For the doors of opportunity to open, one must first knock. Just ask Hans-Trevor Gossmann, 29, the Chef de Cuisine at Royale Brasserie & Bar. After he graduated from the California Culinary Academy in 1993, Gossman packed up and followed a job lead in Europe to learn first-hand techniques of cooking used by pre-eminent culinary masters.

While in Munich — his grandmother still lived in Germany at the time — he visited the world-renowned, three-star Michelin-rated Aubergine restaurant. He knocked on the back door, asked for, and was given a job.

When he returned to the United States in 1994, the San Francisco-area native was hired by the famed Le Cirque restaurant in New York City, once again after knocking on the restaurant’s back door. Eventually he landed the prestigious assignment of opening a new restaurant for Le Cirque at the upscale Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. While there, he and his team helped the restaurant earn the “Best New Restaurant, Las Vegas” award given by Food & Wine Magazine.

Since he joined Royale Brasserie & Bar in 2000, Gossmann has participated in several culinary fund-raisers and will showcase the Fifth Avenue restaurant’s famous fare, including its roasted beet salad, for the James Beard Foundation’s celebration of the country’s top culinary artists.

Now living in Rolando, Gossmann finds himself on the other side of the restaurant’s back door, welcoming new young chefs like he was. “Cooking is the easy part,” he says. More work, but very rewarding, is “developing people and training cooks.”

Hans-Trevor Gossmann with friends takes part in a Camp Pendleton Mudd Run.

— Alexis Pasqua