Jose Perez, right, and Sigi Garcia now crank out about 150 meals a day at the Redmond Senior Center, thanks to a new and expanded kitchen.

Chef Jose Perez has cooked at the Redmond Senior Center for a couple years, but a recent renovation of the center’s kitchen has allowed Perez to up his game and create new dishes inspired by his Cuban roots.

The senior center’s kitchen just reopened a month ago after a roughly $500,000 remodel, funded in part by the city of Redmond and Deschutes County. Guests at the senior center said they’ve already started to reap the benefits, as is Perez.

“I like food. That is the main thing. My dad, he was a really good cook. He never went to school or anything, but he was really good,” said Perez, who grew up in Havana, Cuba. “After I moved to the States, I went back to Cuba eight times. And every time I always called him and said, ‘I want you to (make food) for me.’”

Perez said he worked as a welder for four years before going to culinary school in Cuba in 1998. By 2002 he was living in the United States and by 2015 he had opened his own food cart in Portland, selling Cuban sandwiches and other delights. Perez said his youngest daughter just about grew up in the cart, watching her dad cook for the crowds.

Eventually Perez made his way to Central Oregon, where his wife got a job in Bend. After a stint at the Juniper Preserve hotel and golf club, he eventually found his spot cooking at the senior center.

Prior to the renovations, Perez said nothing in the kitchen worked and he was in desperate need of new equipment to do his job. During the renovations, he moved to Mountain View Fellowship church to make meals and then shuttle them pver to the senior center.

“Every morning I come over here, pick up everything that I need. Drive over there. Cook. Bring the food back,” Perez said. “That was a challenge. And some days we couldn’t even get into the kitchen because they were doing new floors and all that. But it worked out.”

Now with more space and working appliances, Perez is able to crank out around 150 meals per day with his colleague, Sigi Garcia, and a small crew of volunteers.

Perez said he makes all kinds of things for the guests, however his favorite dishes to make are Cuban dishes like the aromatic picadillo, which consists of ground beef, olives, onions, peppers and raisins.

“In Cuba we put raisins in it, but here people don’t like raisins very much,” he said. “I did it the first time, they didn’t like it. So I took it out.”

He said he likes to frequently work with tropical flavors like guava and mango.

On special occasions, Perez will make his famous ropa vieja, a traditional shredded beef stew accompanied by fried plantains, rice, beans, roasted pork and a salad. He said he makes it frequently for his wife and two children, who all love his cooking.

Perez was finishing up his shift, which he begins at 4 a.m. most days, while Theresa Thorson — known at the senior center as “Mother Theresa” — was playing cards in the dining room with a group of friends. Thorson said she loves when Perez makes Cuban food, and especially loves the fried plantains, a ubiquitous fruit in Caribbean culinary culture.

“I can have a whole plate of plantains,” Thorson said.

“Next Friday!” Perez announced from across the room.

Over the years, Thorson said the senior center has had problems with their kitchen staff.

“Some food was better than others. I hate to tell you this, but I fired three cooks,” Thorson said laughing. “Because we get money from the Council on Aging and the cooks would not cook with less salt and less sugar for seniors.”

At the time, she was the president of the senior center’s board of directors.

“Now I am making sure that everybody that comes in that door does not sit by themselves,” Thorson said. “That they have someone to sit with and that is generally me. They get welcomed in. And then they come back.”

Laurie Umlauf has long worked with Perez in the kitchen as a volunteer, and before that as a full-time employee. She said she knows him well, and said he is a great boss in the kitchen.

“He has never in three years ever yelled at me, and I’ve done plenty wrong. He is very calm and collected. We have had a couple urgent situations in the kitchen,” Umlauf said. “And he is just so calm and collected. I can’t say enough about Jose. Best boss I’ve ever had.”

Umlauf said the kitchen renovations became quite the endeavor. While they were disruptive, she said it will prove well worth it in the end.

“It was amazing to see that thing stripped down to a dirt floor. It was literally a dirt floor, and you could see all the pipes running through and where there were leaks and stuff like that,” Umlauf said. “I had never seen anything like that. It was crazy.”

Randy Graves, manager of the Redmond Senior Center, said the center’s kitchen reopened about two weeks ago. He said the whole process was hard on guests and employees, but Perez managed to make it work during the five-month construction process.

“I am very, very thankful for him,” said Graves, who started at the senior center last summer.

Graves noted the kitchen remodel brought a lot of new things to the senior center, including a new juicer and a wider range of food options for guests.

“We are going to do a … refrigerated salad bar, that way we can give our congregants that eat here on a daily basis a healthy option,” Graves said. “Even if they don’t like chicken cordon bleu and they just want to have a salad bar, they can do that. And then we will have side salads for $5.”

On Friday, the center hosted its Snow Ball, featuring a Cuban menu by chef Perez, music, drinks, and dancing. Additionally, Graves said there will be a grand opening and ribbon cutting at the senior center from 4:30-5:30 p.m. on Jan. 25.