He’s not a local of San Diego, yet he would like to consider himself a local for the cuisine. Chef Paul Schwab arrived in San Diego twenty years ago with ideas of aspiring to become a great chef.  Learning began at a young age of sixteen as he worked his way through numerous restaurants in the Sacramento valley where he grew up.  His passion to learn about foods grew as a student at California State University, Chico.  While attending Chico State, Chef Paul worked at a casual Italian restaurant for four years, where he learned pastas, pizzas, and bread making.   It wasn’t until his last year at Chico State did he realize his passion for culinary arts and it was time to follow what he loved best, cooking.

Chef Paul relocated to San Diego to start a evolving culinary growth process that continues to this day.  He enrolled in Mesa culinary program at night and worked in a small restaurant downtown and that happened to have a large catering company with a wide variety of cuisines.  He honed his basic skills here for a period of time until he could get his formal training to venture out into the competitive world of cooking.  He made his way onto local Cruises And Events Company, under the direction of Executive Chef David Bowman, Chef Paul would spend countless hours learning many types of cuisine. Chef Paul worked his way up to sous chef in under a year where he presented California wine dinners and grand cuisine on local cruise ships.  The experience enabled him to expand his knowledge of the day to day operations of running intimate to large scale catering events.

Chef Paul would gain his best experiences when he arrived at Singing Hills Country Club in 1999.  He started as the sous chef and would soon be given the opportunity to become Executive Chef after the departure of his mentor, Chef David Bowman.  He began creating his own signature dishes and mastering his skills as a chef.  Involving the basis of American cuisine, Chef Paul would add his own flare to each dish he created. With the acquisition of Singing Hills by Sycuan Casino the opportunity for growth would continue.  

Chef’s Paul’s success at the Resort propelled him into yet another adventure of creating off site caterings for all Sycuan Casino sponsored events.  This would lead him to the opportunity of creating fantastic menus for The San Diego Symphony and The San Diego Opera.  Chef Paul’s creations were recognized by The San Diego Opera when they presented Sycuan Casino their Valhalla Award “For Cuisine Worthy of the Gods.”

He eventually would become Executive Chef of at Sycuan Casino in 2004 as well as Sycuan Resort, formally Singing Hills.  Under the direction of Food and Beverage Director, Donald Goff, Chef Paul began the monthly creation of menus at Wachena Falls café, Paipa’s buffet, GameDay Grill, Resort’s Café and Grille and many other food outlets in the casino.  The creation of diverse menus has now become Chef Paul’s impetus for keeping his passion alive for cooking.   

Chef Paul will be one of two chefs serving up their culinary mastery at our Culinary Cinema event at ArcLight Cinemas in La Jolla on Sunday, October 2nd.