Two cooks. The same school.
Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo grew up on opposite coasts of Florida. They met at the Culinary School at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. Their work took them through Miami, under Michelle Bernstein, and then to Colorado in 2001, cooking at Wildflower under Ray Roach.
Los Angeles. Lunch service. Catering.
In Los Angeles, they worked at Chadwick in Beverly Hills under Ben Ford, running lunch service and catering. Carmelized Productions was founded in 2004. Catering became the business.
Fifteen events a week.
By 2007, they were catering up to fifteen events a week, from ten-person dinners to parties of three hundred, out of a small storefront kitchen on Fairfax Avenue. That same year, Food Network aired Two Dudes Catering.
Then came Animal.
Animal opened in 2008. Son of a Gun followed in 2011. Jon & Vinny’s opened in 2015. The catering company came before each of them. That order matters: the restaurants grew out of the work that had already begun.
Still catering.
Today, Carmelized Productions is part of Joint Venture Restaurant Group, based at a production kitchen in Inglewood. The team produces events across Southern and Northern California and travels nationwide for out-of-state events. Its range extends from intimate gatherings to events with up to 10,000 guests.
The name.
The best things are Carmelized. Simple.
