Lauren Friel

Every restaurant kitchen has an unsung hero — someone who keeps the wheels turning, the food coming (and, as a result, the lights on), but who never makes it into the magazines. Sometimes it’s the dishwasher, sometimes it’s the fry cook. At Oleana Restaurant, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I worked for several years as sommelier, it was Pacho. Pacho was a prep cook and a legend.