Biography of Job Carder
Job Carder started his culinary career in a small Texas and Louisiana style barbecue house called Little Lou’s in Santa Cruz, CA while still in college. He went on to work at a family owned Northern Italian restaurant called Bienvenuto Trattoria, where he gained a true understanding of the cuisine and of the different styles of regional Italian cooking.
He moved back to his hometown of Los Angeles, with the goal of honing his talents in classic and contemporary French cooking and set forth to continue his culinary training in some of the city’s finest kitchens, spending almost 6 years working his way up the hierarchy of chef positions within the Patina Group restaurants and catering, honing his talents in every area of the professional kitchen from butchery to desserts.
Job was recruited by Café Bizou in Santa Monica as their executive chef, a position that made Job the youngest executive chef in the Los Angeles area at the age of 24. Under Carder, Café Bizou was voted L.A.’s most popular restaurant by Zagat Guide. In October of 2003 he was brought on board with Mix Restaurant by Chef John Jackson, to help open and run the kitchen. Job Carder created a cuisine that was unique to the L.A. area by keeping his dishes simple, flavorful and staying true to the ingredients and the regional styles of French and northern Mediterranean cuisines.
In 2005 Job Carder joined the food and beverage team at Mammoth Mountain Ski Area as Executive Chef of the Ski Resort, as well as overseeing the only fine dining restaurant on the mountain as both Chef and General Manager, Parallax Restaurant. In August of 2007 an opportunity arose at Manzanita Restaurant in the heart of the California wine country of Sonoma County, in Healdsburg. Job Carder was always drawn to this area of California because of the richness of the agriculture, farms and phenomenal wines. Honing in on what the area has to offer Chef Carder created relationships with organic produce and livestock farmers as well as local fishermen.
At Manzanita Restaurant Chef Carder created an ultra-seasonal menu of local organic and wild produce, farm fresh organic meats and local wild seafood. While Chef Carder was at Manzanita the restaurant grew into a favorite of the Healdsburg community and the wine country tourist. Chef Carder created the only wood burning oven program, at that time, in Healdsburg with gourmet pizzas and oven roasted fish, duck, lamb and veal dishes. Chef Carder received an award of excellence from the Sonoma County Health Department for four consecutive perfect inspections, the second time he had received the award. Chef Carder Also received a double gold, gold and two silver medals for his recipes from the Sonoma County Harvest Fair and Published recipe’s in Sonoma County’s “Tasting Along the Wine Road” cook book. He was also the featured Chef of U.C. Davis’s Sonoma County Meat Buying Club.
While at Manzanita, Carder met David Johnson, who discussed with Carder his desire to open a smart California bistro in Los Angeles. A native of the area, for Carder it was an easy decision to make this a reality for them both, “I wanted to bring a quality farm to table dinning experience back to my home town, that we all can experience and enjoy.