Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Castro.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started cooking around my senior year in high school. At the time, it was college application season. So, everyone’s trying to get into these prestigious colleges in California – UCLA, Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara… or wherever else. I threw some applications around and did not want to go to Cal States because at the time it seemed like it wasn’t the cool thing to do even when I had the GPA to meet it. Even then, if let’s say that I got into college, I really didn’t know what I wanted to end up doing. I always studied in front of a television. I remember studying for my AP European History class and just didn’t like it. So, I flashed through the TV and saw the very first episode of Top Chef – basically, 11 chefs around the country doing all these challenges and thought it was cool. Cooking had those elements of camaraderie, high activity and intensity – three things that spoke to me as I played for the tennis team back in my high school. Since then, I was hooked. At around the same time, my cooking instructor Peggy Jacobs was handing out scholarship applications for a program called Careers Through the Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP.). She suggested for anybody who was serious about cooking to fill one application up, and I just did it. What followed after was constantly practicing recipes for the competition. So between cooking practice and tennis practice, I felt like my life momentarily had a purpose. After I cooked in the competition, Richard Grausman, the Chairman Emeritus of C-CAP and his panel asked me if I wanted to get to the Culinary Institute of America in New York. On a full ride, as long as I maintained a 3.0. Who wouldn’t want to take up that chance? Of course I did. But words were empty unless something happened. So, the possibility of going to the best culinary school in the country while waiting for a week before the awards ceremony certainly had me thinking. Then it happened – I was awarded a scholarship to the CIA in New York for my associates in Culinary Arts.
Long story short, I nearly lost my scholarship after my GPA stayed at 2.9 and took a serious turnaround after I got a 3.1 which essentially took a near perfect externship grade to get there and never looked back. When I graduated my associates, I felt that same void that I had in my senior year of high school where I didn’t know what to do. I was at home with my parents and found myself a job on craigslist that had me run a small bar for 12-13 an hour which I thought at the time was rich! It still makes me laugh to this day. Around February, the school called me back to ask if I was interested in finishing up my Bachelor’s Degree on a full-ride yet again. No competition required. I signed the papers, and I was back in New York. I networked my end off during my time pursuing my bachelor’s by doing a lot of media work – newspaper, photography, blogging, you name it and I did it. But I didn’t cook. To this day, I am fortunate to have those networking opportunities because not only do I have friends all over the country, but a couch to sleep on and a place to eat if I really were in a desperate situation. Because I didn’t cook for that period of time, it almost had me going on a front of house direction when I graduated. But something in me wanted to cook because my heart still was into the whole cooking thing. I then went to The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs where I did my three year apprenticeship. We worked 50-60 hour weeks there and went to school one day a week. I got exposed to multiple outlets over there from doing banquets, restaurants, pastry, butchery, and Human Resources when I broke my hand and halted my apprenticeship for about two months or so.
After working at The Broadmoor, I landed here in Austin because I saw the Texas season of Top Chef and something about Austin was appealing to me. It felt like Los Angeles, but the traffic was significantly less bad than it was and it had an up and coming restaurant scene. During my time here, I’ve honed my craft and learned something new at the same time while working out at several gyms here in the city, which is where I started my private cheffing journey. I had just come off my third transformation challenge, and I put myself on the map in a serious manner that way. A couple of clients and the gym owner asked me himself if I could cook for them. I knew how to cook, but I’ve done a lot of my cooking in professional kitchens and not a studio apartment, because you can tell from the difference – usually in how appliances deliver temperature whether it’s hot or cold. So, I started doing it and we figured it out as time went by, and it gave me the courage to open up my own LLC.
When the pandemic hit, I was concerned that I was going to lose all of my clients. But, instead it was quite the opposite – people encouraged me to continue my service while I continued doing my primary job at the time. It helped me build a solid portfolio as well developing at least 45 weeks’ worth of menus that I am now running off of for this year with some changes based on various inspirations whether it be from Reddit’s 52 week of cooking challenge, other chefs, or friends around town who are doing cool things with food. I left my primary job doing sushi during New Year’s Eve to start EverSoul Culinary full time. Doing sushi is one of the best detours I’ve ever done in my life because not only has it made me a better person in terms of being direct, but it has allowed me to focus on my core values of integrity, honesty, and transparency while serving great hospitality – values that I demonstrate with my clients proudly.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I don’t think anything in life is ever smooth. Having to talk to strangers will never not be scary. It’s almost like going on fifty first dates… you never know what kind of people you will meet. Fortunately, I’ve been blessed enough to encounter people with pleasant personalities. Anything that I’ve learned in culinary school, I’ve had to apply in life as well – accounting’s a good example and I feel like my tax lady is going to kill me on Wednesday during our tax appointment, because there is so much to keep up with from mileage, grocery receipts, invoices, the whole nine. Marketing is also hard because everyone on social media does it and it’s not even for food – sometimes it can be for other industries which makes it even harder to promote myself when I’m having to fight with various exposure methods. And something that I still deal with a lot is anxiety – whether people will or will not like me or my product. It’s almost like fighting for validation, in a sense. I feel like as an avid recreational athlete and someone who has dealt with life in general, I’ve been taught and been practicing in the beliefs of staying the course and competing every day to make myself better than I was yesterday. That, and practicing my core values. If I was ever in doubt or struggling with a decision, I just go back to what I tell myself in the past and stick to it. Because at the end of the day, good deeds no matter how painful they might be to execute at times pays off tenfold.
As you know, we’re big fans of EverSoul Culinary. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
EverSoul Culinary is a private chef and meal-prepping service. My private chef services are where I go to a client’s house to execute a party. My pricing varies based on my prospective client’s budget (between 60 -100/person) but my background is in fine dining establishments and hotels. I have been exposed to various styles of service and am confident in executing each kind given the situation at hand. For example, I have been doing a lot of sushi dinners for bachelorette parties and recently done a Spanish Tapas menu. Both of which I have experience with given my resume, and my travels to Spain in culinary school. My meal-prep services are weekly, menu based service at 15 dollars per plate. I make a menu with chicken, beef, and pork options and pair them with a vegetable based on what I am inspired from that week. For example, this week I made beef with a celery and carrot stir-fry with a pho gravy. If you didn’t like beef, you can certainly switch out the beef for chicken.
Other options include fish or tofu or completely vegetarian! I can also do meal plans based on macros. For example, a client would want six ounces of protein, four ounces of starch and six ounces of vegetable and make a menu based around those preferences, as well. These dinners are gluten, dairy, and grain free – but the vegetables are the star of each dish. My cooking style lately has been adapted this way from one of the gym coaches I cooked for who eats this way. Think of it as meal-prep with a fine dining technique where eating my meals would be similar to eating at a fine dining restaurant without feeling heavy afterwards. What I am proud of regarding my brand is the people behind me who have helped built my core values and encouraged me to move forward. I am appreciative of every life lesson I have had over the ten years of my culinary career that have led me to this point. In addition, I am proud of saying that my brand serves hospitality regardless of identification in gender, race, age, or sexual orientation because everyone deserves a hot meal and the basic human elements of kindness and compassion. I also have aspirations to cook at The Culinary Institute of America one day, so I welcome any opportunity to integrate cooking lessons into their dinners if desired.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
In the Philippines, it would be when my cousin and I would go out for a street food cart eating grilled chicken intestines. Street food, in general. When I emigrated to the States, it was my first Chinese food experience. I think it was Panda Express, but it’s still so good to this day!
Pricing:
- Personal Chef Services: 70 – 100/person
- Meal Prep Menu Service: 15/plate
Contact Info:
- Email: eversoulculinary@gmail.com
- Website: www.eversoulculinary.com
- Instagram: @eversoulculinary
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/eversouldc
Image Credits
Isra Sharnez
