Spice of Life: How one culinary artist found her calling
By Nicole Newman // Photos courtesy of Janette Gomez, The Fig & The Knife
“Food is a medium and you use it to create the whole picture, just like you would with paint or clay as artist. It’s not always going to be the same; it’s not always going to be precise. It’s about your emotions and ideology coming through. And of course, it tastes good! ”
Chef and photographer Janette Gomez of Phoenix-based The Fig & The Knife creates delicious, healthy dishes inspired by her various cultural influences. She’s traveled around the world, seeking to find people who can teach her about the flavor profiles of their home country. But years before her travels, she inherited her love of cooking from her grandmother. Her grandma filled their home with Cuban flavors, using equal parts love and creativity.
While she grew up in a house full of flavor, Janette’s family initially encouraged her to cook as a hobby. She launched a businesses after graduating college with a degree in art history, and later worked at a museum teaching art. She soon realized, however, that the one thing missing from her life was her first true love: cooking. Janette used her skills in the kitchen to create a line of spice blends and sauces. Today, she also works as a personal chef, developing original recipes for her clients. Through her love of food and creativity, Janette shows people that healthy food and flavor go hand-in-hand.
Keep reading to learn about how she honed her craft, her affinity for exploring new cultures, her greatest influences and what the future holds for this culinary entrepreneur.
Nicole Newman: What made your fall in love with cooking?
Janette Gomez: It started when I was a little girl. I used to cook in the kitchen with my grandmother. We had a tight-knit, Latin family. We lived with my grandparents. My grandmother was at home and would cook the family meals for seven or eight of us. I liked to hang out with her and then after we cooked, we’d watch Julia Child. It started there.
NN: How did you hone your craft? Where did you learn to blend flavors in the way that you do?
JG: I’m first generation Cuban-American. Most of the stuff we had at home was Cuban. … I learned instinctively through my grandmother. She loved cookbooks and we would read them together for inspiration. She never really followed recipes to a tee. It was always, “taste this, do you like that?” So it was something I learned early on. And in high school, when kids are usually all about going to the nearest fast food or pizza place, my best friend was also a foodie (before foodie was a thing!) and we would go be snobby. We’d go to the grocery store and try things. We’d experiment.
Food was always a creative extension and extension of love. I loved to play with flavors: some things work, and some things don’t. My philosophy on that is that I never wanted to make anything that someone else could. I wanted to come up with new flavor profiles and if someone else could make it, I didn’t want to make it.
NN: I know you’re well-traveled. Tell me about some of your international experiences with food.
JG: I traveled everywhere from Europe to Southeast Asia to Polynesian countries. I always found myself finding people who loved to cook. So I learned a lot of different flavor profiles from that. … It’s more about culture. When I was in Thailand, we were spending about a month traveling from Bangkok to Changmai. We were backpacking and staying in a home-stay. Every day, the gentleman we were staying with would cook for us. When he realized I loved to cook, he brought me to all of the local markets. Obviously, I didn’t understand the language, but that didn’t matter because I understood the food. I was in my mid-20s and I realized how close community is created through food.
NN: Was there ever a time you thought, “maybe this isn’t for me?”
JG: My grandmother was a chef and dietician when she came from Cuba. Coming to the States, she worked in kitchens all her life. When I said I wanted to do this as a career choice when I was young, they tried to deter me. It is hard work. It was, “do anything else.” So I majored in art history and minored in photography.
My grandfather was a photographer and I got a camera from him after he passed. I started a company out of college; I have that entrepreneurial spirit. I then got a job at a museum … I hosted camps for kids and for adults. But through all that, I still was the chef in the circle of family and in my friend group. I would always have dinner parties and potlucks. People always said “you need to bottle this” and complimented the cooking. It would inspire me to keep doing more and more. And a lot of us, in our careers, get to a point where we want to be doing more. Going to the office every day, doing the same thing every day, even if you love it, something is missing. …
The major transition happened in 2015. I was seeing a nutritionist and she had me doing a food journal. When she was reading it, she would say “I’m salivating,” and ask, “You’re getting healthy, you’re losing weight… what’s going on? Most of my clients just throw chicken and broccoli in a pot.” She asked me to come talk to her students and teach them not to be afraid of flavor. One of the first things I taught was to forget all the boxed stuff and the commercially processed food. You need to go back the root of food. You can learn about it and not be afraid.
NN: When did you decide to make your hobby a business? Did your spices come first, or were you a personal chef first?
JG: Professionally, it was about the same time. I always created sauces and blended my own spices for personal use when cooking for my self, family and friends. They said I should sell it and open up my own restaurant. When I started with my nutritionist, she wanted me to teach her clients how to use sauces and spices to eat clean and healthy. Her clients wanted to buy my stuff rather than make it themselves, and some also asked me to cook for them instead. So it's a photo finish on what came first.
NN: Why did you choose to be a personal chef, rather than becoming a chef at a restaurant?
JG: It kind of goes hand-in-hand with my vision and values. … Could I work in a kitchen and make someone else’s recipes? Sure. But I wouldn’t be happy doing that. I couldn’t afford to open my own restaurant, so I decided to go the private chef route, where I’d cook for people in their homes or in my kitchen. If I don’t see the route that I want, I will make it myself. Being a private chef allows me to create. When customers ask me to send them a menu, my answer is always, “I will create a custom menu for you, after we talk.”
NN: So how did you go from cooking, to creating spices?
JG: Spices create flavor easily, without all the junk we tend to find in food. Because you can go out and buy a spice in the grocery store, they don’t really look at the label. There’s a lot of junk in it. Salt. Sugar. If you use them to enhance flavor, great. If you use them to fill the spice jar, not great. So I made my own.
NN: You sell a number of your spices on Makers Marketplace. If you could only choose one, what’s your go-to?
JG: If I had to choose just one, it would be the Melba’s. That actually encompasses Cuban flavor to a tee. Those are the flavors that most of the dishes I grew up with besides salt. To add a secondary, the Fairy Fig Dust & Friends, that one is just so unique. You can use it for both sweet and savory dishes. And I came up with it after getting fresh figs at a farmers’ market and because of my company’s name.
NN: On your website, I see the phrase “culinary art” used. How do food and the art of photography intersect for you?
JG: It’s woven together for me. Because of my art background, fused together with food, I’ve taken it literally and to heart. I don’t like to use the term loosely, to me it means so much more. My tagline is “artfully balanced flavor.” It is because, to me, food is a medium and you use it to create the whole picture, just like you would with paint as an artist.
NN: What’s your favorite dish to make?
JG: You know, that’s part of the creative process. I have applied to several cooking competitions and they always ask what my signature dish is. But I don’t have one! My partner loves everything I make, well, most of it. She says sometimes she gets frustrated because she falls in love with something and then she won’t see it again. If I need to apply something to the word favorite, it’s the creative process.
NN: One last question — what’s next for you? How do you see The Fig & The Knife growing in the next five years? 10 years?
JG: Honestly, I hope that I am able to get to a point where I can open a facility. Not just a restaurant. I’d love a space that can become an eatery, but where I can teach people. A place where it’s about food and culture and at the same time have a retail space. … I want it to be a place where people can come and learn, learn and eat, eat and shop, collaborate. Bring in kids who are growing up and maybe they don’t understand food. Currently, I am actually nominated as one of Phoenix Magazine’s Best in the Valley Top 10 Chefs— maybe that’ll be a launching point if I win! And I enjoy going to farmers’ markets. Right now, I’m the chief cook and bottle washer. Eventually, I’d like to expand, but I never want to get so big that it’s not about community. I always want to be part of it.
It’s best to always bring people into your circle, into your community, because that’s how you’re going to make people happy.