You’ve heard it often: Someone visits Park City for skiing or a seasonal job, our mountains cast their captivating spell, and they stay forever.
But few of those stories involve emigrating from another country and leaving behind a budding legal career.
Meet Arturo Flores, Executive Chef at Chimayo Southwest restaurant. After completing his legal education in Mexico, Arturo visited a friend in PC and took a job at Grappa to earn extra money. Soon, Park City’s beauty, kindness, and most of all, seeing Bill White’s first restaurant kitchen (“The spices! The aromas!” he recounts) changed everything. “I knew this was what I wanted.” That was 33 years ago.
“You might think it was scary, but it was just exciting,” Arturo says of reinventing himself. “Everyone welcomed me, and Bill made adjusting to a new place and culture much easier.”
“But the key is having an open mind and a passion to learn and grow.”
Arturo certainly grew with Bill White Enterprises, moving from Grappa dishwasher to expeditor and sous chef before being elevated to Chimayo Executive Chef in 2000. “I started learning and it lit a fire; I wanted to do more,” he says of his redirected career. “I didn’t expect it to take over my legal aspirations, but working with Bill, my passion really developed.”
Today, Arturo is most at home in his busy kitchen, blending the flavors and ingredients that define Chimayo’s authentic Southwestern cuisine while offering a mental tour of his spicy repertoire. “Cumin, paprika, Mexican oregano, coriander, and peppers like ancho, guajillo, puya, morita, jalapeño,” he says contentedly. “Spices get me excited about being a chef, and I love blood orange, passion fruit and other juices.”
It is clear the legal profession’s loss is our culinary gain, and Arturo credits Parkites themselves as his inspiration. “I never felt like an outsider,” he says fondly. “Right from the start, everyone made me feel part of the Park City family.”