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Bert Ortiz Sr. arrived in the Bay Area from Chile in 1977 with $100 to his name. 

In the decades since, he has run a catering company; opened restaurants around the Bay, in Venezuela, and in his home country; and helped the Warriors to four NBA championships by revolutionizing their kitchen operations as the team’s chef.

Now his son Bert Ortiz Jr. has taken over as the Warriors’ head chef. If that’s not the American dream … 

“You have to work hard for it,” Ortiz Sr., 69, told The Standard. “As soon as I got here, I got myself a job, and I haven’t stopped working.” 

On Thursday, the Warriors presented him with the Dejan Milojević Brate Award — named for the revered, late assistant coach — in a pregame ceremony. The second annual honor recognizes a basketball operations staffer who embodies the spirit, dedication, and legacy of Milojević. 

Steph Curry handed Ortiz Sr. the trophy at halfcourt, then father and son took photos with the trophy. Their special moment started an impromptu father-son night at Chase Center, with LeBron and Bronny James connecting on a pair of (opens in new tab)historic assists (opens in new tab) and Steve and Nicholas Kerr coaching perhaps their last home game together. 

“The coolest thing about it, amongst the craziness that goes on every day with the amount of people that we feed and the type of people that we feed, is we get to work with each other every day,” Ortiz Jr. told The Standard. “We’ve experienced four championships together, some really cool moments that we’ve lived through as father and son.”

Ortiz Sr. joined the Warriors in 2000, when longtime team operations staffer Eric Housen was impressed by an event his restaurant had catered in Oakland. 

Back then, at Oracle Arena, Golden State had a no-frills operation. Players were offered peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and protein bars. The arena barely had a working kitchen. 

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Ortiz Sr. helped modernize the system as player health and performance became more important. His son started helping when he was 15 — a full-circle moment for a kid who grew up a huge Warriors fan — and joined the staff full time in 2015.

“Bert Sr. and Bert Jr. are amazing,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “The organization is basically as good as the parts, the people, who are in it. We’re really proud of the people we have at every level.” The elder Ortiz, Kerr added, “has a smile on his face every single day, brings a lot of light to our players. He’s a really wonderful soul.” 

Now Ortiz Jr. runs the show. 

Game days start at his home in Discovery Bay with a 75-minute commute to get to the Chase Center kitchen by 5:30 a.m. He spends the next hour preparing everything — produce, the daily special, the weekly wellness shots, the smoothie of the day. Breakfast service runs from 7:00 to 11:45, followed directly by lunch until 3:30. Pregame goes until 7:30.

Everything is made to order. Ortiz Jr. works closely with Golden State’s performance staff to cater to dietary preferences and restrictions. He gets in his car to head home around midnight, an 18-hour shift complete. If there’s practice the next day, he needs to be right back at 1 Warriors Way at 5:30 a.m. to do it all over again. 

“From the moment I open those doors, it doesn’t close until I walk out the door,” he said. 

Ortiz Jr.’s menu Thursday was Spanish-themed, but players often have off-the-wall requests: scallops, prosciutto, breakfast for dinner, sparkling apple cider mixed into smoothies. It’s Ortiz’s responsibility to anticipate and prepare.

On game days, he and his small staff will feed up to 200 people: players, coaches, staffers, and their families. 

“He does a wonderful job,” Ortiz Sr. said of his son. “What he has done here for the team and with us, it’s just been really special.” 

The type of American dream that the Ortizes have achieved is getting harder for many to realize. The Trump administration’s hardline approach to immigration has led to hundreds of thousands of deportations, a stoppage in asylum claims, and a decline in immigration. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in 2025 (opens in new tab)quadrupled, and daily detentions doubled.  (opens in new tab)

Ortiz Jr. said he has workers who are in the U.S. legally who are afraid to be in public.

“People feel helpless and scared. It’s sad,” he said. “And as a dad, I worry about where is this going to go? It feels like it can’t get any worse; then it does. Something like this, it just feels cruel and inhumane. The stripping of rights. The whole thing is just upsetting.” 

Ortiz Sr. stressed that immigrants must come to the U.S. legally, and that “if you really want [the American dream], it’s right here for you to work and take it.” He has worked all over the world, and the best place is always the U.S., he said. 

He has 12 American grandchildren and a great-grandchild — and a new shiny trophy to show them. Celebrating Ortiz Sr. in today’s climate for Latin Americans feels particularly consequential. 

“If this was happening back in 1977, when my parents were trying to get here, we wouldn’t be here,” Ortiz Jr said. “People are just trying to make it work, trying to build a life for themselves and their children, their children’s children. And for this to be going on, it’s heartbreaking.”