Hot Nashville Chicken Sandwich and Coleslaw

Hello! I am Rafael and I have been a chef for the last 25 years. I earned my Culinary Arts degree from Johnson and Wales University and have been cooking ever since. I started in my hometown of Miami then moved to New York City in 1999 to work with some of the most popular celebrity chefs like: Eric Ripert, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and David Bouley. My cooking style was defined during these years as I worked with such renowned chefs. In 2002, when Spain was emerging as a culinary capital, I wanted to further enhance my expertise. I was fluent in Spanish, so I decided to travel abroad so I spent 6 months cooking in Barcelona and San Sebastian Michelin-hot spots. After working for independent restaurants for 8 years, I started to work for luxury hotels and resorts in New York, Vancouver, Philadelphia, Anguilla (in the Caribbean British West Indies) and now Houston. I also currently serve as a board member at the Houston Community College Culinary department.

I will be teaching my learners how to prepare simple dishes they can make with ingredients you often have in the kitchen. I will show them how to elevate something as traditional as French Toast or a cheeseburger and present it in an impressive way. The way you see it at a fancy restaurant. Perhaps you'll be dining out less!

If you have a special dish in mind, send me a private message and I can accommodate that!  A special occasion coming up? We can work on a menu together! 

For the older children thinking of pursuing the culinary arts in their future, I am happy to offer create a class that will help them and mentor them in that decision. 

Safety, organization, time management will be reinforced in all lessons.

My philosophy in teaching my budding cooks and sous chefs is this: LEARN and perfect the technique first. Because when you learn the basics, then every cuisine becomes simpler to understand. Simple for me does not necessarily mean easy. It means a well executed dish. Even simple dishes can be easy to mess up but with proper technique, you can consistently create a dish from scratch with balanced flavors.

Tasting dishes before serving is a must for me. This is a gauge to see if you are improving. In the kitchen, we prepare the same dish over and over again. Repetition helps us improve. After a while, it becomes second nature and you have perfected the technique after lots of practice.

The product you use is very important. The better product you buy, the better results you'll get. I like to focus on the main ingredient. I train my cooks not to overwhelm or overcomplicate a dish. For example, when preparing a cheeseburger: the meat, not the cheese should stand out. 

I encourage a lot of creativity in the kitchen. It's a way to keep cooks motivated and always learning. You can take a classic dish and give it something personal and unique to your liking.

While cooking is my passion, I enjoy watching a lot of sports. If I were not a chef, I would most probably be a sports commentator. I know an insane amount of sports trivia I could probably join Jeopardy and actually win.