Luca Toumadi Head chef Luca Toumadi was closing up the restaurant for the night. Before he could shut the door and lock it, the late Hollywood actor Tom Sizemore, Italian-born filmmaker Valerio Esposito and an entourage of three others walked up from the parking lot and asked to be seated.  Toumadi apologized and told the group he was closed.  “Tom Sizemore started telling me, ‘I’m Tom Sizemore, come on,’” Toumadi said, imitating the actor. “I told him, ‘My friend, you can be Tom Sizemore. I’m Luca Toumadi.’”  Esposito came from behind Sizemore and began talking with Toumadi in Italian, one of the many languages Toumadi speaks. Despite telling Esposito and the group that his wife would divorce him if he stayed late to cook them dinner, Toumadi turned the lights back on, lit the fire in the kitchen, and he cooked Sizemore and company a meal that not only pleased their appetites, but might’ve also landed the chef a role in the 2016 movie “Calico Skies.”  Saugus resident Toumadi isn’t just a chef. He’s been acting since he was 12 years old. He was born in Mohammedia, Morocco. There, he’d perform in many school plays. He’d take up kickboxing when his family moved to Corleone, Sicily, growing up on what he called “Mafia-dominated streets” where, he said, “only the strong survive.” He competed in the ring for nine years. There, too, he’d perform in plays and really enjoy it.  Toumadi said he’s been cooking since he was 13 years old. But that wasn’t it. He was never going to do just one thing. During an interview at Bella Cucina Ristorante Italiano in Santa Clarita, where he’s head chef, he said staying active is like breathing to him. He has to do it or he’ll die.  At 19, Toumadi was already a line cook in a restaurant in Italy. He was also married and with a son. He’d thrive as a chef in Italy.  He first came to America on Valentine’s Day in 1998. He said he remembered it distinctly. He went to visit his brother in Washington, D.C., admitting he didn’t speak a word of English, not even “good morning.” Toumadi’s brother had told him that Sheikh Mohammed Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, the prime minister of Kuwait, who at the time was the ambassador of Kuwait to the United States, needed a chef. The ambassador already had five chefs, Toumadi said, but he needed a chef who cooked Italian food.   Bella Cucina head chef Luca Toumadi performs a neat trick as he cooks a fresh batch of pasta earlier this month at the Santa Clarita restaurant. Katherine Quezada/The Signal Toumadi’s brother suggested he interview for the job, and that’s what he did.  That’s also how Toumadi became a U.S. citizen. He was blown away by the experience as chef to all these diplomats, with the food going on gold-lined plates, bottles of wine worth $4,500, and so much food prepared — different types of food from around the world — trashed at the end of meals because there was no way the group of people could eat it all.   During that time, Toumadi said he had to learn how to speak English, and fast. He thought he could do it in six months.  “I buy this book and I start teaching myself,” he said. “And I start watching cartoons every night. No joke. My favorite was Mickey Mouse. What happened? He repeats same things. I memorized all the cartoons. It was the best trick for me to learn the English.”  Toumadi was speaking English in, as predicted, six months. He said he’s used a similar technique when memorizing lines for movies. With almost 20 acting credits on his IMDb page, he still enjoys acting like when he was a kid. And he continues to do it, no matter how busy he is at the time. His latest film is coming out soon. It’s called “No Way Out,” a Sicilian mob movie based on a true story. He explained how he memorized his part.  “The script — it’s 265 pages,” he said. “I can memorize them. And not just that, but I can memorize who’s before me and who’s after. This is what I do: I take the script, I take the phone, I put video, and I start recording. I start reading. And I act at the same time. And during the day, when I’m cooking, I have the headphone. And I’m listening to myself. I memorize everything.”  Toumadi came to California — to Santa Clarita — not because of the movies, however. In 2012, his ex-wife got an important internship out here. So, they moved. Toumadi said he was immediately interested in buying a small restaurant. One day, he took a drive around town. When he found a place, he went in on a Friday night and he observed.   “You go like customer and you eat,” he said. “You don’t have to eat expensive. You sit down at the bar, don’t talk to nobody. You eat and see the movement.”  Toumadi eventually asked for a job in the kitchen. Upon getting that job, one of the first things he did was change the menu, all while learning everything about the operations of the place.  “When I work the first week, second week, third week, I memorize — I know exactly how much the restaurant make,” he said. “I find out he (the owner) is not making no money. I figured out there is no money. If I get there, I’m going to lose money. And then I talked to him about it. He told me, ‘Next month I’m closing.’”  In other words, Toumadi did not buy into that restaurant. And the place did close.  So, it was back to driving around town, looking for another restaurant. It wasn’t long before he passed by Bella Cucina. He got the job, and he did the same thing he’d done in the previous place.   Chef Luca Toumadi is a kickboxer, linguist, actor and teacher, and he uses art to inform the way he lives. Katherine Quezada/The Signal Within six months, Toumadi changed the menu, and he said he’d continue to change it every three years and offer a special of the day every day.   “We have to do more than 3,000 dishes a year,” he said. “Like, 1-2-3-4-5-6, it’s going to be six every day, six every day, six every day. It’s going to be Florence cuisine, Sardo, Milanesi, Romano cuisine, Sicilian cuisine.”  Trouble came during the COVID-19 pandemic. The place came close to closing down, Toumadi said. What saved it was carry-out, which they did for a year and a half. He said he worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week.   “I’m in the kitchen, and my partner, he’s taking the phone call — carry-out — to save this place,” Toumadi said. “No vacation, no days off, no close.”  And then, for every customer who spent $100 or more on a meal, Toumadi would donate 20% to the community. He’d cook for the hospital, local law enforcement and the courts.  “And we’re buying extra food, and I was struggling in the kitchen. You cannot even imagine,” he said. “I come out at 9 o’clock in the morning and go straight up ’til 2 o’clock doing the preparation. When you do preparation, you’re talking just the bread take two hours, because you do fresh bread. Let the bread grow. We do dough for the pizza. I will cut the chicken, prepare fresh pasta. What five chefs do now I used to do myself. And then I have rush hour from 3:30 ’til 10 o’clock, nonstop.”  Luca Toumadi, head chef of Bella Cucina Ristorante Italiano, pours sauce on a fresh batch of pasta earlier this month at the Santa Clarita restaurant. Katherine Quezada/The Signal Eventually the restaurant got through the pandemic and Toumadi was able to bring more employees back. He also continued work he’d previously been doing with the nonprofit organization Yes I Can, which, according to the organization’s website, provides customized training and employment services to creatives with disabilities.   “We had a few individuals who were pursuing culinary-based careers, either in craft services or other culinary jobs in the entertainment industry,” said YIC deputy director Kirsten Fitzpatrick. “But they needed experience. What we do is we reach out to industry employers — it really could be across a lot of different industries, but it’s primarily entertainment — to help develop opportunities for these individuals in internships, specifically so they can get that experience and put that on their resume, which ultimately helps them to secure employment.”   Fitzpatrick said YIC reached out to Toumadi, and he was eager to help.   “So, we worked out one of these paid internships with the restaurant over there, and that kind of started it,” she said. “And he (Toumadi) has taken several individuals since then as permanent employees. We had a few who ended up not staying there because, like, I’ll give you an example: We have one student whose goal it was to work for Disney, and because of the internship, applied for a Disney internship program and was accepted.”  That individual is now in Florida in one of Disney’s culinary arts programs.  “You can see how it kind of leads into these different types of opportunities,” Fitzpatrick said. “But some of our students like it there so much at the restaurant — they like Luca — that they decided they wanted to stay.”  She added that Toumadi is really good with the students.  “He understands the disability,” she said. “He understands what they may need to work on, and he also understands that some of them may not have any prior work experience. That’s a lot for an employer to agree to take on. So, we’re very grateful to him, because he just gets it.”  Toumadi said that he currently has one YIC student as a dishwasher, one as one of the cooks in the kitchen, and another who was a busser, who never used to talk, but who now is a waiter.   “Can you believe that?” Toumadi asked. “Now he talk to the people.”  Toumadi also frequently volunteers his time to cook for YIC events, which is a cost that, Fitzpatrick said, the nonprofit would otherwise have to absorb.   In 2023, so impressed with and thankful to Toumadi, YIC executive director Bret Lieberman, who’s on the Santa Clarita Valley Mayor’s Committee of Individuals with Disabilities board of directors, nominated the chef and Bella Cucina to receive recognition for all they do and provide. They’d accept such recognition from Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, and Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, to go along with a handful of other certificates of appreciation that Toumadi is so proud to share.  Bella Cucina head chef Luca Toumadi shows off certificates of recognition from Senator Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, and Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, earlier this month at the Santa Clarita restaurant. Michael Picarella/The Signal Another group the chef helps is Healthy Living, a drug and alcohol detox center in Santa Clarita. Toumadi has offered his services there five days a week before heading into the restaurant for about three years.  “He’s in charge of all the nutrition and making sure everybody’s had a breakfast, lunch and dinner,” said Emil Adjamian, one of the managers of the center. “He’s usually one of the first people our patients see in the morning and helps set the mood for the day.”  Adjamian said that Toumadi has a very high energy level that transfers to those at Healthy Living.   “It has a big effect on people,” Adjamian said.  Toumadi also teaches culinary arts and nutrition to those there who want to learn. And he’ll often bring food, even on his days off.  “He just always makes sure everybody’s happy,” Adjamian said.  Adjamian added that Toumadi doesn’t even keep the money he earns from that work. He donates it to charity.   According to Toumadi, that’s what you’re supposed to do.   “You don’t just take,” Toumadi said. “You take and you give. Giving in the community — I think it’s very important to be involved. Give and take, give and take.”  Toumadi added that it all starts with what you put in your heart. Like with muscle memory, he said, the brain forgets, but the heart remembers pain and joy. So, as with anything he tries to learn, he repeats it until the heart remembers. And if he remains positive, life is good to him. Positivity, he said, breeds more positivity.  Chef Luca Toumadi is ready for coffee on a Saturday afternoon earlier this month at Bella Cucina Ristorante Italiano in Santa Clarita. Katherine Quezada/The Signal “It’s all energy,” he said. “You wake up in the morning, you say, ‘I’m going to have nice day.’ Tell yourself that, and you’ll have a beautiful day. If you wake up and say, ‘I don’t want to go to work, I’m stressed,’ you’re in trouble.”  And even though it doesn’t seem like Toumadi has any extra time in his day to do anything else, he somehow manages to garden around the house, write poetry and practice kickboxing three times a week. He doesn’t see any of it as a chore, but as joy. If that wasn’t enough, in addition to speaking Italian, English, French, Spanish, and all the dialects in Arabic, he said he recently started learning Russian.  “I always like to study,” he said. “I used to don’t sleep in the night. I studied crime and justice. And three years later, I graduated last year as a private investigator. I just want to study crime. You can study private investigator online.”  That night, back in 2016 when he finally allowed actor Tom Sizemore and company to come into his restaurant and dine after hours, he turned everything back on, took all the food orders, and then Luca Toumadi did what Luca Toumadi does best.   The group had no idea what they were in for. It was soon time to eat.   Know any unsung heroes or people in the SCV with an interesting life story to tell? Email [email protected].  The post Faces of the SCV: Renaissance man boils it down to staying active  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.