Aarón Sanchez

Aarón Sanchez (born 1956) is a ;noted second generation Latin chef in New York City, the Executive Chef & Owner of the restaurants Centrico and Paladar. He has appeared on "Iron Chef America", and is one of the few chefs whose battles have ended in a draw, tying with Masaharu Morimoto in 'Battle Black Bass' in Season 2. He was a contestant on "The Next Iron Chef", eliminated in the sixth test, 'Cooking Under Pressure'.

Biography

Aarón was born in 1976, in El Paso, Texas, the son of Zarela Martinez, a restaurateur and the author of several cookbooks. He began cooking at an early age, helping his mother prepare traditional Mexican foods for her catering business. In 1984 the family moved to New York, and his mother launched the acclaimed Café Marimba, and Sanchez began to cook in a professional kitchen. At age 16, Sanchez was cooking at a level that earned him a place in a Mas,,terclass with Chef Paul Prudhomme. In 1992, Sanchez graduated high school, and began to work full time for Prudhomme in New Orleans. [http://www.aaronsanchez.com/work-cvbio.htm Aarón Sanchez C.V./Bio] ]

Career

In 1993, after working under Prudhomme, Aarón returned north to study culinary arts at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1994, he returned to New York, and worked in the kitchen at Patria under nuevo-Latino chef, Douglas Rodriguez. Sanchez met his future business partner, Alex Garcia while working there.

1996, Garcia left Patria in 1996 to open Erizo Latino, taking Sanchez to help open the restaurant. Reviews were positive, referring to the restaurant as 'casual' and 'earthy', and 'the fare is enticingly wholesome, and the kitchen's best dishes make a fine introduction to the cooking of Central and South America'. [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0CE3D8163DF937A15752C1A960958260 The Dining in SoHo Is Snug but Worldly] ]

Sanchez moved to San Francisco, working under Chef Reed Hearon at Rose Pistola, before returning to New York to be executive chef at L-Ray, which specialized in foods from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. This was followed by another executive chef position at Isla [http://www.islarestaurant.com/] , a restaurant inspired by pre-Revolutionary Cuba.

Eamon Furlong hired Sanchez in 2000, to open Paladar, a pan-Latin restaurant on the Lower East Side. It opened in February, 2001, and won Time Out New York's award for Best New Lower East Side Restaurant that year. It went on to be named the Best Latin American Restaurant in their 2002 Eating and Drinking Guide. Paladar has been reviewed as being "colorful, lively circus of a restaurant that’s equal parts serious cooking and serious partying," and was named a Critic's Pick by New York Magazine. [ [http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/paladar01/ New York Magazine - Paladar - Lower East Side] ]

Television appearances

*Melting Pot - co-host with Alex Garcia on Food Network
*Iron Chef America - Masaharu Morimoto in battle Black Bass in Season 2.
*The Next Iron Chef - eliminated episode 4, 'Cooking under Pressure'

Bibliography

*"La Comida del Barrio: Latin-American Cooking in the U.S.A.", 2003, ISBN-13: 978-0609610756

References

External links

* [http://www.aaronsanchez.com/ Aarón Sanchez] - official site
* [http://www.paladarrestaurant.com/ Paladar Restaurant]
* [http://www.zarela.com/ Zarela Martinez] - official site of Sanchez' mother.

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