Gran Tasting

Executive Chef, La Terrasse San Roman
Executive Chef, Dobson’s Restaurant
Owner/Executive Chef, La Rotisserie San Roman

Juan “Martín” San Román is an award-winning chef and restaurateur and the newest member of the Season team. Martin has owned and operated several acclaimed restaurants in the U.S. and Mexico, and was a celebrity TV chef for eight years on the Televisa Network. During his illustrious career, he has proudly represented Mexican Gastronomie in England, Switzerland, Russia, Morocco, France, Japan, Singapore, and the U.S.

Martin has planned and prepared special dinners for a host of international diplomats and government leaders. His motivation is simple: “I live for the joy that comes from making people happy with gourmet cuisine and great service.” Martin studied culinary arts at the prestigious Ecole de Cuisine Lenotre de Paris, in France. As a member of Mexico’s National Culinary Team, Martin helped garner numerous international awards at the Bocuse d’or in Lyon, France, and the Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, Germany. He is a member of Academie Culinaire de France, Societe des Cuisiniers de Paris, the American Culinary Federation, and Vatel Club de Mexico.

An avid food lover, life-long dieter, creative entrepreneur, sustainability advocate, and a passionate public speaker.

Formerly trained as an architect and urban planner, Alejandra changed careers after becoming a top finalist on FOX’s popular cooking show MasterChef with Gordon Ramsay. She performs cooking demos across the United States, represents Oxfam America as a Sisters on the Planet Ambassador, and has appeared on numerous television programs including Access Hollywood Live and The Talk, and has been featured on major networks such as ABC, NBC, Fox, and CNN.

Eager to share her passion for healthy cooking, she travels frequently for public presentations, cooking demonstrations, and wellness seminars.

Chef Aaron Esquibel began his culinary adventure at the age of 10. Inspired by his grandmother’s cooking, he loved helping alongside her in the kitchen, learning all the tastes and smells of her hometown in Juarez, Mexico. He continued his culinary path at Le Cordon Bleu, graduating class of 2000. After that he worked at several upscale establishments in all aspects of the kitchen. Including, Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Windows, Patina Group and spent several years as the executive pastry chef at the Ritz Carlton in Pasadena. He also received a write up in LA Magazine e for his role as Chef de Cuisine for Market restaurant. He currently works at a Micehlin starred restaurant downtown and has his own numerous pop ups around the LA area.

Chef Esquibel goes by the motto, “Food is life and life is food”.

Throughout a groundbreaking, nearly 40-year career, Mary Sue Milliken finds the key to her success in following her insatiable curiosity. She is best known for Border Grill restaurants, trucks, and catering, which she runs with her business partner of more than 35 years, Susan Feniger. Mary Sue seeks to amplify the flavors of amazing ingredients, surprising guests with texture and color while maintaining harmony on the plate at every Border Grill location—Downtown Los Angeles, LAX, The Huntington Library, and Las Vegas’s Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, as well as gourmet food trucks and catering. In June 2018, Milliken and Feniger debuted a fast casual eatery, BBQ Mexicana, at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, and later this year they’ll return to Santa Monica with a new all-day Mexican restaurant.

Milliken leads with a staff- and community-forward approach with sustainability at its core. She has also witnessed the industry catch up to Border Grill in offering accessible, seasonal, ethnic cuisine, and empowering women to join the male-dominated realm of professional cooking. “We ditched the patriarchy long ago,” Milliken recalls, “and took charge of our own destiny.”

After graduating from Washburne Culinary Institute in Chicago, Milliken worked her way up and became the first female chef at Le Perroquet in 1978—where she soon met Susan Feniger. Following, she cooked at the woman-owned, two-Michelin-star Restaurant D’Olympe in Paris, before rejoining Feniger in L.A. to launch City Café in 1981, applying French techniques to unfamiliar dishes from around the world. The culinary pair found further acclaim with CITY Restaurant in 1985, and captured the hearts of Angelenos with Border Grill’s ’85 debut, evidenced by a James Beard Award the same year.

Milliken and Feniger brought their innovative approaches to The Food Network with the “ Too Hot

Tamales” and “Tamales World Tour” series, along with the Los Angeles’ popular food-centric radio show, KCRW’s “Good Food.” In 2011, Milliken competed on season three of Bravo’s “Top Chef Masters” and won $40,000 for her chosen charity, Share Our Strength. She has also co-authored five cookbooks.

Milliken uses her platform to enact societal change, serving on the boards of both Share Our Strength and the James Beard Foundation. In 1993, she joined other progressives to found Women Chefs & Restaurateu rs and Chefs Collaborative, and she was later selected to join the U.S. State Department on the American Chef Corps to promote diplomacy through food in Pakistan, Malta, and Italy. Her passion for sustainability led her to work with L.A. Food Policy Council, Pew Charitable Trusts, Oxfam, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and others.

In In 2018, Feniger and Milliken were named the recipients of the fourth annual Julia Child Award from The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts , marking the first women to be honored. The distinction complements additional accolades, including the Elizabeth Burns Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Restaurant Association in 2013; earned induction into Menu Masters Hall of Fame in 2014 ; and the 2018 Gold Award from the Los Angeles Times for culinary excellence and innovation in Southern California.

After years of cooking bold and traditional Mexican food together at La Casita Mexicana restaurant in Bell, CA, Jaime Martin Del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu are affectionately known jointly as Jaime and Ramiro. Among some of the biggest stars in the Mexican cooking world, the duo will bring the authentic flavors and heirloom family recipes of their signature Los Angeles-area restaurant to Baldwin Hills Crenshaw with the opening of Mexicano in the fall of 2014. Since garnering a nomination for Best Chef: Pacific from the James Beard Foundation in 2008, Jaime and Ramiro continue to earn recognition for serving exemplary traditional Mexican gastronomy from numerous national and international publications. Their charisma and passion for Mexican cuisine has afforded them broadcast opportunities, including a role as judges on the Telemundo show, “Top Chef Estrellas,” as well as recurring work with La Opinión, the largest Spanish newspaper in America. They have also received many certificates of recognition from the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors and from the Los Angeles Board of Education for their civic work and contributions.

Sindy Lazo is an Los Angeles based Venezuelan actress, author, comedian and TV host. Currently one of the contestants of the successful first edition of Master Chef Latino for the Hispanic audiences in the US. Known for her charismatic and funny characters in many Latin “Telenovelas”, Sindy also hosted her own talk-show “La Cocinita de Sindy” (Sindy’s Little Kitchen) for several seasons in Venezuela. Author of two best-selling books, “No vengas tú” (Don’t give me that…) and “La Cocinita de Sindy”, in which she compiles funny, dark and poignant essays about being a single girl who likes to cook but has no one to try her food.

Iconic culinarian, author, and entrepreneur Susan Feniger may be best known for her Modern Mexican concept, Border Grill restaurants, trucks, and catering, which she runs with her business partner of more than 35 years, Mary Sue Milliken. Now with locations in Downtown Los Angeles, LAX, The Huntington Library, and Las Vegas’s Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, Border Grill continues to serve street food-inspired regional Mexican cuisine with a commitment to sustainability and the best quality ingredients. In June 2018, Feniger and Milliken debuted a fast casual eatery, BBQ Mexicana, at Las Vegas’s Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, and later this year, they will return to Santa Monica with a new all-day Mexican restaurant. Feniger also launched her own solo ventures—Blue Window with Kajsa Alger at The Huntington Library in 2016 and to-go concept Grab & Global by Susan Feniger at both LAX and San Jose International Airports in 2018.

After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in New York,
she made a groundbreaking move in joining the nearly all-male kitchen at Chicago’s Le Perroquet, serendipitously meeting the only other woman in the kitchen—Mary Sue Milliken. After working for Wolfgang Puck at Ma Maison in L.A., Feniger went to the French Riviera to further hone her skills, and returned to open City Café with Milliken in 1981, forever changing L.A.’s culinary landscape by introducing eclectic dishes from around the world. That evolved into the larger CITY Restaurant in 1985—and the introduction of Border Grill as a simple spot for authentic home cooking and street foods of Mexico informed by the duo’s treks through the country. A James Beard Award that same year confirmed their impact on the nation’s cuisine.

Feniger and Milliken brought their innovative approaches to The Food Network with nearly 400 episodes of the “Too Hot Tamales” and “Tamales World Tour” series. They also were the original co-hosts of the popular food-centric radio show, KCRW’s “Good Food,” in L.A. Susan has co-authored six cookbooks, including Susan Feniger’s Street Food and competed on Bravo’s “Top Chef Masters” in 2010.
In 2018, Feniger and Milliken were named the recipients of the fourth annual Julia Child Award from The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts , marking the first women to be honored.

The distinction complements additional accolades, including the Elizabeth Burns Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Restaurant Association in 2013; earned induction into Menu Masters Hall of Fame in 2014; and the 2018 Gold Award from the Los Angeles Times for culinary excellence and innovation in Southern California.
Feniger is an active member of the community, and currently sits on the boards of the Scleroderma Research Foundation, L.A. LGBT Center, and L.A. Tourism & Convention Board; works closely with Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, Share Our Strength, and Human Rights Campaign; and co-founded Chefs Collaborative.

There’s little doubt that Enrique Olvera is the world’s best-known chef from Mexico. His restaurant PUJOL is widely considered the best restaurant in all of Mexico. And his New York eatery, Cosme, sets the standard for modern Mexican cuisine.

A pioneer in contemporary Mexican gastronomy, Olvera is both an inspiration and leader in the culinary world. His restaurant has received tons of international accolades. In September, he was inducted into the international advisory board of Spain’s Basque Culinary Center alongside Joan Roca, where they join the ranks of world-renowned chefs.

Meet chef Olvera at ¡Latin Food Fest! 2018 where he will conduct cooking demos and sign copies of his book, “Mexico from the Inside Out.”

Growing up around expert and traditional cooks in Tijuana, Mexico, Marcela was raised to be passionate about food, and she jumped straight into a culinary life with her first job working at her aunt’s cooking school in Baja, Mexico. Marcela realized she, too, wanted to pursue this growing love for food full time and enrolled in the Los Angeles Culinary Institute. She then went to the Ritz Escoffier Cooking School in Paris to become trained as a classical French pastry chef.

Marcela later returned home to run a catering company and teach children about the culinary arts in Tijuana, all while collecting recipes and applying her knowledge and skills of her family’s cooking traditions to map out her dreams. She successfully translated her culinary knowledge and passion to the small screen as the host of her own Food Network series, Mexican Made Easy, which premiered in 2010.

Wanting to share her expertise on great Mexican food that combines freshness and flavor with kitchen ease, Marcela published Fresh Mexico: 100 Simple Recipes for True Mexican Flavor” (Clarkson Potter) in 2009, Mexican Made Easy (Clarkson Potter) in 2011 and Casa Marcela: Recipes and Food Stories of My Life in the Californias (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) in 2017.

Marcela lives in San Diego with her family and is a co-host on The Kitchen and a judge on Best Baker in America

Born in Lima, Peru, ‘the godfather of Peruvian cuisine’ Ricardo Zarate is synonymous with indigenous South American foods. Immaculately executed and fused with his underlying passion, drive and kitchen ingenuity, Zarate’s cuisine has earned him widespread critical acclaim and praise from media and consumers alike.

The second youngest of 13 siblings, Zarate grew up in a shoebox-shaped cement house with a tin roof, typical to Lima in the 1970s and ‘80s. From a large family, Zarate frequently helped in the family kitchen, learning technique from his mother and grandmother, whom he credits as his biggest influences.

By age 17, Zarate yearned to be in the kitchen full time, enrolling in his hometown culinary school, Instituto de las Américas, and going on to form what would become the foundations of his Peruvian influence.

Upon graduating, Zarate headed to London to practice his craft in a new culture, working for 12 years at notable restaurants including One Aldwych and Zuma. It was here that his passion for new foods and ingredients grew. Zarate began to draw inspiration from Japanese, Chinese and European flavors, still prominent in his cooking today.

In 2009 Zarate headed to Los Angeles, opening Mo-chica, Downtown at Mercado la Paloma. Housed in a cultural center designed to showcase local creativity to the broader community, the restaurant was soon followed by pop-up restaurant, Test Kitchen, where Zarate offered consumers a new dining experience weekly from a rotating roster of high profile guest chefs.

With Zarate’s cuisine beginning to shape a large following, in 2011 Zarate introduced the modern Peruvian cantina, Picca. A critical success, it was recognized as one of the GQ ‘best new restaurants’ and a Conde Nast Traveler ‘Hot Table’, all within one year of opening. It was also in this year that Zarate was named the prestigious honor of Food & Wine ‘Best New Chef’.

In April 2013, Zarate opened Paiche, a Japanese izakaya-style Peruvian seafood restaurant located in Marina Del Rey, consequently named one of Esquire’s ‘Best New Restaurants’. In the same year, Zarate also expanded to Santa Barbara, opening Blue Tavern, a quintessential Californian fare driven restaurant, seen through the eyes of a native Peruvian leader.

In 2014, Zarate sought a new project, splitting from his partners at all restaurants, and pursuing authorship of his first cookbook ‘The Fire of Peru’. In the summer of 2015, in the lead up to the book’s launch, Zarate opened the pop-up Once, based at Santino’s in Santa Monica. Soon after, ‘The Fire of Peru’ debuted in October, aiming to guide consumers to try the food of Zarate’s country. With a wealth of flavors and dishes to explore, Zarate accredits the book to the ‘Peruvian home cooks’, including his mother, ‘who we should all be thankful for’.

Zarate’s latest project, Rosaliné, will open in spring of 2017 with classic Peruvian dishes alongside ‘street-food’ fare updated with a California sensibility; Zarate will include small bites, placing an emphasis on grilled vegetables and dishes highlighting both land and sea. The streamlined menu will use a traditional Josper oven with open charcoal grill; infusing ingredients with smoky, rich, earthy flavors and spices, prominent in South American cuisine.

Excited to bring back his love of Peruvian food to the Los Angeles dining scene, Chef Zarate says, “With people from many different cultural backgrounds, a true mezcla, the energy in Los Angeles you can feel in the air. I’m ready to explore the next phase of Peruvian dining. Taking it back to its roots, this restaurant comes from the Peruvian home cooks, the creators and history of my food, the people who are my inspiration daily.”

Josiah Citrin is a culinary expert and veteran of Los Angeles’s gourmet dining scene, with more than 25 years of experience. He is a two-star Michelin chef and owner of Santa Monica, California’s highly-acclaimed Mélisse, Charcoal Venice, and Dave’s Doghouse at the Staples Center in Downtown Los Angeles and Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

His culinary philosophy, “In Pursuit of Excellence” sets the standard for all of his concepts, whether fine-dining or casual.

Growing up in Mexico City, Richard Sandoval would join his grandmother in the kitchen and gather around her large table with family to enjoy lively Mexican feasts prepared from scratch. From his grandmother, he learned to respect fresh, authentic, ingredients and to create the vibrant flavors that turned family dinners into celebrated events. Meanwhile, his restaurateur father – owner of Madeiras in Acapulco and Villa Fiore in Mexico City – imparted lessons in service and restaurant management.

These early influences inspired Sandoval to enroll at the Culinary Institute of America. Upon graduation, he gained the attention of New Yorkers with his contemporary French restaurants, Savann and Savann Est. Soon, though, he returned to his first love – the food of his childhood and in 1997 opened Maya, his flagship modern Mexican restaurant in New York.

During the past 15 years Sandoval’s career as a chef and restaurateur has evolved to include serving as a culinary consultant, television personality and chef/owner of Richard Sandoval Restaurants (RSR), a leading international restaurant group with more than 40 concepts around the world.

He has been awarded Mexico’s National Toque d’Oro 2003, Bon Appétit Restaurateur of the Year 2006 and Cordon d’Or Restaurateur of the Year 2012. Most recently, Market Watch named him On Premise Player of the Year 2013.

[CELEBRITY CHEF]

Chef Tati Polo is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu at the California School of Culinary Arts. As an executive chef she has been hired for many events including twice for a private Kenny Chesney concert where she served 2000 people in Miami each time. She was also the executive chef of the Latin Billboard After Party for Universal Music Latin Entertainment. Chef Tati has also been a guest celebrity chef for the past two years at the Latin Food Fest in Los Angeles. She also made an appearance as a guest celebrity chef for “Familia y Hogar” where she created healthy dishes and shared a cooking demo on stage with the guests.

[TV PERSONALITY]

Chef Tati became a part of “Despierta America” on Univision, the biggest morning show in Spanish language TV, with her own cooking segment on the show. She’s also had a segment on the show “Lanzate” on Univision since 2011. The original segment was called “Los Hombres no Lloran, Pero Cocinan” (“Men Don’t cry but they Cook”) which aired in the LA market only. The show went national in 201,5 and the segment was revamped in a new segment called “Un Taco de ojo con Tati Polo.”

[RADIO PERSONALITY]

Beginning 2013, Tati became a part of Grupo Radio Centro’s Exitos 93.9FM LA with a radio segment called “El Dish del Dia con un Tip Picoso” in “Raq-C & Nachin” weekday afternoon show.Currently, Chef Tati is part of K-LOVE 107.5 FM, a Spanish radio station where she joins the morning show with Donaji Radio on Monday mornings. Hersegment  is called “Vive Mejor con Tati Polo” (“Live Better with Tati Polo”) where she helps listeners with healthy tips and recipes for a better life.

[DIGITAL HOST]

Chef Tati recently partnered with COLLIDE, a streaming platform that connects fans to creators to build a better content experience and community together. Through Collide, Tati shares healthy recipes and wellness with her fans on a weekly basis. She loves to connect with and engage her fans and is constantly inter-phasing with them on all her social media platforms.

[HEALTH COACH]

The image that Chef Tati likes to project to her fans is one based around good health and healthy eating. Being a pescatarian herself, she encourages her followers to lean towards a more organic and natural way of eating. Through her shows in the radio, TV and digital, Tati constantly conveys this message to improve the lives of thousands. Reinvention is a big part of what makes Tati so successful. “We need to reevaluate our lives constantly, it is a personal task that requires us to continually better ourselves. It is very easy to go in the opposite direction of our dreams. We must know where we come from, who we are and where we are headed.”

[SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER]

Aside from her work with Collide, Tati has also done modeling, cooking and food-related social media campaigns. She did a DOLE healthy eating social media campaign; as well as one for Nestle Coffee-Mate, El Super Markets, Daily Fresh Produce, Mahatma, Farmer John, Super King Markets, Ashleys Furniture, Crocs, Curacao, Carnival Aventura Dance Cruise, Costa Baja Resort, CBX (Cross Border Xpress) and Volaris Airline.

[MODEL]

“Self-evaluation and constant adjustments have become a way of life for me.” Before heading to the kitchen, Chef Tati was a model and was able to become a part of Miss Tachira,a Venezuelan beauty pageant and Miss Universe qualifier. She has been featured in several magazines, and has been a model for runway shows, swimwear, catalogues and calendars, working with high-caliber photographers in the entertainment industry. Some of her modelingexperience includes commercial jobs for Trim Spa, BMW, Head and Shoulders, as well as being the face of Glaudi.

[ENTREPRENEUR]

Chef Tati wears many business hats, including a chef’s hat. Along with her culinary background she is the CEO of her own catering company called Forkplate Productions. Her tasty company also offers cooking classes for those wanting to expand their knowledge in the kitchen. Chef Tati is also the former owner of Flirt Culture, a boutique that sold women’s apparel in the heart of LA. Today, Tati is very excited to announce the launch of her new clothing line + women’s movement: ViTALLA by Tati Polo.

Passionate about food and entertaining, Ingrid Hoffmann spends each day sharing her enthusiasm and talent with an international audience. Ingrid launched Simply Delicioso on Food Network last July and also hosts her own Spanish-language cooking and lifestyle show, Delicioso, on Galavision/Univision. Aside from the two shows, Ingrid pulled together a compilation of her recipes and entertaining ideas, which are showcased in her first cookbook, SIMPLY DELICIOSO: A Collection of Everyday Recipes with a Latin Twist (February 2008, Clarkson Potter/Random House).

Raised in Colombia, Ingrid moved to Miami where she opened La Capricieuse, a high fashion luxury boutique in Miami’s Coconut Grove. Soon after, the store grew into a chain of four boutiques with a flagship on the island of Aruba, as well as a men’s shop in Miami.

Ingrid launched her own show, Delicioso with Ingrid Hoffmann, on Latin America’s Cosmopolitan Network in 2004 and soon premiered on DirecTV in September 2005, which propelled her popularity to new heights. In November 2006, the show premiered in its second season on a new network – Galavision, the highest rated among the Hispanic stations. Each episode centers around a theme that Ingrid uses to connect segments on menu planning, shopping, cooking and decorating. The show’s light-hearted, interactive style draws in viewers for both Ingrid’s talents as well as her vibrant personality.

Ingrid’s success has afforded her the opportunity to give back to the community as a board member of New York City’s Food and Education Fund and Miami’s Amigos for Kids, as well as an active supporter of Manhattan’s Food and Finance High School and Believe for Colombia Foundation, amongst many others.

Abe Botello, Executive Chef at West Coast Tavern, was born and raised in San Diego. His mother was a baker, and his parents owned Los Pinos; a Mexican restaurant in Imperial Beach. Botello started cooking in his father’s kitchen at age 16. After graduating high school, Botello attended the New School of Architecture and San Diego City College. He later decided to get back to his roots and nurture his childhood passion for cooking. He attended the International Culinary School at the Art Institute of San Diego and landed his first job at Urban Solace under direct supervision of Chef Matt Gordon.

Botello worked his way up and became sous chef nearly two years later. He went on to open its sister restaurant called Solace, and also the Moonlight Lounge.

Botello’s culinary résumé reads like a list of San Diego’s eclectic eateries. He helped open the kitchen at True North Tavern, and worked for West Coast Tavern briefly in 2010. Botello also worked for Station Tavern in South Park and most recently, he was the chef de cuisine at Heights Tavern.

Botello rejoined the Verant Group as the executive chef of West Coast Tavern in 2013. He looks forward to creating a menu featuring playful dishes, and combining seasonal ingredients prepared with inventive techniques. He hopes to build a strong reputation for the creative cuisine at West Coast Tavern to accompany the restaurant’s atmosphere and vibe.

Botello says his favorite cooking tools include an offset spatula, spoon and a sturdy old paring knife. At all times, he keeps garlic, sea salt, sherry vinegar, vanilla beans and chipotle peppers in adobo on hand in his kitchen. When he is away from the kitchen at West Coast Tavern, Botello enjoys spending time cooking for his friends and family, running and hiking. He also makes time for mountain biking and snowboarding.

Martín Omar González Mayí was born in San Francisco de Macorís and moved to Madrid at an early age. He soon began working in a kitchen to pay for his studies in tourism and fine arts. As he got more involved in the kitchen, he switched gears to focus his studies on cooking.

After stints working at trendy restaurants in the early ‘90s, in 1996 he started working in the kitchen of the emblematic Madrid chef Abraham García, honing a fusion style of cuisine that was both cosmopolitan and modern. In 1999, driven by a desire to get back to his roots, he moved to Santo Domingo. Until 2002, he traveled between Santo Domingo and New York, working in various restaurants. He then returned to Madrid, this time as director of Viridiana restaurant, which to this day is one of the most influential restaurants in Spain. Martín belongs to a breed of prodigious cooks in both the Spanish and international gastronomic scenes, along with his contemporaries Dabiz Muñoz, Sergio Sierra and César Rodriguez.

In 2009, swept away by the rising tide of Latin American cuisine in Spain, he founded El Colmado with his wife, Maria Duran. Starting from humble beginnings mixing Spanish and Dominican recipes, El Colmado soon became known as the first restaurant to offer high-end Dominican cuisine, winning over renowned food critics at El Mundo, El País, ABC, and other publications. El Colmado became the benchmark of Dominican cuisine internationally, earning awards from Salsas de Chiles, Elle, Hello, El Economista, El Nuevo Diario, and other media outlets in both Spain and Dominican Republic. It was the restaurant of choice for renowned chefs, artists, athletes and society in general.

In 2013, Martín closed the restaurant and moved back to Santo Domingo where he currently resides. Currently, he collaborates with magazines and other media by contributing recipes, cooking demonstrations and lectures.

An avid student of his culture and roots, he was recently named “Gastronomic Ambassador of the Dominican Republic” by the Dominican embassy in Spain. In Spain and Venezuela, he is known as the Juan Luis Guerra of cooking, and today he is one of the greatest advocates of Dominican cuisine. He has represented the country in international events such as Jornadas del aceite de oliva español, in Madrid; Fusión de Culturas in Almeria; the Epcot Food and Wine Festival 2015; Barceló Bávaro Culinary Week 2014/2015; Jornadas dominicanas 2015/2016 in Caracas; and in 2016 he represented Dominican Republic cuisine in Madrid Fusión. This year he will also participate in Mistura, the largest food fair in Latin America, in Lima, Peru.

Executive Chef, Cafe Stoked

Executive Chef, Alfonso Magadan, utilizes his 28 years of experience in all levels of the business to lead the Cafe Stoked team of experienced chefs to deliver flavorful creations in a carefully planned menu, presented to delight you.

Many of our team have been with us from the beginning, live in the community and they all take great pride in their work to deliver a quality experience for our guests. Together, with our team, we pull out all the stops to make your event special and every little detail is designed to make your event memorable for your guests.

Chef Ignacio García, Executive Chef of Casa de Bandini

It’s no wonder that Casa de Bandini’s Chef Ignacio is creative and comfortable in the kitchen: as the eldest son of 20 children, hailing from Michoacán, Mexico, he grew up baking, cooking and perfecting his craft.

And, diners at Casa de Bandini have been the beneficiaries! Besides the traditional Mexican cuisine we’ve all loved, Chef Ignacio’s own signature dishes have become favorites as well. His Tequila Lime Salmon, Seafood Rellenos and Seafood Chimichanga, plus Chicken Chipotle Salad are just a few of the delectable, unique Bandini dishes with the “Chef Ignacio” stamp.

Says the Chef, his own soups of the day draw a constant “ole!” from repeat diners. Caldo de Res on Thursday, a Mexican Beef Stew “soup,” Chicken Tlalpeño, with chipotle, chicken, garbanzo beans and squash, star another day, and on Sunday, constant crowds come for traditional Pozole.

Chef Ignacio offers his secret, too, for his aromatic, spicy, sumptuous flavors: everything, he says, everything – is fresh.

The cuisine of Puerto Rico has its roots deep in the countryside where the ingredients are plentiful and brought to the market fresh daily. So is the case here in Mexico as well where Chef Felipe currently resides. His recipes are simply exquisite and have survived the test of time.

Chef Felipe credits his deep love of spices and Latin flavor to his Mom Vivian who for all of his years has nourished his involvement with her in the kitchen.  Not to be left out are sisters Patricia and Vivian. With their unsolicited yet welcome and sound advice Chef Felipe became exceptionally, “self-taught”.

Chef Felipe’s love of flavors, spices, and the challenge of fusing his heritage with many other methods of cooking has created some of the best recipes you would care to try.  The cuisine of Puerto Rico has its roots deep in the countryside where the ingredients are plentiful and brought to the market fresh daily.  So is the case here in Mexico as well where Chef Felipe currently resides.  His recipes are simply exquisite and have survived the test of time. Chef Felipe is owner and Executive Chef of Food Power 2 the 5th, a catering company.  Anyone intrigued about Latin flavor with a Caribbean Spanish twist should without a doubt make a call to this very exclusive catering company.   Chef Felipe entices and delights the pallet with a wonderful blend of everything Mexico and the Caribbean have to offer.

Chef Felipe is the Special Events Chef at Viñedos Malagon.  Viñedos Malagon is a boutique winery that makes one of the best wines in the Valle de Guadalupe Region.  Chef Felipe is a proven wedding food artist and has planned weddings in California, Arizona, and most noticeably at the Oheka Castle on Long Island, New York.  Chef Felipe has clients all over Southern California as well as Mexico.  He has donated numerous meals at auction to raise money for charities such as Miracle Babies and the Rosarito Boys and Girls Club.  He has also done public speaking for PBS and offered not only his food but his heart to help reach common goals..  He has the ability to entertain and cook completely off of the grid if you need solace or at any location requested.  You cannot go wrong with this amazing Chef.  Felipe’s Fabulously Fierce Flavored Foods….. thus, Food Power 2 the 5th