Crisi Echiverri was always destined to be a restaurant leader. The Kentucky-raised, professionally-trained pastry chef nurtured her natural liking for cooking into a career that took her into world-renowned kitchens, such as Wolfgang Puck’s Obachine, Fauchon in Paris and Zoë in New York City.
Now manager and co-owner of Connie and Ted’s and Providence (alongside husband and chef Michael Cimarusti), Echiverri triumphs as an under-the-radar leader of Los Angeles’ dining scene. Recently, she spoke with Angeleno about her career, love for pastry and why she’s optimistic about the future of restaurants.
How did you come to pursue a career in the restaurant industry?
I always enjoyed cooking from a really early age. I grew up in a biracial family. My father was Filipino, and he loves to cook. And there were five kids in my family and I think maybe it was my way of getting more attention by being in the kitchen and cooking with him, but I've loved it from a very early age. And then baking, I would make everybody's birthday cake. My mom wasn't a big baker, and so I would always want to bake the cupcakes or the cookies to take to school.
I went to cooking school in the regular program, and the morning of my internship was spent butchering fish and then in the afternoon, I'd go back and work in pastry. I have to say, working on the line and feeling that pressure all day long where you just feel like you're never going to see the end of the day, it's different in pastry. You still have that pressure, but it's all done at the end of the day. You also have to like detail, you have to like tedious tasks, things like that and just repetition and that's just something that I'd liked doing, so I was drawn to it after I did my internship. And then once I graduated, I actually took a job cooking on a hotline, and then the pastry chef left there and then I was put in as the pastry cook and then eventually I ran the whole department there.
View this post on Instagram
How would you describe your pastry technique?
I do find— and this is just my observation over the years— that female pastry chefs and male pastry chefs seem to have a different approach to pastry. And not across the board, but I always approach it from what it tastes like. And I want it to be beautiful, but I want you to remember what it tasted like and what you're coming back for. There are a lot of pastry chefs, I think, that want to build something and they want it to look like a hat and they build it backwards from there, and I always build it from what it tastes like.
Just under 30% of chefs in the United States are women. Did/has it felt like a male-dominated space to you over your career?
It always was. My father tried to discourage me from working in kitchens just because he knew what the environment was like. Cooking school was very interesting. When I was in cooking school back in the ‘90s, there were women in cooking school, but it was very male-dominated. In my butchery class, I was the only woman in the class, so I got to be the secretary. I was deemed as a secretary by the teacher and I had to write down all the orders and get the right places and things like that.
But I am one of those people who just enjoys the energy and just the unpredictability of working in a kitchen. From day to day, it's different. There's just a charge and an energy in a well-run kitchen that is really intoxicating.
See also: How Chef Michael Cimarusti Crafted a Fine Dining Legacy at Providence
You run Providence and Connie & Ted’s. What are your days like— are you ever in the kitchen?
I am not in the kitchen anymore. When we were Best Girl at the Ace Hotel, I was writing the menu for the desert there and that has been the first time that I've done that in maybe 20 years. It was really fun to be back in the kitchen. There are a lot of occasions where Michael has to travel for an event and I can go along and that means no one has to be out of the kitchen other than him and then I can help him do an event. So I can plug myself in here and there. During COVID, I helped with takeout during Thanksgiving. I made 400 pies for Thanksgiving for other people.
It’s very different day to day, especially after the last few years. We’ve been really trying, but it does feel like a triumph to be on the other side of [the early days of the pandemic]. There are a lot of women who help run their family restaurants, and for me it's a family business. We often call it a mom and pop restaurant. Donato Poto and I have shared an office since 2005 and I think all three of us have our strengths and weaknesses, and we really have learned what those are and who to plug in for what when something comes up. So in that sense, we all really respect each other’s opinions and strengths and weaknesses and talents. It's worked really well.
View this post on Instagram
You previously oversaw the pastry program at Best Girl at the Ace Hotel in downtown. What did you enjoy about being a mentor during that period?
I think the most exciting thing to see, especially with pastry maybe, is a lot of times in restaurants when chefs don't know what to do with somebody who may not have a lot of experience— stick them in pastry. And that's just how it works sometimes. And sometimes you get to see people who just have this unique raw talent that you get to help them develop and that's really fascinating. Some people just have it. They have the eye, the ability to pick up techniques really quickly. They understand flavor and they have a really good palate. And that's really exciting to teach somebody who's really inexperienced, but also help them get to a point where they start pitching ideas to you and collaborating on those together.
What insights do you have about the current state of the restaurant industry?
It was really tragic to see how many restaurants couldn't survive the last two years, but it is also wonderful to see the restaurants that— for whatever reason— managed to survive and thrive. Because even after the last couple of years during the pandemic, it's especially hard right now with inflation and rising costs, all the difficulties with getting what you need, the products and things. It's always a challenge, and I think it's more challenging now than ever to be a restaurateur, so it's nice to see a lot of our friends, our mentees, a lot of people opening new places and still having that little bit of optimism after some really, really hard years.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Photography by: Tom Story
