JORGE DUGAL: I came here to the United States when I was twenty years old.

Actually it was my birthday when I came here.

My mom and brothers were home.

They went to pick me up at a McDonald, I believe.

For the first time in my life, I saw my mom, hugged my mom, and kissed my mom.

Finally I met my brothers and I felt like it was a reunion.

RUBEN MARTINEZ: We live in a foodie culture, and I wish that we could see beyond the food sometimes to the hands that make the food.

To get to the story of the guy who bussing the tables, or who doing the food prep.

(theme music) (cars passing) RUBEN: The politics of migration, the labor econom ll that drama plays out in the restaurants that we go to, that get Zagat rated and that are all the rage one day and when we walk into those places, wee on such intimate terms with these migration stories.

Wee eating food that been touched by hands that, in turn, have been molded by war, and political upheaval, and famine.

MICHAEL CIMARUSTI: When I hired Jorge, he was a dishwasher, June 17th of 2016, it will be 11 years we've been open and Jorge has been here that whole time.

JORGE DUGAL: It was like a lot of emotions, but at the same time I left my dad back in Guatemala.

So, I didn know to cry, laugh, feel happy, feel sad any things, but it was a new life, it was something different.

MICHAEL CIMARUSTI: He does everything.

He always one of the first ones here.

He receives all of our produce, he oversees the guys when they come in in the morning.

The prep list that we prepare on a nightly basis probably has over 100 different things listed... that a big job.

That a big job when he not here it takes two people to do it.

(theme music) RIGO ALVARADO: To shuck an oyster, it requires you to be a little gentle on the little guy, regardless of how big or small it is; if you go in there like Rambo, youe going to tear it up and the presentation will be awful.

MICHAEL: Rigo a great kid.

And the fact that he's Jorge's brother, the fact that they came from the same womb just blows me away, because they couldn't be more polar opposites.

I think largely it has to do with the fact that Rigo was brought up here and Jorge was brought up back home.

RIGO: The first time that I stepped into the kitchen and I didn know what I was really getting into.

I thought that it was going to be simple little things and simple recipes but then youe issued an apron, a cook hat, and a chef coat and they go, okay, here this recipe, now do it.

So Jorge had to hold my hand and guide me through i this is how you slice a carrot, this is how you clean a leek and it takes time and even to this day I still learning a lot more things.

BILL ESPARZA: Behind every kitchen in Los Angeles I don't care if it's a sushi restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, a fine dining establishment there's a Mexican or a Central American in the kitchen, and it's not just the dish washers.

A lot of people will say it's because of cheap labor well really that's not what it is.

It actually people who are very skilled at doing this.

You need a professional.

MICHAEL: I think it's a matter of a level of comfort with whole foods.

If you grow up in a household where your folks are out buying fresh food every day, bringing whole chickens home, bringing whole vegetables home and then preparing fresh meals every day, I think it just rubs off.

JORGE: My grandmother was the one that always made really good food and that my inspiration.

Chef Michael is like, make the most bomb ass sauce you ever made, so, chirmol.

Chimole is a Mayan word and it means running nose.

I started charring all these tomatoes, onions, cilantro, mint.

My grandma, she never left recipes, so I try to just find the taste and remember her.

Chef Michael tried it and was like, this is really awesome.

This is good.

MICHAEL: It this great salsa that, the more you taste it, the more you love it, and eventually I asked Jorge to make a more refined version to use on our menu.

It just so delicious, and there so many things you can do with it.

So wee going to cook them for 15 seconds.

I was discussing with Jorge, if youe going to serve the chirmol at hom nd by home, I mean Guatemala with a protein, what would you serve it with?

And he said if it was going to be fish or shellfish it would definitely be shrimp, so that why we went with shrimp.

To give it more of a local flavor, wee using spot prawns from Santa Barbara, and I think wee super fortunate to be here in Southern California and be able to access them throughout the season.

It was basically the first course that guests would get here.

It was the backbone of the dish, so Jorge was very proud when it made it to the menu.

Yeah, it was great.

(theme music) RIGO: The difference between me and Jorge; I was living in the states at the time, and my brother was living in Guatemala.

They have a very big gang problem over there.

So he would tell me oh, I got beat up or they tried to beat me up or they tried to rob me.

JORGE: You have gang members right outside the school, and then inside the school that wanted you to jump in, or they wanted to beat you up outside.

So it was being with them, or being against them.

RIGO: It sad, hearing about my brother struggling, and I here living comfortable while he over there just trying to survive.

MICHAEL: Now he's a father to two young boys and he's had his struggles and he's had his issues over the years.

I can't imagine this place without him.

He's as valuable to this restaurant as any of the other chefs, and he has a sense of ownership and pride about what he does.

He just pushes every day, pushes himself, pushes the people around him, so that he meets his own very high standard for what he does.

You really can't ask for more than that.

RUBEN: It's a story of long odds, it's a story of violence, it's a story of getting kicked out of the place you know and love.

They wound up in Los Angeles.

They wound up in a town that's booming for some and it's hard, grinding work for a lot of others.

JORGE: So let say I took all of the bad stuff from Guatemala and bring it here, and just switched them, just flipped them and made something positive with it.

That how I believe I haven been fired from the restaurant.

Just put in your heart and everything you have, and just do your job; I still working on it.

(theme music) And remember, if you don serve it to your mama, don serve it here.