David Gomez ate his first hamburger with his mother at a drugstore counter when he was 8 years old,and it was then that he knew that he loved food. It was a luxury to eat a burger because his family didn't have a lot of money, but as he watched all the ingredients come together, he realized it was something he could do himself at home. He told her that he wanted to be a chef, and he never changed his mind.

Gomez. now 49, opened Roots Catering six years ago with wife Kelly, 49. While they ran their catering business, he worked another job. They waited until they had enough business, and nine months ago, on Jan. 7, they expanded into a restaurant and he left his job to work as a chef and caterer at Roots full time.

The restaurant offers a broad menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner inspired by dishes from El Salvador, Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand, India and the Mediterranean. They cater weddings and events and come up with themes for the event menus such as "A Day in Ol' Mexico" to "Down Home Texas BBQ."

Kelly Gomez describes the food they serve as "international and fresh." The food David Gomez ate in his childhood deeply affects what he cooks now.

David is one of the youngest of his family. His parents were Mexican migrant workers from San Antonio, Tex., and his grandmother came from Piedras Negras, Mexico. "Food was always very important," David said. "There wasn't always very much of it, so they had to be real creative."

He was raised on a diet of beans, rice, potatoes and tortillas. Every morning, his mother made 10 pounds of dough and flour tortillas for the day.

"Mexican food is probably my favorite [to cook]," he said. "There are so many flavors and it's such an old cuisine that it really hasn't changed a lot. The recipes in authentic Mexican cuisine probably date back 4,000 years… so the spices and the flavors in the authentic foods are very present. In modern-day foods, you don't get the complexity."

David started in the food industry at 9, working in a taco truck in Los Angeles. "My boss liked to party," he recalled. "We would go into L.A.… I would work the truck while he went to the clubs and when they let out, he would come back and collect the money."

He also worked as a dishwasher, and he tried to learn as much as he could about food and the service industry. After he was given the opportunity to start cooking, he never worked as a dishwasher again.

David came in contact with many cultures working in restaurants across the country. He recalled the diversity he found. "Before we opened for business there was someone assigned to make a meal for the staff, so whoever it was, if it was someone from India, they would make their best dish, to show it off. So that's how I picked up the other styles of cuisine.

"The way I connect with people in my surroundings is through food, because everybody shares the same passion for food, whether you cook or not," David said.

He decided that he wanted a formal food education and moved his wife and young children to New York to pursue his dream. They spent two years there as he studied, and he graduated with his culinary arts degree in 1996 from Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. He studied French, Mediterranean, Italian and Chinese cooking.

"When I went to culinary school, I had already been in the industry a long time," David said. "I had been working as a chef and managing restaurants. But I wanted to feel like I had the training and the knowledge. I always wanted to go. That was the best school. That was my goal."

After he graduated, they considered moving to Texas, but he got hired at La Hacienda in Chico as a chef. The goal was always to move to Sacramento or a large city, where David would have many opportunities as a chef, but they fell in love with Chico.

Several pictures hang on the walls of Roots restaurant, including pictures of Chico State, the farmers market, the park and their church. David took all the pictures and hung them on the wall, because though money was tight sometimes, these places were always free and were places his family spent a lot of time. It was because of these places, David said, that they could put down their roots in Chico.

And yes, that is where the restaurant got its name. But it's also so much more than that.

"It's not just a name because we thought it sounded cool," David said. "It reflects who we are. Chico is the place we have lived the longest. Our kids grew up here. We wanted to tie that in. What we do here, this is who we are… we're food people."

Roots is a family business. David is the chef, Kelly works with the catering and business aspects of the restaurant and their four children have all worked there. David remembers taking his children to serve at events he catered, and how people loved seeing the kids helping out. "They thought it was refreshing," he said.

While working with his spouse never came as a struggle, trying to find a balance between work and family is hard, but to David, always worth it. "There was a chef who said 'To be successful, don't stray too far from what you know or who you are,'" David noted.

Some of the Mexican-inspired dishes at Roots include Huevos Rancheros, a Northern Mexico dish that has two eggs over medium on a crispy corn tortilla, topped with ranchera sauce, roasted poblano chiles, grilled onion and Orland Creamery Queso Fresco. Another dish is the Huevos Montulenos from southern Mexico, which is corn tortillas stacked with black beans, ham and gouda cheese and topped with two eggs over medium, chipotle salsa, peas, plantains, Orland Creamery Queso Fresco and green onions.

Roots also serves Thai Coconut Pineapple Chicken Curry — a spicy, coconut-milk curry with grilled chicken, peanuts and pineapple served over jasmine rice and sauteed vegetables. Other international dishes include Baboy Lumpia and Moroccan Meatballs.

The message of Roots is simple — stay true to what you are and support local growth. Everything the Gomezes make is from scratch, including the vinaigrettes and sauces.

"Supporting local growth has a double meaning," David explained. "When we first started catering, we did a lot of events for non-profits for children, so that was supporting local growth. And the other part of that is using as much local product as we can."

David takes pride in selecting the freshest ingredients. He works with local farmers and businesses and has formed a strong relationship with Massa Organics and Lundberg Family Farms. Roots strives to use only organically-grown grains and legumes, as well as providing seafood that is sustainable.

Kelly hopes the restaurant will become part of the community and be a place people want to meet. David hopes that Roots can begin to bottle some of the sauces it uses and sell them at the farmers market. He also has some interest in starting a cookbook.