I Grew Up Peeling Tomatillos

My name is Ramon, but most people know me as Roe. My sister gave me that nickname back in high school, and it stuck. I’m a proud Chicano, born and raised in California. My mom is from Guadalajara, Jalisco, and my dad is from Morelia, Michoacán. Everything I do today is rooted in the people, culture, and experiences they gave me growing up.

Food was always at the center of our lives. After immigrating to the United States, my mom’s family built their lives through restaurants, kitchens, and small businesses. My parents followed the same path. Some of my earliest memories are in the back of our family taquería, peeling tomatillos after school while my mom cooked. I used to watch her transform simple ingredients into something that brought people together. Looking back now, that’s where everything started for me.

On my dad’s side, music shaped the family story. My great-grandfathers were mariachi musicians in Morelia as early as the 1930s, and my dad carried that tradition forward as a violinist, violin maker, and mariachi. Through him, I grew up surrounded by Mexican music, storytelling, discipline, and performance. He performed with groups like Mariachi Sol de México and recorded on Linda Ronstadt’s Canciones de mi Padre. Watching both of my parents taught me that craftsmanship matters, whether it’s happening on a stage, in a kitchen, or inside a business.

I’ve worked in restaurants for most of my life. I started bussing tables as a teenager, eventually moved into management, and spent years learning the realities of hospitality from the ground up. Over the last two decades, my experience expanded into leadership, operations, business development, education, and creative work. I worked in professional kitchens, led teams, taught culinary arts and restaurant management, and mentored students and young professionals trying to find direction for themselves.

Over time, my interests naturally grew beyond the kitchen. What started as casually photographing food turned into a genuine passion for branding, media, graphic design, and web design. I became fascinated by the way businesses present themselves and how visual storytelling shapes the way people connect with a brand long before they ever walk through the door.

In 2020, during the pandemic, I saw firsthand how many small businesses were struggling to adapt. I understood those pressures personally because I grew up around them. So I started helping where I could through branding, strategy, content creation, websites, and hospitality consulting. What began with restaurants eventually expanded into work with service businesses, lifestyle brands, entrepreneurs, and creatives across different industries. No matter the industry, I found the same thing was always true: every business has a story, and people connect with what feels honest, thoughtful, and human.

That’s the heart behind Chef Roe.

This space is more than food, and it’s more than marketing. It’s a reflection of the experiences, culture, creativity, and lessons that shaped me along the way. Here you’ll find stories, creative work, branding, hospitality insight, media projects, and reflections from both the kitchen and the business side of life. Some of it is rooted in tradition. Some of it is strategic. Some of it is still evolving in real time.

Whether you’re here for inspiration, collaboration, perspective, or simply curiosity, there’s room for you at my table.

Welcome.

I’m Roe.