Chef sees food as his love language

Armando Murillo has always expressed himself through food. Beginning as a boy in his home in Southern California, Murillo was pulled into the joy that comes from creating delicious cuisine.

Born in Las Cruces, Murillo moved to the Pasadena area with his family when he was in junior high. It was there that his fascination with the power of a good meal.

“I was always fascinated at how you could transform raw ingredients into a meal, into a dish and I was also fascinated how food can bring people together,” Murillo said. “How it could fill the table, how it could cross borders, get people together, and everyone enjoy what we create.”

He wondered how he could do that and it became his passion to learn how to bring smiles to people through his creations.

“I just love the aromas,” he said. “I like the sound of the food hitting the plates or the stoves. I found it so interesting, and then as time went on, I found that I was pretty good at this. I found excitement in doing this. It was just an amazing journey.”

Murillo comes from a blue-collar family. His father believed in hard work and often encouraged Murillo to partake in activities outside, but Armando always found comfort in the kitchen, where his love of cooking was nourished by his mother.

“She would be rolling tortillas every day,” Murillo said. “The aroma of the tortilla cooking, I just found that was me. She would let me bake cakes so that was my first introduction to the culinary world. I remember opening these boxes. I remember making a mess. I remember destroying the kitchen, but it didn't bother her at all. I was so young, I was so happy just to open the box and make this vanilla cake.”

Building a career
Murillo’s first job was as a dishwasher at a local restaurant when he was in high school. He moved from that role to prep cook to line cook, learning more at each stage, and becoming more passionate about his craft.

“Flavors became the way I speak,” he said. “Every time I had a memory of the kitchen, of being back home, I learned how to use these different ingredients to be my words, to express myself.”

The chef received his formal training at California School of Culinary Arts, a cordon bleu program. When he attended, that was an intensive four-year program. He had to apply for acceptance and recalls there was a long, agonizing wait before the letter came.

His education included some time in Spain, Italy and other stops. He even had the chance to work with Wolfgang Puck at the Academy Awards. He never met him, but the experiences opened doors.

“I found that the food industry can take you anywhere you want to go,” Murillo said. “Everyone's looking for people who know how to cook, anyone that has a passion for this, so you could go to resorts, you could go everywhere, so I used that as my vessel to see the world.”

With all of that traveling came exposure to a variety of styles and people.

“I dealt with a lot of different chefs, different personalities,” he said. “All these people, there's still part of them in me, how they run the kitchen, their flavor profiles. I dealt with Egyptian chefs, Italian chefs, American chefs. All of them got me going to where I am at now.”

Chef Murillo’s first kitchen was at Pacific Palms resort in California.

“That was my first taste of cooking for banquets for 300, 400, 500 people,” Murillo said. “Now that I look back, I didn't know what I was doing but I kept that to myself. I learned. I experimented. One thing I learned is that when you go home at five, you don't go home at five. You stay up all night thinking about tomorrow, always thinking about tomorrow, always preparing for tomorrow.”

Home to Las Cruces

Murillo was born in Las Cruces and he has family here. He reached a stage in his career during which he was a traveling chef. His last stop was in Phoenix when he saw a job listing for an executive chef at New Mexico State University.

He enjoyed the work at the university, but found the corporate atmosphere took away much of his creative freedom. That was a big motivator in his decision to move to his current position, as the executive chef at the Las Cruces Convention Center.

“Here they're allowing me a lot of creative freedom and with creative freedom comes a lot of responsibility,” he said “But with creative freedom comes a lot of imagination. That comes with a lot of sleepless nights, but I welcome all that. That's what keeps me alive, that's what keeps me smiling, that's what keeps me coming every morning with so much energy because I know I’ve got so much to give, and I’ve got so many tools I can use to make this happen.”

He particularly enjoys the “Chef Creates” events in which he gets to participate. Murillo approached the general manager with the idea for opening the doors of the convention center to the community with a series of themed dinners that continues to add flavor to locals.

“The first one we did 10 people showed up,” Murillo said. “The next one we did was 20, then 25, then 30, then we did 120. People see something they haven't seen before, a dining experience that you only see in New York and Los Angeles.”

The format is not just to provide food, it’s to share his passion for the food he creates.

“I share it with you,” he said. “I talk about the meal. I talk about the ingredients. I share how we came along to this theme. It's more about conversation, making friends.”

Murillo has a simple answer to the question about his favorite dish to prepare.

“This is my answer,” he said, “The dish I'm creating that day. It's always because I tell my story through flavor, through textures, through different exotic ingredients. I try to combine all these things to show who I am. Because I might fall short on words, but I will never fall short on flavor and creations. At the end of the day, after they taste the plate I created, if I see a smile, I know I did my job.”

Chef Armando has some advice for all the novice chefs as we prepare our holiday meals.

“I think what you've got to do is be very spontaneous,” he said. “Don't have a plan because over time you get so stuck on this plan and timing that things don't turn out right. Just let your feelings go, be spontaneous, be adventurous. Think out of the box and just go with what your feelings are telling you to do. You can't go wrong with that.”

Murillo believes that food has no boundaries. It crosses borders, warms the heart, makes people smile, and brings them together. To him, food enhances life and delivers memories that last forever.

“You could cook many different ways but whatever you, do you, put joy in it, put your passion, your love into this dish,” Murillo said. “When you present it to your family, it brings joy. You’re going to find a heartbeat there because it's about life. Food is everywhere. It's a common binder that brings people together, so the love you're going to put in that dish, you're going to get it all back.”