Robert Okura

Passion for cooking is key ingredient for The Cheesecake Factory's culinary development VP

Life often turns on little things. Just ask Robert Okura, whose culinary career was launched by an office going-away party.

In the 1970s, when he was in his early 20s, Okura was employed by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Co- workers, who knew of his interest in food and cooking, asked him to prepare a small luncheon for a departing employee.

"They said, 'Bob, we only have a little bit of money, $2 per person,' " he recalls, "It wasn't much to work with, but I said I'd do it."

With only $50 to spend, Okura put together a few basic deli trays and arranged them in a pleasing manner. The response floored him.

"Everyone was so appreciative it amazed me," he says.

That kind of feedback and immediate gratification made a big impact on Okura, who thought, "Wow, this is so much more rewarding than coming into the office every day and doing paperwork. This is what I want to do for my career."

At the time a family friend just had taken over management of the dining room at a popular Los Angeles golf course. "I quit the water and power job and went to work with this individual as chef and manager of the banquet operation," Okura recalls.

From there he studied under Chef Gregoire LeBalch in Los Angeles at the Chef Gregoire French Restaurant. From 1984 to 1987 he was a banquet sous chef at the MGM Grand Hotel, now Bally's Grand Convention Hotel/Casino, in Reno, Nev.

Okura says that when he joined The Cheesecake Factory in 1988 as vice president of culinary development and corporate executive chef, the concept was "doing great, the menu was creative, the quality was absolutely record-setting and everything was happening just the way it was supposed to happen."

So where do you go from there?

Okura, who meets almost daily with Cheesecake founder David Overton, says, "We had a strong beginning, but we're only taking it 80 percent of the way."

That mind-set prompted Okura to develop a comprehensive program that standardized recipes, including exact requirements, to ensure that every dish would look and taste the same in all 61 Cheesecake Factory restaurants.

"Bob's always up for the challenge, and he's very innovative," says Howard Gordon, the company's senior vice president of business development and marketing. "It's rare when you find an individual with Bob's passion."

Okura is proud to be a contributor to a chain that stresses quality. "People often see high-volume chain restaurants as factories that just want to turn tables and get people out."

That's never been the case at The Cheesecake Factory, Okura notes. "When we develop a dish, we ask, 'Is it good enough to be on our menu? Are people going to love it?' We have to get a unanimous 'Yes, yes, yes,' and only then do we say, 'Can we afford it?' "

Okura says three individuals, all from his years at the MGM Grand Hotel, have been key influences in his culinary life.

"I probably owe the most to Horst Mollenhauer, a European master chef who helped form the foundation of my work ethic," he says. "He helped me to understand that no matter how difficult the situation, you don't give up. If you want it badly enough, it can be done."

Okura says those words are especially valuable in his current job, where "we're striving to develop all these new dishes that you shouldn't be able to do in a high-volume restaurant like ours."

Another mentor was Mike Norton, now the executive chef at the El Dorado Hotel & Casino in Reno.

"When I was at the MGM Grand, Mike was thought of as one of the most influential chefs of his time, and yet he was a very humble, down-to-earth person who treated everybody with the utmost respect," Okura says. "I wanted to be an executive chef, and I wanted to be like Mike."

The third mentor was Andreas Maeder, formerly an executive chef at the MGM Grand. "Andy felt the best food was prepared by using the right techniques, not necessarily by using expensive ingredients. For example, he knew when something was best sautéed versus grilled or when something was best dry-seasoned."

At the busy Cheesecake Factory, Okura has four chefs who work on menu recipe development. It's a constant task since the menus at The Cheesecake Factory, 200 items, and the company's three-unit Grand Lux Cafe concept, more than 150 items, change twice a year.

"That's in addition to all the new items we're looking at and the dozens of quality issues that come back from the restaurants," he says. "An example is a manager who might say, 'We can't get that mahogany glaze on the miso salmon just the way you want it. What are we doing wrong?' "

Every day Okura drives 75 miles one way from his home in Newport Beach, Calif., to Cheesecake's headquarters in Calabasas. "Once I get to the office," Okura says, "I have to hit the ground running."

That lengthy commute to a busy day takes passion, and that's what young people contemplating the restaurant business must have, Okura says. "If you don't have passion, nothing can make up the difference."