Madera Chef de Cuisine Anthony Capossele talks about his culinary journey

Anthony Capossele, Chef de Cuisine at Madera at the Rosewood Hotel, may have come to his culinary profession later in life than some, but his interest in cooking was sparked early — thanks to his Italian grandmother.

“We’d gather every Sunday for supper,” Chef Anthony, who grew up in the South Bay, recalls. “My grandmother would cook all day.

“And in the summer we’d buy whole tomatoes, boil and jar them, making red sauce for the year. It’s all about the red sauce!”

Even with those culinary roots, Chef Anthony went to work for PepsiCo, managing warehouse operations. Slowly but surely he realized that sitting behind a desk was not what he wanted, so he enrolled in a short program offered by International Culinary  Center. Then he got lucky.

“I got an internship here [at Madera] under Executive Chef Reylon Agustin,” he recalls. “And I set out to absorb as much as I could from him.

“It’s all about timing and having the opportunity to show him what I could do. It’s about the food, about the people, ensuring that the front and back of the house get along.”

He worked his way up and was named Chef de Cuisine in August, 2023.

When asked what people find most surprising about him, he says: “That I’ve only been cooking five years.”

Then there’s the dichotomy of some of his favorite foods — from the mushroom truffle risotto he prepares at Madera to tacos from the Spartan Taco Truck near San Jose State and chicken fried steak from Big Bear Diner.

He found watching the Emmy winning The Bear a “little over the top” but there were points, he thought, “true enough.”

And while he’s thriving in his current assignment even though there are many 12-hour days, he looks far into the future with one thing in mind: “In retirement, I’d run a taco stand in Costa Rica!”

View Madera’s menus and opening times online.

Photo by Linda Hubbard (c) 2024; note — the carrots made for a spot of color, Chef Anthony wasn’t working on them when the photo was taken.