Arvik Babahkanlou-Ozcan Steve de Castro Tony Garcia

Debbie Jordan Craig A. Harris Robert Hosseini

Husein Kitabwalla Giorgio Kolaj Donnell Long

Hugo Ortega Baraka Osman Paymon Raouf

 

Arvik Babahkanlou-Ozcan

Uno's Chicago Grill
Watertown, Mass.

When the Islamic revolution started in Iran, life changed for teenaged Arvik Babahkanlou-Ozcan, an Armenian Christian. As tensions intensified, her father sent her and her sisters to Switzerland with only the clothes on their backs. After receiving political asylum in the United States, Babahkanlou-Ozcan worked long hours at a relative’s restaurant to put herself through college and support her sisters. She eventually she became general manager and later honed her management skills at Chuck E. Cheese, Applebee’s and Chili’s Bar and Grill. Today, she is general manager of Uno’s and hopes to stay with the company for the rest of her career. For the past 10 years, she has volunteered for an Armenian school, teaching children to keep alive their heritage.

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Steve de Castro

Big Steaks Management LLC
Pikesville, Md.

Born near Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Steve de Castro came to the United States in the 1960s. At 14, he got a job as a dishwasher in a New Orleans restaurant. When he was 24,  he opened his own restaurant, but it closed within a year. Soon after, he went to work for Ruth’s Chris Steak House. When founder Ruth Fertel challenged de Castro to turn around a foundering operation in Washington, D.C., the restaurant grew to best in the country in sales and profitability in three years. In return, Fertel awarded him his own franchise. Today, he owns Big Steaks Management and runs it like a hands-on family business. Its clubs, banquet facilities and four Ruth’s Chris restaurants in Maryland, North Carolina and New Jersey generate more than $25 million a year in sales. 

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Tony Garcia

High Plains Corral dba Golden Corral
Amarillo, Texas

In the early 1970s, Tony Garcia’s peers in his poor barrio believed it was impossible to have a better life. But Garcia left home at 15 and began washing pots at a Furr’s restaurant in Lubbock. An associate manager noticed Garcia’s talent for leading employees and encouraged him to move up within the organization. He spent 24 years with Furr’s, working up to area manager. He joined Golden Corral in 1994 as an associate manager and now is a successful franchisee. Garcia continually searches for opportunities to inspire others to succeed in the restaurant industry – as he was inspired by that associate manager. He encourages young people moving up in the industry to pursue their goals, no matter what and watches with pride as they excel in professional and personal endeavors. 

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Debbie Jordan

HogBody's Beach House
Cape Coral, Fla.

Debbie Jordan became a teen mother at age 17. She began working at Morrison’s Cafeteria to provide for her child and proved herself an able worker. She then spent nine years at Red Lobster – busing tables, hostessing, bartending, serving and cooking – while going to school. By then, she was divorced with three more children. As Jordan  persevered in the restaurant business, she gradually moved up the ladder, eventually becoming a managing partner at HogBody’s Beach House. Debbie’s grit and determination helped her put three of her children through college. Today, she mentors others by partnering with schools and giving back to her community through the March of Dimes and Red Cross.

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Craig A. Harris

Turkeyman
Lansing, Mich.

Craig Harris began his business with no financial resources, no formal foodservice training and no business education. An above-the-knee amputee, Harris got Turkeyman off the ground in 1995 by selling smoked turkey and barbecued ribs as a street vending operation. Standing for hours over a grill on one leg was no easy task, but Harris refused to give up. Turkeyman grew steadily over the years and today is a catering, restaurant and concessions company. Harris continues to use the basics of his idea as he lays out the framework for continued growth, including plans to franchise his operation within two or three years. 

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Robert Hosseini

Qdoba Restaurant Corp.
Wheat Ridge, Colo.

When the Iran/Iraq war broke, Robert Hosseini’s father sent him to Italy from Tehran. Hosseini didn’t know Italian, couldn’t go to school but dreamed of attending college in the United States. He cleared rocks from farms, sold ice cream in movie theaters and did other odd jobs for three years to save money. A brother in the United States helped him get to Denver, where her got a dishwashing job his second day in town. He finished high school, graduated from college and briefly ran a café. He then spent seven years with Furr's cafeteria chain. He joined the Qdoba team in 2000 and now runs the company’s largest region. He and his family have helped bring eight people from to the United States for college.

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Husein Kitabwalla

Retail Brand Group LLC
Allentown, Pa.

From boyhood in an African village to the president a global retail restaurant development team, Husein Kitabwalla says he has reached his version of the American Dream. He survived a failed military coup in his country, limited electric service and widespread crime. Yet he found the confidence and courage to leave his homeland and seek a better life. After graduating from college in the United States, he began his foodservice career at Ashland University in Ohio. He later worked as an operations manager for the Walt Disney Corp. in Anaheim, Calif., running six restaurants. As president of Retail Brand Group LLC, Kitabwalla oversees development of fast casual restaurants for Sodexho Inc, including two concepts for SodexoMAGIC, Sodexo’s joint venture with Magic Johnson Enterprises.

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Giorgio Kolaj

Famous Famiglia
White Plains, N.Y.

Giorgio Kolaj and his family were living in Italy as refugees from war-torn Kosovo when his father died after an accident. Kolaj was a baby when his mother brought him and his four siblings to New York with $280 and no family, friends or English-speaking skills. Living in the Castle Hill Avenue projects in the South Bronx, Kolaj and his brothers worked in restaurants to support the family. He was 16 when they opened their first pizzeria, Famous Famiglia, in New York City. Kolaj attended college while working nights and weekends. Today, the family owns pizzerias throughout the United States, as well as in Mexico and China. As executive vice president of global business development, his management and leadership skills in product marketing, corporate development and team-building have driven the company’s growth into an internationally acclaimed chain.

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Donnell Long

Olde Town Inn
Upper Marlboro, Md.

After being abandoned in a New York taxicab at the age of four, Donnell Long became a “troubled child” who bounced from one foster family to another. In his senior year of high school, a teacher helped Long get a dishwashing job at Le Marmiton, a restaurant in Bethesda, Md. That helped him turn around his life. Long graduated at the top of his class from the Washington School of Culinary Arts, where he specialized in French cuisine. After several jobs in the industry, Long found a small sandwich shop and remodeled it into an elegant, sit-down restaurant that seats 85 people. Long feels strongly about giving back to kids with similar roots as his own and hosts an annual Christmas dinner for foster children, youth and teens.

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Hugo Ortega

Hugo’s and Backstreet Café
Houston, Texas

Hugo Ortego was 17 when he left Mexico City with no contacts or job leads. Determined to make a life for himself in the United States, he started working as a dishwasher at Backstreet Café in Houston. As he familiarized himself with every aspect of the kitchen, he impressed the owner, who encouraged him to enroll in the culinary arts program at Houston Community College. Today, Ortega is executive chef at Backstreet Café and owner of Hugo’s, which he opened in 2002. Since then, he has made two guest chef appearances at the James Beard House in New York City. In 1999, he was named “Up-and-Coming Chef of the Year” by My Table magazine. In July 2003, the Houston Press and My Table magazine named Hugo’s “Restaurant of the Year. 

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Baraka Osman

Simply Crepes LLC
Pittsford, N.Y.

Born in Somalia, Baraka “Ozzy” Osman is part of the Bantu tribe. He and his parents escaped a bloody, civil war by walking hundreds of miles to Kenya. They lived in an equally violent refugee camp for almost 10 years while the United Nations worked to find new homes in the United States for members of oppressed tribe. In 2004, with the help of Catholic Family Charities of Rochester, N.Y., Osman began working at Simply Crepes as a dishwasher. He worked hard to improve his English-reading skills so he could become a line cook. Today, he is one of the lead cooks and trained the cooking staff at the company’s new location. Ozzy has taken a leadership role within the Bantu community in the Rochester, N.Y., area. He helps other refugees and has introduced several new workers to the Simply Crepes organization.

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Paymon Raouf

Paymon’s Mediterranean Cafe & Lounge
Las Vegas

Paymon Raouf was drafted into the Iranian Army at the start of a 10-year war with Iraq. After two and a half years in the army, he spent two years in Turkey waiting for political asylum to come to the United States. When arrived in Nevada, he took college classes and worked multiple jobs to pay the rent. He began the day as a Tropicana bus boy and ended scrubbing pots at the Imperial Palace. Eventually, he and his older brother opened a grocery store, which they expanded over the years to a large restaurant and lounge. Raouf is committed to cultural diversity; nearly half of his 100 employees are of foreign descent. He is a National Restaurant Association board member.

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