The Baltimore chef who cooked for presidents and the queen of England

Pepito “Paul” Limos Torres cooked for former presidents and foreign leaders, but sometimes his toughest critics were his grandkids.

He enjoyed the challenge. What meals could he make to satisfy picky children with little appreciation for fine cuisine? When the grandkids gave rave reviews, it was as good as Michelin-level praise.

But Paul Torres’ attention to detail and intense focus weren’t limited to his cooking. The Baltimore resident approached almost all of life that way, loved ones said, and that is the example he left them to follow after his unexpected death last month.

“You’re not going to be successful every time, but being persistent, being detailed-oriented and really trying to execute to the best of your ability — that’s really what you need to do,” said his son, Nestor Torres. “That’s something I learned from my dad.”

Paul Torres, a Navy veteran and native of the Philippines, died July 19 of complications after gallbladder surgery. He was 84.

He was born Aug. 2, 1941, the eldest of seven children. He spent his early years on a rice farm in the eastern province of La Union before the family moved to the suburbs of Manila when he was about 10, said his sister, Carie Torres Dupre. There was a military base there, and a few of their uncles had enlisted.

Torres worked as a caddy at the base golf course during his teenage years, inspiring a lifelong love of the sport. After graduating high school and spending a couple of years in college, Torres joined the Navy in 1965. His first stop was San Francisco, then the Naval Academy in Annapolis. He rented an apartment in Baltimore.

He sent money home to his parents and siblings when he was deployed, including eight months in Vietnam during the war. When the Navy asked him to pick a specialization, he chose cooking, his sister said.

“I always remember how supportive he was when he was young,” Dupre said. “He’s supposed to be with friends and doing some things for himself, but he thinks of the family.”

After about a decade in the U.S., Torres had saved enough money to start bringing his family over from the Philippines. At the same time, he was starting a family of his own. He met the future Normina Torres at a birthday party in Baltimore in the early 1970s, and they were married months later. They had two children, Nestor and Ann.

By this time, Torres was assigned to the White House as a traveling chef. He cooked for presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and followed them on trips to Camp David. He flew with them for foreign summits and cooked for the queen of England.

“He was a pioneer,” family friend Amanda Bantug said. “Right now, there probably aren’t a lot of Filipinos in the White House, but back then, for sure, there weren’t.”

His path from a poor upbringing in the Philippines to the highest echelons of American government was inspiring, Bantug said. If he could do it, so could she.

Though he was often away from home, Torres made sure his family knew how much he loved them, Normina Torres said. He shipped back dresses for his wife and toys for the kids. He sent them cards for Valentine’s Day and other holidays when he couldn’t be with them.

“He served well. He was very loyal,” Normina Torres said. “He was a loyal individual to anybody, to the country, to the president that he served, to his friends, to his family.”

He also brought home fun stories of meeting politicians and world leaders, said his daughter, Ann Torres. He talked often about the Secret Service’s unusual security protocol. They would shop for ingredients and throw them in the fridge, then padlock the doors and give him a key.

He also traded pleasantries many times with members of the royal family.

“It’s just kind of his spirit, right?” his daughter said. “I mean, he could be very serious and very focused and intense about his work or intense about his expectations, but he had just these moments of … being light and funny and kindhearted.”

When he was home, Paul Torres loved to garden and fish. He enjoyed going to parties with friends and family, where his his roaring laugh would replace his sometimes shy demeanor.

He especially enjoyed New Year’s Eve and other gatherings with Filipino friends and family, where there’d often be a potluck happening upstairs and gambling downstairs, Ann Torres said. He’d play blackjack, poker and mahjong, and as kids, she and her brother would run down to check on him. If he was winning, he’d crumple up a $5 bill and hand it to them.

After retiring from the Navy, Torres closed out his career as chef for the CEO of CSX Corp. As he got older, he traveled extensively with his wife, sometimes visiting family in the Philippines and other times touring Europe or Asia. They went sightseeing and hiking, tasted wine at vineyards and, of course, indulged in the local cuisine.

It always came back to food. Torres made incredible traditional Filipino dishes, his family said — especially barbecue pork skewers and chicken adobo. He also knew his way around steak and seafood. His family would always try to sneak a bite as he cooked.

“He created community through the passion that he had for his food,” Ann Torres said. “Throughout his life, these gatherings and making food and sharing his craft in different ways is part of the thing that I want people to remember.”

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