A Year in the Life
Samantha Quintero, Sous Chef
Despite the many challenges that 2020 brought with it, chef Samantha Quintero says it was still “the best year of my life, thus far.”
Just before the pandemic struck, the sous chef at Night+Market Sahm in Los Angeles had finished a successful Off Menu Week where she put together her very own menu, inspired by family picnics at the park growing up in LA and, best of all, in mid-March, she and her fiancé, Kary, tied the knot.
By late summer, Quintero was back at work, on the line, leading her all-women kitchen staff and by fall, she added a new title: mom.
“In a way, COVID-19 was a blessing in disguise for me,” she says. “I took some time for myself, my family, and friends. It was something that I hadn’t done in a good 10 years. And as the saying goes, I stopped and smelled the roses.”
Her story of the last 12 months follows.