Chef To Go

Our Story

Welcome to the page of Chef To Go. Our Mission is make eating at home easier, healthier and more affordable and to assist you on your next event. My name is Chef Gilbert Ruiz Owner and operator of Chef to Go.
I have been cooking as a professional Chef since 1982. I started during my last year of high school, in a little restaurant in Sanger California; called The Melting Pot. He began as a pot washer and prep cook, I would clean the cooks line at closing and stock the line for the next day. It was grueling schedule, waking up at 6:30 am. every day; going to school till 11:30 then starting work at 11:45 till 10:00 every night.
The hard work paid off, because six month later the chef and the manager were fired and I became the dinner cook; the morning cook became the chef. Three days later he quit, Gilbert Ruiz became the Chef of The Melting Pot Restaurant in Sanger. I was 17 years old; fresh out of high school.
I had to learn about cooking and I had to learn fast, the owners; a group of teachers who had invested in this business didn't have a clue.
They did bring back the original chef they purchased their business from Chef Ed Hall.
He was a crusty old guy, the first thing he told me while smoking a cigarette, “I'm going teach you, to cook four things; if you can do that; you can get a job any where in the world”. Sauce, soup, meat and eggs.

Thirty six years later, after working in over thirty-nine different kitchens and eateries from Las Vegas to Paso Robles, and Sacramento to Fresno. Gilbert is now the owner of Chef to Go and The Ring Event Center in Down Town Fresno.

Come out and visit the venue and our office at 155 Van Ness; let us plan your next event.