Josef Centeno

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.

Early life and education

Centeno grew up in a Tejano family in San Antonio.[2] He grew up eating his great-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 was a butcher 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

Centeno opened Bäco Mercat in 2011.[3]

Bar Amá was named for his maternal great-grandmother, an immigrant from Mexico during the Mexican Revolution, who Centeno said cooked Tex-Mex food.[1] Centeno described her 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 earned a Michelin star.[3] In July of 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]

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][8][9] 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."[10]

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[11] 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.[12]

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.[13] Bloomberg named Bar Ama's queso one of the best in the world.[14]

References
  1. 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. 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. Tijerina, Edmund (2019-12-09). "Josef Centeno on SA Cuisine and Modern Tex-Mex". San Antonio Magazine. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  5. 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. Centeno, Josef; Hallock, Betty (2017-09-05). Bäco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-1-4521-5578-4.
  9. 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.
  10. Shatkin, Elina. "Your Essential Los Angeles Cookbooks". LAist. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  11. Rosner, Helen. "The Best Cookbooks of 2019". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  12. 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.
  13. Rao, Tejal (2019-12-09). "The 10 Best Los Angeles Dishes of 2019". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  14. 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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