Chef Jet Tila puts a lot of value in telling his story. And he feels that has played a big part in his success, as he worked his way up the culinary ladder from corporate and college dining, into restaurants, hotels and TV cooking shows.
“Food is our storyteller,” Tila told the audience at US Foods’ recent Food Fanatics 2025 conference, a gathering of 5,000 operators and industry folks in Las Vegas earlier this month. His own story began as a kid in LA, where his father ran the first Thai grocery store in the U.S. and he “logged my first 10,000 hours in the food industry,” he said. “Start with your roots” is Tila’s advice for beginning your story.
When adversity hit his family and his parents had to move back to Thailand, Tila stayed behind, and at 17, began his culinary education.
Lesson learned: “Don’t let your past define you, destroy you or defeat you. Let it strengthen you.”
He enrolled in culinary school and upon graduation got a job at Compass Group, opening the management company’s first Thai café at Google headquarters. From there, he worked at a number of Los Angeles restaurants and applied for a job at Encore, a Wynn resort in Las Vegas. “They needed someone who could cook Chinese, Korean and Thai food and I got the job,” said Tila. He was hired and asked to name a salary. “I asked for twice as much money as I had ever made, and when I handed the figure over, they laughed,” he recalls.
Lesson learned: “I didn’t know my value.”
While at Encore, Tila was asked to compete against the great Morimoto on "Iron Chef." Although the Encore restaurant was a winner, he was pretty much an unknown, but he jumped right into the public fray. “I lost the competition but it opened the door to Food Network,” he said. Morimoto was impressed and so were the producers and viewers.
But it was honoring his roots and his authenticity that turned Tila into a Food Network star. “Ingredients are identity,” he told the conference attendees. “Ingredients tell people who you are. Thai food is fish sauce, bird’s eye chilies, holy basil. Using authentic ingredients keeps your story honest.”
Lesson learned: “Anyone can fake technique, but they can’t fake the soul that comes from the right ingredients.”
That doesn’t mean technique shouldn’t be part of your story as a chef, Tila added. “When you use proper technique, you’re showing respect for the cultures that taught you, but you can then bend it, remix it and make it yours,” he believes. “That’s how your story grows.”
Plating and packaging are also key. “They should always match your story, because they’re the first and last impressions of your dish,” he said.
Lesson learned: “When everything aligns, the dish becomes more than just a meal; it becomes a memory that feels intentional, cohesive and worth sharing.”
Tila concluded his story with a heartfelt takeaway about being a chef: “Make people feel something. At the end of the day, food is about connection. When someone eats your dish and says ‘This reminds me of home,’ or ‘I’ve never tasted that before,’ you’ve told your story right."
Lesson learned: “Forget chasing perfection—it’s about creating an emotional reaction.”
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