From there I went to pseudo-sushi world and bussed tables at TAKA’S. I say pseudo because it was a freestyle place, Billy Ngo was there, Taro from Mikuni’s was there, and Taka Watanabe let these guys do whatever they wanted—definitely not traditional, it was avant-garde, but still really good. I helped prep in the kitchen a little and this sparked my desire to pursue this field a bit more. They were doing really cool stuff and folks would come in and put themselves in these guys’ hands and they’d just create off the cuff. That excited me. So I got a job at Taiko Sushi starting in the kitchen and worked my way up to sushi chef. I was trained by an old-school Japanese chef named Aki, so I learned all the traditional stuff—nothing like TAKA’S.

I took breaks in between at this stage, mid-20s, still playing music. I will say there are a lot of musicians that become cooks because both genres take on a lot of misfits. Most cooks and chefs are kind of misfits. As higher-profile chefs make this career choice a bit more respectable in the public eye, we’re still generally a bunch of misfits, like musicians. You have to use your hands and be repetitive in both lines of work along with teamwork, plus, you make people happy through stress and intensity. I became a chef because I feel my path pushed me into that direction. It just made sense.

In 2003, still in Sacramento, I ended up under Russell Akubo at Tokyo Fro’s. I realized that other than Greta’s, none of the kitchens I was in had a lot of structure other than what I put together to get my job done, until I was headhunted by John Gurnee, who was then sous chef under Philip Wang at MASON’S across from the California state capitol. (John, by the way, is my sous chef here now). Philip had worked for Traci des Jardins, Paul Kahan and Daniel Boulud. When I got on there, Philip turned on the color on my black and white TV. I mean, everything came together under this chef. Chef Wang had refinement and was willing to teach. This was a great opportunity for me and I advanced quickly. I became a sous chef in about nine months. Mike Fagnoni, who was opening HAWKS with his wife, took on an interim job at MASON’S, and that was a great learning experience working with him. He had a great background having worked at Jardiniere, Village Pub and also Oceana in New York City. Between Philip, John Gurnee and Mike Fagnoni I received an invaluable education.

In 2007 Philip was supposed to take a job at a boutique place in New Zealand called the Hapuku Lodge that was using local ingredients but wanted to bring in the California flair, as it was in the heart of New Zealand wine country. They even flew out to Sacramento and Philip and I cooked for them—they loved it! At the last minute Philip decided not to take the job and told these guys that I was well suited for the job, so my wife and I went for it and flew off to New Zealand. In this business sometimes you just have to give in to the opportunity that comes up. We were there a total of a year and my wife worked the front of the house and I worked the kitchen with another chef named Tara who was at Zazu in Santa Rosa. It was kind of a weird set up. We did an ingredient-driven cuisine with a wine-country flair. It was really cool, but the bizarre deal was the ex-chef was now the GM, and the owners did not like his food, so now there was this tension and we worked like seven days a week, strange situation that actually did not work at the time.

After four months my wife and I packed up and went north to Wellington and I got a gig at a place called Sweet Mother’s Kitchen, a super hip, ultra busy comfort-food place. We served three meals a day and I loved it, because again you develop the tools to solve problems and make it work, thus building a skill level that was not there before. My wife Lisa got a front-of-the-house gig at what was probably the “French Laundry” of the country called Logan Brown, so we were doing okay, but we started to get restless far off in New Zealand.

Then I got a call from Philip who was in Hawaii opening a restaurant for the Merriman’s group, and he called me and said, “Hey, how about coming out here and being my exec sous? We are going to open four more spots and there will be a really good chance of you taking one over as the exec.” So in 2008 we said goodbye to New Zealand and aloha to Maui and within two months I became the executive chef of the highly respected Merriman’s on the Big Island. This is where I learned to run a financial kitchen, learned how to run a business and actually make money at fine dining.

After a couple of years landlocked on the islands we really needed to come back stateside. I was looking around for gigs in San Francisco and heard that Tyler Florence was going to open up Wayfare and thought I’d be a perfect fit, because I was really good getting the job done, plus a lot of attention would be on Tyler, and I was cool with working behind the scenes to bring that essential production part together. All the skill sets I had learned came together: heavy production, troubleshooting, food quality and running a financial kitchen. I flew out and did a tasting for Tyler, really simple—a marinated veggie salad, a corn soup with fried oysters, pork loin with spaetzle and whole branzino with capers and smoked olive oil. I literally got off the plane, ran to the store, picked it up, fixed it and got the job! They saw that I was a hard worker and had the focus needed for the position.

Tyler and I have a really good working relationship. I understand his vision and I’m clicking more and more with what he wants me to accomplish. The road to this point has been very interesting—it has been a natural progression, at times stressful, but this is where I need to be right now. I thrive on the energy and it suits me well. I’m having a lot of fun!

How would you define your style?
That’s a good question. I don’t like too many deliberate things, I like happy accidents. There is something too brainy about overworked food. I like simplicity and I’m super ingredient driven.

What chefs influenced you the most?

• Philip Wang, my original mentor

• Michael Fagnoni—although I worked with and not for him, he had a great impact

• Neil Murphy at Merrimans

• John Gurnee—we have worked side by side for years and his food is consistently great

• Tyler Florence

What do you like most/least about being the boss?
MOST: I like the relationships developed with everybody. I like the people I work around and I like being a mentor.
LEAST: Nothing least, it all comes with the package. It is what it is.

If you could keep only three culinary books, what would they be?

• Paul Bertoli’s book

• The French Laundry

• And I Google everything else!

Favorite kitchen gadget:
Presently my Cryovac machine!

If you were not a chef, what would you do?
Play music.

Culinary trends that bug you/ trends you like:
BUG: Nothing really bugs me. I don’t have a deep opinion about trends.

LIKE: I like the pop-up restaurants that are happening now. I love the variety.

An ingredient that you’re attached to:
Chicken

Most memorable dining experience:

• There was this vegetarian Japanese place in Berkeley called Chawya that blew my mind. Everything was very, very good.

• And when Philip Wang did a tasting menu for me at MASON’S when I worked for him. I went in with my wife and he created a special 12-course menu for us—made us feel so special and I realized that’s what it’s all about, making the guest feel special.

Favorite “elbows on the table hole in the wall”:
Zelda’s in Sacramento—Chicago-style pizza in an old, dark, cozy setting.

A food item you hate to admit to liking:
I eat a lot of mayonnaise. Don’t hate…

Three things in fridge right now:
Cupie mayonnaise and some takeout. Condiments and leftovers.

Secret junk-food indulgence:
Gummy bears, worms, gummy anything. I love Skittles—I can skip a really good dessert and just eat a bag of Skittles.

Editor’s note: CAFÉ thanks Chef Khoury and Preferred Meats, which supplies product to Wayfare Tavern, for allowing the republishing of this interview.

John Paul Khoury, CCC, is corporate chef of Preferred Meats Inc. based in Oakland, Calif. For 25 years, Preferred Meats has supported the small family farmer by supplying some of the country’s top restaurants with farm-to-table meats. For more info, visit www.preferredmeats.com or call (510) 632-4065.