Meet the Chefs

Whether you come exclusively for your morning celery juice or like to linger over the Deli case, Co+opportunity’s Prepared Foods Department is a vital part of your co-op, providing everything from hot soup to cold cuts to sandwiches to custom juices and smoothies. Curious to find out more about the minds behind Co+opportunity’s ever-evolving Deli? Read on…  

Giulian Jones, Executive Chef in Santa Monica, and Derek Harrison, Executive Chef in Culver City, bring decades of culinary expertise to the Co+opportunity table. They are well-traveled, highly trained, and driven individuals, who together are working to bring the offerings of the co-op to new heights. 

Giulian grew up traveling - his father was in the service, which required his family to move frequently. Nonetheless, Giulian grew up around food: pulling weeds, harvesting vegetables, and feasting on the bounty of plum, peach, and crabapple trees; learning the intrinsic value of hard work by observing his parents and grandmother taking care of a house full of kids and dogs. That dedication to working hard served Giulian well as he ventured into the often punishing world of professional cooking, where being able to make quick but level headed decisions amidst the organized chaos of a buzzing kitchen is a vital skill. “My first sous chef,” Giulian remembers, “taught me that no matter how hard to play, you must still work hard - balance is very important.” 

In the time since, Giulian take pride in the failures he’s learned from, and the road he’s traveled: his culinary background is varied, from working in 5 star hotels to touring with rock bands as a private chef, but it was the opportunity to work with Wolfgang Puck that brought him to Los Angeles (along with the sun and the beach, of course). 

Derek describes his path to Los Angeles as a straight shot from The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College in Philadelphia, where he interned at Four Seasons, but he has lived and worked all over the country. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Derek learned his mother’s meal rotation by heart: BBQ, jerk, cakes, pies… “I just ate it all,” Derek says, “Mom was a good cook and food was a big deal in our family.” When Derek was a teenager, his family moved from the island to Washington, D.C., where he had his first taste of the culinary world as a helper in a kitchen at 18. Working at the iconic (but now-shuttered) Georgetown restaurant The Guards made Derek want to attend culinary school, inspired by the high end food made by talented young chefs working for a chef-owner who did all of the restaurant's purchasing. Derek thrived in the competitive world of Philadelphia commis chefs, as well as working at a Vietnamese restaurant in Boston and at a sushi bar, but was drawn west by the promise of Los Angeles. “I’d visited L.A. before moving here, and I knew immediately that the food here is special - fresh, clean, and conscious,” Derek says. 

That dedication to ingredients and technique drives both chefs in their work at the co-op: “I’m excited about the changes we’re making,” says Giulian, “The opportunities we have to bring in new food and create lifelong relationships.” “The co-op could use a good facelift,” Derek agrees, “in large part because it is such a good platform for food. I’m excited to focus on the structure and training of the department as well as diversifying our product mix.”

And their favorite foods? “I don’t really cook crazy meals for myself,” Giulian smiles, “I like simple, rustic foods with full flavors, like good bread, soft butter, and hard cheese with a glass of wine.” Derek, after musing over the merits of pho for a moment, is decisive: “Brisket tacos with chimichurri.”