Executive Chef Wayne Johnson

Wayne Johnson's road to Seattle and Andaluca Restaurant has been filled with clear-cut moments that sent him in different directions and relationships that popped up later to propel him on his way. Seattle DINING! checked in with Wayne to get the full story.

The first seeds of interest in food were planted in college when he worked at an Italian place. Delivering pizzas one night, he was robbed. "And, yes, they took the pizza, too," he says. Clearly, a defining moment. "I was done with delivering," recalls Wayne. He moved to the kitchen, making dough and sauces. He watched the cooks and learned about the moment a sauce is done, before the oil separates from the tomato. "I was taking science at the same time and it all came together."

Moving to a meat packing plant, he spent a year driving trucks. If anything went wrong, Elroy the supervisor would drive his white pickup truck out to handle the situation. Wayne and the other young workers would race through their runs, doing three times the work as the older drivers. Wayne's request for a transfer inside the processing plant looked good.

Driving one day, he dropped a cassette tape. He bent to grab it; when he looked up again, fencing was flying over his truck at an alarming pace. Cows were running. The white pickup was on its way. When Elroy arrived, he told him his transfer had come through and he wouldn't tell anyone about the fence. Wayne moved to the kill floor acting as a prodder and then to quality control. A strike eventually ended his time at the plant.

He applied at the Firehouse Restaurant in Windsor, Colorado, where the owner, unbeknownst to Wayne, wanted out of the kitchen. Within a few months, he was basically running the kitchen. After a year, he decided to visit his brother in Vail. One day he met the Marriott recruiter and was hired as an expeditor, a job that ensured the plates were right before going to tables.

He kept his job at Firehouse, driving back and forth. Then winter came. One day his truck started sliding downhill in the snow. Just a few feet spared him from a horrible outcome. Another defining moment. He left Firehouse, mastered the job of expeditor and watched the chef, Tom Walker, who loved his work.

Limited staff were required for summer months. One day, one of the cooks called in sick. Suddenly the kitchen was slammed. Wayne had been saying he could cook, but no one had listened. He offered again as orders backed up. He was turned down. Finally, he just went into the kitchen and started cooking.

When they realized what they had in him, he was put into the Marriott training program. "It was great. Instead of having to pay a college so I could learn, they paid me to learn," recalls Wayne. "I thought if I could have fun and cook, then I wanted to be an executive chef." With that goal in mind, he figured out the jobs he'd have to learn and how long he'd have to stay in those jobs before moving on and came up with a ten-year goal.

Chef Tom transferred and a new, young chef came in. "He was a tyrant," recalls Wayne. "There was a lot of yelling, but he was a great cook. I learned that I had to take the good from a situation and not lose the moment because of the bad."

Other trainees worked at the Vail property, all waiting for their assignments. Soon they were all gone but Wayne. Frustrated, he went to the tyrant chef only to find out he'd been saving the best for last. Wayne would be transferred to the soon-to-open San Francisco airport Marriott. Other properties would be opening in the area and Wayne would be on the fast track. He also gave him some advice—immerse yourself in the job. No partying. "Those were the three things I learned from him—take the good from the situation, focus on your work and never yell in the kitchen."

The hotel's executive chef was Jim Gemgnani. He realized that Wayne had worked with Tom Walker, who had been Jim's sous. "Now the fast track was really on," recalls Wayne. "Because I had learned from Tom, I knew how Jim operated and didn't have the initial learning curve." From 1985 to 1989, Wayne jumped three positions from food production to banquet chef. When San Ramon opened, he was signed on as sous chef. The Regional Food and Beverage Director vetoed the move and sent him downtown as banquet chef for the 1,500 room hotel. "I learned about high production coordination. When something goes wrong, you have to take all the personalities out and say ‘if this worked right, what would the system look like?' and then put those steps into place to be successful."

The last step on the way to his goal was a sous chef position. He was asked to move to San Ramon but, surprisingly, not as sous but executive chef. The person requesting the transfer was the same person who had originally signed him into the training program, Peter Lee. His past connections helped him reach his goal two years early. He stayed from 1991-1993, then transferred to Santa Clara where he stayed from 1993-1996.

Leaving Marriott, he moved to San Francisco's Crowne Plaza Parc 55 Hotel, staying until 1999. He wanted to work where emphasis was on fresh product, stocks and sauces. While there, he attended a program at the Culinary Institute of America about the foods of Spain. "I learned about the layers of flavors, how a spice tasted alone and in food, how it all worked with wine," recalls Wayne.

Andaluca dining room

In 1999, Paul Ishii, a co-worker from Parc 55 invited him to Seattle for the weekend. Paul was working at the Mayflower Park Hotel. A month later, Wayne was asked to become executive chef at Andaluca. "I checked it out and knew it would be good," Wayne says. "It's not like most other restaurants connected to a hotel. We decide on something and do it. We make things happen in-house."

This past February, Wayne added pintxos (small bites) to the menu. "They're fun for us and the customer. People have them at happy hour or as a pre-dinner course or a late-night snack with wine. We also have mini-sweets that are just one-to-two bites."

In October, Wayne will be hosting a trip to Spain. "I've wanted to go for several years," he explains, "to see and feel the Spanish community's love of food and have fun. Anyone can join in. I hope that guests who have experienced Andaluca will want to have this experience and a sense of togetherness."

Between Wayne's job, his many charitable events, the Spain trip and two sons, he's a busy guy. But never too busy to be amazed at the defining moments and connections that have brought him to this place in his life.

Connie Adams March/April 2007