About us
Chef’s Stash Owners
The Chef’s Stash is the brainchild of chef and restaurateur Gabe Georis and his partner, longtime local chef Brandon Miller, who previously worked together to make Carmel Spanish tapas eatery Mundaka one of the top restaurants in the village. The idea of getting the box curated by the two food mavens out of the back door of a restaurant is precisely what they envisioned.
“That’s the feeling we wanted to convey — getting the hook-up from us out the back door,” said Georis, who literally grew up in the restaurant business. Georis continues “We know who has the best stuff locally, the best produce, the best fruit, the best chickens, and our Stashers get to take advantage of that inside scoop. It’s fun.”
The concept grew out of necessity stemming from the coronavirus and sheltering in place. His restaurants shuttered, Georis found himself cooking at home more than usual, and being the a well-connected discerning chef and restaurateur, only got had access to the best produce and meats he could get available from vendors who, in normal times, would normally have supplied his restaurant. However, as a wholesale buyer, he found himself with far more food than his family could use. But instead of getting a couple zucchini or some onions from the grocery store, he found himself with large bags and cases of food. So he recruited about a dozen of his friends who also like to cook at home and would divvy up the boxes of produce, meat and other items Georis was able to source.
Chef Brandon
Brandon grew up on the San Fransico waterfront and started his seafood experience cracking crabs on Fisherman’s Wharf during summer vacations. At the age of 20, Miller took over the oyster bar at Pacific Heights Bar & Grill. A year later, he was Cindy Pawlcyn’s sous chef, taking charge of everything from butchering to baking. Miller’s education in Italian cuisine began when, in 1987, he moved up to an executive sous chef position under Michael Chiarello at Tra Vigne in Napa Valley.
In 1990, Miller left to explore Europe. There, he created the menu for an Italian restaurant in Amsterdam, spent three months with Georges Blanc, before tasting his way through Italy.
Upon his return to San Francisco, Miller began a culinary journey that started with the position of sous chef at Campton Place, and included cheffing at Lulu Bis, where he used his creative powers with geographical and historical food research to design a signature menu. “I worked solely with dishes from the cusp of the Northern Mediterranean,” he says. After leaving Lulu Bis, he spent 13 years as Executive Chef/Partner at Stokes Restaurant and Bar. Following a trip to the Basque region of Spain, Brandon came back to Carmel and became the Executive Chef of Mundaka – a Spanish tapas restaurant owned by Restaurateur Gabe Georis, after which he went on to be Executive Chef at Il Grillo in Carmel-by-the-Sea.
He currently is loving growing hops, making beer and cultivating fava beans from the garden as well as spending time with his wife and eight French Bulldogs.
Chef Brandon
Chef Gabe
Chef Gabe
Gabe literally grew up in the restaurant business as his family opened Casanova restaurant in Carmel shortly after he was born. Always fascinated with cooking, Gabe spent countless hours tucked into a corner of the kitchen as a boy watching the cooks put out the food, or hanging around in the pastry kitchen helping wherever he could.
At 18 Gabe moved to San Sebastian, Spain to study at University and work in a gastronomic club. Upon finishing his studies, Gabe went back to work in the family restaurant, focusing his attention on learning about wine. He ran the cellar at Casanova for 8 years, maintaining its status as one of the finest restaurant wine lists in the world.
Gabe left in 2009 to open his dream restaurant Mundaka based on his travels and life in the Basque country of Spain. It was at that time that he met up with Chef Brandon Miller and their culinary adventures began to merge. After running Mundaka and turning it into a destination restaurant, Gabe started a local bar called Barmel. Gabe then decided to transition into a new restaurant based on his travels to Baja California as a college student in San Diego.
Pescadero was born and continues to provide guests with an authentic Baja experience.