meet the chef

I decided to go plant-based 4 years ago when I met my wife. Changing the way I eat and cook was challenging but exciting. Cooking with no animal proteins was a real experience: it helped me to get more creative and inventive in the kitchen. 

I really love the fact that I can create delicious food with only plants and that I get the health benefits from it, and that I can help the world by doing so. I’ve also learnt to appreciate animals more. Admittedly, I wasn’t really aware of them before; I just ate to eat because that’s what I was taught. Now, I see them as living beings. I believe that a shift towards plant-based eating will help us have more food for those in need, a healthy planet, healthier people and a reduction in animal slaughter just for the sake of satisfying our demands. I don’t think animal farming will disappear completely, but at least we can strive for more conscious and sustainable practices.

Now, as a private chef and educator, I really enjoy cooking and creating culinary experiences for people that showcase the deliciousness of nature’s greatest ingredients. My favorite thing to hear is that people loved the food that I made even though they’re not vegan!

I was born in Mexico City. My culinary journey started very young, when I began cooking home meals to help out my mom. I’ve always loved eating but my mom was never a good cook. She was a single mother with 3 of us who worked night shifts and barely had time to sleep, let alone cook. When she did cook, it was always simple, fast meals. From her I learned the basics of Mexican cuisine: rice, beans, pasta soups, and spicy sauce. The more I cooked the more I found I enjoyed it—experimenting and mixing spices and ingredients to see what happened. Every now and then my grandma would come to visit and she would always teach me more.

It wasn’t until 2 years after I high school that I had the opportunity to go to culinary school. When I stepped foot into that kitchen and started learning I knew that that’s what I wanted to do. I loved every moment of it, making bread especially was mind blowing! I was just so transfixed by the transformation of a few simple ingredients like water, flour, salt and yeast. 

I soon started cooking in restaurants and hotels. I had the pleasure of learning from Chef Ricardo Munoz Zurita at one of his restaurants Azul y Oro in Mexico City and also worked at the Presidente Intercontinental near Playa del Carmen. Then I came to New York and here I’ve been so blessed to be able to work with amazing chefs at Michelin-starred restaurants such as Per Se, Eleven Madison Park, Nix and ATLA.