Josef Centeno

Last updated
Josef Centeno
Born
San Antonio, Texas
Education San Antonio Academy
Central Catholic Marianist High School
Culinary Institute of America
Culinary career
Current restaurant(s)

Josef Centeno is an American chef, restaurateur and cookbook author who specializes in Tex-Mex cuisine. [1] He was nominated for a James Beard award for Best Chef in February 2020.

Contents

Early life and education

Centeno grew up in a Mexican American family in San Antonio, Texas. [2] He grew up eating his grandmother's Tex-Mex cooking, which he described as, "all from scratch and very simple—it’s what you would call farm-to-table, because they had a little garden and a little produce stand." Centeno's father worked as a butcher in the family grocery store and his great-grandfather, Joe Centeno Sr., founded Centeno Supermarkets, the first chain of independent Latino groceries in the US. [3] [4]

Centeno graduated from San Antonio Academy, Central Catholic Marianist High School and the Culinary Institute of America. [4]

Career

In 2011, Centeno opened Bäco Mercat, a Spanish-inspired restaurant located in Los Angeles. [3]

Bar Amá was named for his maternal grandmother, who came from a family of refugees who left Northern Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. They came to Texas and Centeno said they cooked Tex-Mex food. [1] Centeno described his grandmother's food as "Simple cooking that wasn’t authentically Mexican but not the melted-cheese-topped stuff people usually talk about when describing Tex-Mex." [1] [5] In June 2019 his restaurant Orsa & Winston, a Japanese- and Italian-inspired restaurant, earned a Michelin star. [3] In July 2019 he opened Amácita in Culver City. [6]

During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic Centeno was one of the first chefs to shut down his restaurants entirely, telling his employees told "to file for unemployment [right then], because by [the following] week, it was going to be a shitshow.” [7] Orsa & Winston and Bar Ama have both reopened after the coronavirus lockdowns. [8] [9] [10]

Cookbooks

Centeno's first cookbook, Baco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles (2017), co-written with his life partner and former LA Times food editor Betty Hallock, focussed on the cuisine of Los Angeles. [3] [11] [12] Food & Wine said it was "about being an Angeleno and an American who breaks boundaries and celebrates multicultural flavors." [3] LAist named it to their list of "essential cookbooks for the modern Angeleno." [13]

Centeno's second cookbook Amá: a modern Tex-Mex kitchen ( 2019), also co-written with Hallock, was published by Chronicle Books. [1] [5] The New Yorker named it one of the best books of the year [14] and Eater one of the best cookbooks of fall of 2019. [3]

Philosophy

Centeno, who says he "grew up during the commercialization of Tex-Mex", originally avoided cooking Tex-Mex and instead, "ran as far away from San Antonio as I could. I moved to New York and got into French cooking." [1] According to the Wall Street Journal, Centeno sees Tex-Mex as "not a cuisine based on processed cheese. It is rather a genre of cooking developed by necessity, by people uprooted from where they came from, who happened to arrive in Texas." [1]

Honors

In February 2020 Centeno was named a semifinalist for Best Chef by the James Beard Foundation. [15] The Los Angeles Times named Orsa & Winston their restaurant of the year in July 2021, citing Centeno's response to the coronavirus pandemic as part of their decision. [8] He holds a Michelin star for Orsa & Winston. [16]

Reception

The Wall Street Journal called his restaurants Bar Amá and Amácita "the country’s most thoughtful Tex-Mex." [1] The New York Times named Amacita's hamachi collar one of the ten best Los Angeles dishes of 2019. [17] Bloomberg named Bar Ama's queso one of the best in the world. [18]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bull, Marian (October 22, 2019). "The Chef Reclaiming Tex-Mex Says There's One Secret To Successful Nachos". WSJ. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  2. ↑ "Roasted Cauliflower with Cilantro-Pecan Pesto Recipe". Sunset Magazine. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Valdespino, Anne (2020-01-02). "LA chef Josef Centeno has a Michelin star restaurant and a new cookbook, now he's on a mission to defend Tex-Mex cuisine". Daily News. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  4. 1 2 Tijerina, Edmund (2019-12-09). "Josef Centeno on SA Cuisine and Modern Tex-Mex". San Antonio Magazine. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  5. 1 2 Centeno, Josef; Hallock, Betty (2019). Amá : a modern Tex-Mex kitchen. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN   978-1-4521-5586-9. OCLC   1080250539.
  6. ↑ "The Hungry Texpat's Guide to Los Angeles". Texas Monthly. 2020-01-03. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  7. ↑ McCarron, Meghan (2020-04-15). "How One Chef Is Feeding LA's Hospital Workers, 100 Enchiladas at a Time". Eater. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  8. 1 2 Addison, Bill (2020-07-30). "Josef Centeno's Orsa & Winston is The Times' Restaurant of the Year". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 2021-08-29.
  9. ↑ Saperstein, Pat (2020-03-15). "L.A. Restaurants, Caterers Adapt to Coronavirus With More Takeout, Delivery Options". Variety. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  10. ↑ "L.A. bars forced to close, restaurants go takeout-only: 'Some of these closures might be permanent'". Los Angeles Times. 2020-03-16. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  11. ↑ Centeno, Josef; Hallock, Betty (2017-09-05). Bäco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles. Chronicle Books. ISBN   978-1-4521-5578-4.
  12. ↑ Ko, Genevieve; Mims, Ben (2019-12-04). "10 cookbooks you'll want to give — and get — this holiday season | Produced by Seattle Times Marketing". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  13. ↑ Shatkin, Elina. "Your Essential Los Angeles Cookbooks". LAist. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  14. ↑ Rosner, Helen (9 December 2019). "The Best Cookbooks of 2019". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  15. ↑ Thomas, Sean P. "Restaurant Buzz: Award Nominations Revealed, Mikkeller Closes and a New Ramen Haunt Make Up February's Restaurant News". Los Angeles Downtown News - The Voice of Downtown Los Angeles. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  16. ↑ Starostinestkaya, Anna (24 August 2021). "Michelin-Starred Chef Josef Centeno Is Replacing Dairy with Vegan Cheese in His Most Popular Dishes and Says You Should, Too". VegNews . Retrieved 2021-08-29.
  17. ↑ Rao, Tejal (2019-12-09). "The 10 Best Los Angeles Dishes of 2019". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  18. ↑ Krader, Kate; Vines, Richard (28 February 2020). "The World's Best Fondues—and Queso, Too". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
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