Chris Carrillo
Chef de Cuisine, République | Los Angeles
June 2021
2021 StarChefs Los Angeles Rising Stars Award Winner
Hailing from Highland Park, Chris Carrillo always wanted to go to culinary school, but a registration mistake ended up leaving him with a full year off. He didn’t intend to squander his school break; he traveled to Italy and staged around Emilia-Romagna, Colorno, and Venice at the age of 17. He attended ALMA culinary school in Italy then returned to California to work the line at the SLS Hotel Beverly Hills, Pizzeria Mozza, and Petty Cash Taqueria. In 2013, he started at République, and Chef-owner Walter Manzke sent him on more expeditions, such as a stage at Le Grand Restaurant in Paris and a dinner with Wolfgang Puck. Carrillo took a break from the kitchen in 2016, bought a one-way ticket to Japan, and ate constantly. When he came back to République, Carrillo was offered the role of chef de cuisine. In 2020, when the coronavirus put farmers out of work, Carrillo retailed produce boxes with the proceeds going back to the farms. To keep République going, he did takeout and developed decadent boxed dinners to show off a taste of Carrillo’s refined and technique-driven cooking style.
