Location: San Juan Puerto Rico, Condado
Restaurant(s): Budatai, Casa Lola
Position: Executive Chef / Owner
Cuisine focus: Latin Asian – Criollo
Notable Awards: Named “Culinary Rock Star” by Food & Wine magazine, Appearances on Food Network’s “Iron Chef America”, “Beat Bobby Flay”, “Next Iron Chef”, featured on USA Today, Bon Appetit, FOX News and more.
Dubbed a “Culinary Rock Star” by Food & Wine magazine, Chef Roberto Treviño has appeared on countless television shows including “Iron Chef America,” as a judge on “Beat Bobby Flay,” as a contestant on “Next Iron Chef,” with Rachael Ray on “$40 a day,” and on his own local shows “Kandela” and “4 Minutos con Chef Treviño.” Interviews and articles on Chef Treviño have been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, ABC News, Fox, Bon Appétit, Condé Nast Traveler, and Gourmet among many others. He is currently Chef/Owner of various restaurants in San Juan, Puerto Rico including his flagship Latin-Asian Budatai, the eclectic tapas joint Bar Gitano, the 16,000 square foot “criollo kitchen” Casa Lola, as well as Rosa Mexicano – a collaboration with NYC restaurateur Howard Greenstone. Chef Treviño has been honored to cook dinner at the James Beard House in NYC and is frequently featured as a guest chef & judge in food events throughout the U.S. and the Caribbean, including the Aspen Food & Wine Classic, The World Food Championships, The Telluride Culinary Festival and the St. Croix Food and Wine Festival. He is also one half of El Nosh, a Jewish-Latino fusion pop-up, with Los Angeles’ Chef Eric Greenspan.
1. What’s your regular comfort meal?
My regular comfort meal would be two fried eggs on white rice, known here in Puerto Rico as Arroz Blanco a caballo.
2. Tell us about one Kitchen Disaster story.
Never fun but certainly memorable! I’d say it was in 1996, we had just opened a restaurant in OSJ (Old San Juan) we were for sure totally in the weeds during service (we always were back then…). We had one dessert – some kind of calabaza cake – just out of the oven. One of the line cooks was told to “take it to the walk-in cooler”. As he stepped towards the door, another cook comes crashing through it and SMASH! The only dessert! The calabaza cake hit the ground! My Sous Chef took a knee and just started mumbling… ‘Nuff said!
3. Do you have any kitchen battle scars?
Yes, my arms look like ones of a pain seeking burn junkie.
4. If your last day was tomorrow, what would be your last meal?
I think what I would want to eat as my last meal is a big plate of Kasha Varnishnikas and some flour tortillas – similar in style to my mother’s. That would be it.
5. Finish this sentence:
If I wasn’t a Chef, I would be a bull fighter because there is passion and danger involved – similar to the kitchen…
6. After a long work day, what do you do to decompress?
…¡Tequila!
7. What do you wish you had more time to do?
Possibly look for creative solutions to a lot of the restaurants’ day-to-day issues.
8. Besides cooking, do you have any other talents?
Creative vision and TV production.
Learn more about Chef Roberto Treviño on his Chef’s Roll profile here.
Chef Roberto Trevino will be participating at Puerto Rico Meets NYC in October 2015. Learn more about the event by clicking on the image below.
