Paulo Soares grew up in a small town in central Portugal called Obidos, a short drive from the Atlantic Ocean. His grandparents were both chefs and partners of two restaurants in and around Obidos. Soares spent plenty of spare time in his grandparents’ market/tavern. He recalls, “As a kid, I would run all over the place and taste everything – that was sort of my job!”
Raised rurally, Soares was exposed to a path that led to a commitment to the freshest possible ingredients, which were readily available. He described the basis for his passion, saying, “I grew up picking grapes for winemaking during wine season, catching fresh fish off the coast, harvesting vegetables in the summer, and farming livestock and cattle on our farm. It was a way of life in Portugal and came very naturally.”
Soares has plenty of fond food memories from Portugal, but he’s especially nostalgic about time spent cooking with his grandmother. He recalls “being in my grandmother’s small kitchen, learning how to make bread.” He said, “I can clearly recall her showing me how to knead the bread and we baked it in the wood burning oven in her home.”
When he was 16, Soares moved from Portugal to a town in upstate New York called Spring Valley. He craved continued contact with food and immediately started working in restaurants. His first job was at the Mason Jar, a now-shuttered restaurant in Vernon, New York. Though he started as a dishwasher, he persevered, working his way up to a chef post. After his experience at the Mason Jar, Soares had little doubt that his future lay in the kitchen.
By 1995, Soares was living in Manhattan, pursuing his passion by becoming a member of the opening kitchen staff at Pao, a Portuguese restaurant in Soho that’s still going strong. By drawing on his heritage and experiences on the Iberian Peninsula, he built enough confidence to strike out on his own. In 1997, he secured his first executive chef toque by opening Fado, a Portuguese restaurant in Tribeca, specializing in the signature dishes of his homeland. Fado was short-lived, but the experience motivated him to head west.
In moving to Los Angeles in 1998, Soares was immediately “drawn to Japanese cooking because of the emphasis on fresh fish, premium meats, and the most prime, seasonal ingredients available.” To explore his interest in greater depth, he worked behind the sushi bar at Hama Sushi in Venice beach before attending California Sushi Academy on South Robertson from 1998 to 1999.
Upon completing his intensive sushi chef coursework, Soares secured a series of increasingly high profile jobs at Los Angeles Japanese restaurants, beginning with Miyagi’s, a two-story Sunset Strip club known more for the nightlife than the food. He enjoyed a stint at Obachine, in the heart of Beverly Hills.
Soares’ biggest opportunity yet came in 1999, when he was hired by celebrity chef Nobu Matsuhisa to work behind the sushi bar at Matsuhisa restaurant, the brightest star on La Cienega’s lustrous Restaurant Row. Soares quickly proved his skills to Chef Matsuhisa, and by fall 1999, he was part of the team that helped open Nobu Malibu in Cross Creek, steps from the Pacific Ocean.
In 2004, a friend told Soares that Geisha House was looking to hire someone to work alongside Chef Genichi Mizoguchi, a Japanese chef he respected. Soares said, “I jumped at the chance."
At Geisha House, Soares works in tandem with Chef Mizoguchi, a native of Japan who comes from a long line of sushi chefs. The duo has become close, working to produce innovative sushi and Japanese fusion dishes. To be able to better communicate with “Chef Gen,” Soares has even taken up Japanese.
At the restaurant, Chef Soares considers it important to change the menu frequently, saying, “This is of the utmost importance in maintaining our standards for freshness and quality. We like to use the best of the seasons, and seasons change, therefore our menu does as well.” Soares added, “Chef Gen and I go to great lengths to ensure we get the freshest fish, the most premium Kobe beef, and vegetables like no other restaurant in town.”
Though Soares may be living on a much different coast than the one he grew up with, and even though he’s cooking with a different set of ingredients, freshness still comes naturally to him.