton Mecinas in Four Seasons magazine.

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