Chef Walter Mayen is a born-and-bred Angeleno who began his career shucking oysters and building shellfish towers at the seafood station at Mastro's Steakhouse in Beverly Hills 20 years ago. Today, he's the restaurant's executive chef, overseeing the Southern California locations of this legendary chophouse chain.
Through the years, no matter how many stars he sees packing Mastro’s dining room or the number of accolades he receives, Mayen sounds most awed by the people he works with.
“Everyone comes up to me and says, ‘Oh, chef, I love your food. Oh, everything's so great,” Mayen tells L.A. TACO. “But I always tell them I'm just the orchestrator of the orchestra. It's my team back there that is making the beautiful symphony of food. And it takes a good team to believe you and be behind you and to execute the food the way you want.”
Spoken like the team player he’s been, at least since his days as an offensive lineman on Franklin High’s football team.
Mayen started life on Occidental Boulevard, just a few blocks from Tommy's, in L.A.’s Rampart District, where he was born to a Guatemalan father and a mom from Jalisco, Mexico. In sixth grade, his family moved to Highland Park, located near York and Avenue 56, the neighborhood where they are still based.
He fondly remembers his teenage years spent on the gridiron, when he and his friends would begin the day over breakfast at Tam’s, do lunch over some pastrami sandwiches at Troy’s, and end the day over pizzas at Folieros.
“I grew up, kind of a lot in between like Latino and American cuisines,” he says. “I was very much introduced to a lot of the meatloaves and different aspects of American culture.”
Around the age of twelve, Mayen began learning to cook by watching his mother, who worked for wealthy families in Los Angeles and passed down critical cooking skills to her oldest son. During times she had to travel back to Mexico, it was Walter who would cook for his dad and little brother.
“The first dish that I actually made, I was 15 and I made beef and broccoli, and I thought it was the best thing in the world,” he says. “I really enjoyed that. To bring people happiness and joy from something that I did or created.That got me really wanting to venture into this.”
As the end of high school drew nearer, Walter’s guidance counselor was stressing the importance of taking the SATs, so he could be accepted by a good college. Having done his research on culinary school, he shot down the idea in favor of enrolling at The California School of Culinary Arts in Pasadena, which later became a location of Le Cordon Bleu school.
“It was a great experience because you literally learn all the fundamentals when it comes to how to make a lot of these mother sauces, like hollandaise, and really appreciate the history of the food, which is something I never really knew about,” he says.
“I was a little young, he continues. “I was still a little kind of arrogant in the way of thinking I was going to be the next Emeril Lagasse coming out of culinary school. That was a huge shock once I figured out that that wasn't the case.”
Once finished, Mayen got a part-time job working the buffet line at The Aladdin in Las Vegas. But it wasn’t long before Los Angeles pulled him back, as he got the news that his grandfather’s health was waning. He worked for a little bit at Terminal 8 at LAX through HMS Host, but wasn’t really happy in those surroundings.
Determined to find a new job, Mayen set out for Beverly Hills one fateful day in 2001. This was in the Thomas Guide era, before the widespread adoption of GPS. He came armed with print-out maps from MapQuest showing all the restaurants along Rodeo Drive.
“Unfortunately, I passed Rodeo and made a wrong turn onto Canon,” he recalls. “And I was trying to figure out how to turn back because there are a lot of one-way streets. And I stopped right in front of Mastro's. I didn't know that it was there. And as I looked up, there was a huge sign that said ‘Mastro's opening soon, now hiring.’ So I parked my car, went in, and applied, and I got hired on the spot.”
That was almost 24 years ago.
Walter was hired by Taylor Boudreaux, the chef running Mastro’s at the time, who told Mayen he needed someone who could shuck oysters and make elaborate four-tiered seafood towers as fast as possible.
“I kind of lied to him and said, ‘Yeah, I know how to shuck oysters,’” Mayen says. “But I never knew how to shuck an oyster. Never did. Never tried.”
After gouging his hand badly in his second week–leaving an everlasting scar the 43-year-old calls a “souvenir” that reminds him where he started–he slowly worked his way up in the ranks of each station month-by-month. Within half a year, he was named the restaurant’s executive sous chef, a position he held for six years.
Happy with his place in the restaurant at the time, his good friend and mentor, Brian Christman, challenged him to rise to his greater potential, giving Walter the confidence he needed to overcome his fears of running an upscale, high-volume restaurant.
“I think that's a fear of a lot of people when they move up into positions,” he says. “That fear of not wanting to mess up, the fear of what ifs. What if I don't do this, what if I don't do that? But like Brian says, ‘you'll never know if you don't ever make that jump, if you're afraid to make a mistake.’”
With Christman’s departure, Mayen was named executive chef, a position he’s held for 16 years now.
Today, Mayen oversees the menus, culinary vision, new location openings, and training at Mastro’s, which has restaurants stretching from California to Florida and New York. Among the dishes he’s proudest of introducing is a garlic-roasted bone marrow recipe, and an heirloom tomato-and-burrata cheese salad he created, which is served at all 22 Mastro’s locations today.
While Mastro’s reputation may have been built on serving porterhouse steaks, Miyazaki A5, oysters, and rack of lamb to the rich and famous, Mayen takes particular pride in serving people who have saved up for the experience.
“I love to meet guests for the first time and they're like, we've been waiting, we've been saving for a year, two years to come here to celebrate my birthday, our anniversary, our promotion, our starting of a business,” Mayen says. “Those are the people that we really want to make sure that we impress because they saved for so long and they have so much hope and expectations that I want to make sure to hit it out of the park.”
Much as it was back on the field at Franklin, his favorite experience is working with a team.
“It's the people that have really drawn me to want to stay at Mastro's,” he says. “From the higher-ups in our corporate offices, down to the dishwashers that are the backbone of every restaurant. It's just being able to have a staff that respects you, that really makes working a pleasure and an ease.”
“The head coach gets the praises or the anger of all the fans and other people,” Mayen says, when we push the football analogy. “If your team believes in you and your team respects and does what you want them to do, they do it with pleasure. I hold everybody accountable, but at the same time, I respect what they do and all their opinions and anything they say as regards to their stations. I take that very, very, very much close to my heart. So, you know, my staff is, again, the key and the reason why I've been able to have my success.”
Mayen also takes inspiration from his peers, including what he calls “game-changing” restaurants in Los Angeles such as Republique, Mozza, Animal, and Son of a Gun, while also holding a special place in his heart for mom-and-pop restaurants.
He also expresses admiration for Villa’s Tacos, a taquería from his own neighborhood, that has made its mark on Los Angeles.
“Those guys are, just, their tacos are phenomenal and they do a great job,” he says.
Mayen wouldn’t want to be doing what he does in any town other than his hometown of Los Angeles, which has shaped him into the chef and man he is today. He's been back to Franklin a few times to talk to the kids, showing them how hard work can help achieve just about anything.
“I love L.A.,” he tells TACO. “You got the beaches, you got the sand, you got the mountains, you got everything you need within a short drive. L.A. is a huge mecca when it comes to the culinary world, too. It's just a beautiful place. It's really a melting pot of cuisines and people.”
“There's nothing like L.A. because L.A.'s people are passionate,” he continues. “They love truly with all their heart. That comes from being a Dodger fan. You know, we love them when they're winning, but when they lose, we're pissed off at everybody in the world. And it's the same thing here.”
“When L.A. has your back, this is the greatest city,” Mayen finishes. “I truly believe that if L.A. is behind you, you are in the best place in the world."
Mastro's Steakhouse ~ 246 N. Canon Dr. Beverly Hills, CA 90210
