Pablo Chali is the Chef De Cuisine for Ume Asian Cuisine and Sushi. He has lived in Tucson for about nineteen years and has over twelve years of cooking experience. His first job was as a dishwasher at a family owned Italian restaurant called Trattoria Pina. He started working as a dishwasher, learning the basics, and after a few months started to work his way up to busser, server and then eventually became a cook. “I give my credit to my first Chef and Manager Fedele Colosimo and Pina Colosimo and to her father Cosmo for showing me the ropes and introducing me into cooking, he said.” He fell in love with cooking right away and knew that this was the job for him. 

He loves being able to talk with the customers and asking them about how their dining experience. It brings him joy seeing them enjoying something that he cooked and this is what keeps him going and trying to learn more about cooking. One of Chef Pablo’s favorite quotes is, “No one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.”
 

Allen Irwin has called Tucson home for the past two decades and has over 15 years of culinary experience. He rose quickly up through the restaurant scene.  Chef Allen remembers, “my third or so culinary job saw me as a sous chef from a dishwasher in under six months.”

Prior to his residency in the Tucson, he had a breadth of exposure to a variety of cultures- having lived all over the United States. “I can attribute these travels to my curiosity to explore cultures through their cuisine.” Allen says, “and being here has given me great opportunities to share these experiences.”
Allen has a great passion in expressing himself creatively in the kitchen and does so at Ume every day for his guests.