For Aramis Torres, the roots of leadership were planted when he was a kid. He looked up to his father, Cesar Torres, who was the mayor of their municipality in Puerto Rico.
“I learned a lot from watching him taking care of people, and the way he was with the public, and how he was a leader,” says Torres, adding that his mom, Ada Lopez, was a home economics teacher. “That’s how I learned to cook and clean.”
In 1987, the family packed up and moved to Orlando, Florida. Once he had graduated from high school and attended some college, Torres decided to join the U.S. Marine Corps. He served for 13 years, which included deployment to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Sniper Alley alongside NATO forces.
After being discharged in 2005, he would eventually attend culinary school on the GI Bill. Today, he has over 20 years of restaurant experience, having headed kitchens at resorts and restaurants across the country. In December of last year, he moved from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Grosse Pointe and started at downtown Detroit’s Lumen the same month.
What are some of the lessons you took away from the U.S. Marine Corps that apply in the kitchen setting?
It was an easy transition, becoming a chef. The way I lead my kitchens, it’s based on a military structure. Everybody has a role, and everybody has to fulfill their role, and then they’ve got to cross-train to help [those with] other roles in the kitchen so they can learn. You’re going to have people that are ahead, but you’ve always got to take care of that weak link to make sure that it’s not holding back either the kitchen or — when it comes to the Marines — a whole battalion.
I know you’ve started to introduce some new dishes at Lumen.
You have to understand the public before you start trying to get too creative. But we started with walleye ceviche and walleye empanadas. We did a sea bass with a miso beurre blanc and silver noodles with tamarind sauce. We’re doing the bistro burger for brunch. It’s a smashburger and a croissant bun with cheddar cheese and caramelized onions, and we [top it with] a Hollandaise with Zip sauce.
What do you like to do outside of work?
I got hooked on pickleball for some reason, so I’ll go to Paddle and Par in Beverly Hills, usually twice a week. [At Beacon Park, behind Lumen] we brought in [pickleball courts] because we all play here. Sometimes, after the shift, we would go outside and play. Some of us got hurt — Scott hurt his knee; George got tennis elbow — and then Tommy was getting married, so we stopped for a little bit.
What do you think of the food scene here?
Detroit has a great melting pot, from having a great shawarma in a gas station [to], you know, eating Gus’s [World Famous] Fried Chicken. [Local chefs here are] doing a lot of their own [things], but I see a lot of French culinary influence. I see a lot of fine dining, or classical cuisine, and farm-to-table, [all of] which is kind of what I like to do. My favorite restaurant [here] is Puma. You walk in; they have a DJ while you see your meat being cooked. So it’s a good vibe to go there and experience very classic Argentinian food.
This story originally appeared in the November 2025 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Click here to get our digital edition.
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