Meet Chef Jeremy Fike

Restaurant: Cello Ristorante & Bar at Allegretto Vineyard Resort, Paso Robles, CA

Niman Ranch Products: Beef, Lamb, Pork, other products

Chef Jeremy Fike says he was born into the restaurant business. His grandfather was the first executive chef for Conrad Hilton, and his father built and owned restaurants when Fike was growing up. Instead of playing outside with his buddies, his spent his childhood watching Julia Child, Graham Kerr, and Martin Yan on PBS. So it was only natural that he attended the California Culinary Institute in San Francisco when he was 17.

“I love cooking, I love the excitement of it, and what it brings to us,” Fike says. He opened his own restaurant when he was 22, and then was a corporate chef in the airline business. “I’ve cooked all over the place,” he says, “and I’ve lived in California, Alaska, and Hawaii.”

At Cello, he starts with the classics as created by Escoffier and then puts his own spin on them. “It’s very nice here because we’re a winery,” he says. “ We produce a lot of our own animals, in addition to wine grapes, and I have a chef’s garden right outside.”

Fike crafts dishes that pair well with the estate’s wines, which lean toward bigger reds like malbec, cabernet, and tannat. He uses local oak and dried trimmings from the vineyard to add a distinctive flavor to meats cooked on the grill. “Our menu isn’t big,” he says, “but it ties in with what we’re doing here. We’re having fun with what we do and giving people a culinary experience.” Almost everything is made from scratch, and many ingredients come from the surrounding area.

Niman Ranch is Fike’s go-to for superior quality meats. He first encountered Niman Ranch when he owned his own Bay Area restaurants in the late 1990s.  “I love their traditional practices that respect the animal, respect the land, respect the product,” he says. “That’s a culinary attribute that I talk about all the time, respect for what you do. If you don’t like what you do, then it means nothing.”

He also appreciates the customer service. “Niman Ranch is not like other companies out there. You know what you’re gonna get every time you open up the package. They love to listen, and it feels like you’re talking to the rancher.”

And his favorite cut? “I love all their cuts,” he says. “Everything they do, from the Iberian Duroc to the tenderloins, to the rack of lamb, even their sausages—they’re all the pinnacle of flavor and texture. You can’t compare it to anything else.”