Douglas Rodriguez

Chef, Restaurateur, Cookbook Author

Early Years

Born in New York City to Cuban parents, Douglas Rodriguez learned the cooking basics from his mother in their upper west side apartment. At the age of 13 he bought cookbooks at neighborhood garage sales, and around the same time bought his first set of pots and pans and began experimenting in the family kitchen. Family trips to places like Spain, Germany, and Venezuela stimulated both his palate and his burgeoning culinary passion.

The family moved to Miami and Douglas had his first restaurant job at the age of 14. After high school, he obtained a professional culinary education at Johnson & Wales University, and then returned to Miami. He rotated through several kitchen positions at Miami's Four Ambassadors Hotel, and then took on his first full time job as a breakfast cook at the Fountainebleu Hilton, where he realized that cooking was definitely the career he wanted to pursue.

Jumping at the chance to become the chef and partner at a brand new restaurant, Chef Rodriguez created the menu and ran the kitchen at Miami's Wet Paint Cafe, where he also launched his "Nuevo Latino" style. In the middle of Miami's cultural and culinary renaissance, the food he prepared was based on the Cuban cuisine he had grown up with, and the melting pot of Latin flavors that Miami offered. His sensational and intoxicating flavor combinations set the pace for the creation of the Nuevo Latino cuisine that helped translate Latin cuisine into something bold and exciting for diners new to Latin dishes. As a U.S. born Latino, Chef Rodriguez helped begin this "New Latin" movement that mingles old and new, adopting substitutions to embrace new ideas and tastes.

Current Projects

Taking advantage of a great opportunity to introduce this exciting new style of cooking in the restaurant capitol of the world, Douglas Rodriguez became chef and partner of New York's Patria Restaurant. With his contemporary spin on traditional Latin dishes, Chef Rodriguez created artful presentations and surprise additions and touches that sophisticated New York diners appreciated. He combined ingredients never brought together before, recognizing the potential in the unusual and unexpected.

Following the success of Patria, Douglas Rodriguez has gone on to open Pipa, a taparia, and Chicama, at ABC Carpet & Home, also in New York, and the newly opened Alma de Cuba in Philadelphia. To help bring his Nuevo Latino cuisine to an even broader audience, Chef Rodriguez has authored three cookbooks, including:

• Nuevo Latino: Recipes That Celebrate The New Latin American Cuisine (October 1995)
• Latin Ladles: Fabulous Soups And Stews From The King of Nuevo Latino (November 1997)
• Latin Flavors on the Grill (2000)

Recognition

Winning awards beginning with "Chef of the Year, Miami" at the very young age of 24, Douglas Rodriguez received the James Beard Foundation's Rising Star Chef of the Year Award in 1996, and was nominated by this prestigious culinary organization for Best Chef: New York in 1999. Receiving numerous accolades from publications such as The New York Times, Gourmet Magazine, and The New Yorker, in January 2000 Newsweek Magazine hailed Douglas Rodriguez as "one of the 100 Americans who will influence us in the new millenium. When he cooks, a crowd gathers".

Now long considered one of America's most innovative chefs, for Douglas Rodriguez food is a passion. Cooking provides a creative connection to this heritage and family, and his reverence for Latin America's ancient, culinary traditions are clearly evident in every recipe he creates and every dish he prepares. Douglas Rodriguez is the father of "Nuevo Latino" cuisine, and in creating and executing this exciting culinary experience, father definitely knows best.

For more information about Douglas Rodriguez and his newest restaurant, visit www.almadecubarestaurant.com