Aarón Sánchez (chef)
Aarón Sánchez | |
|---|---|
 Sánchez in 2009 | |
| Born | February 12, 1976 (age 48) |
| Education | Johnson & Wales University |
| Spouse |
Ifé Mora
(m. 2009; div. 2012) |
| Children | 1 |
| Mother | Zarela Martínez |
| Culinary career | |
| Cooking style | Cajun cuisine, Louisiana Creole cuisine, Mexican cuisine |
Current restaurant(s)
| |
Television show(s)
| |
| Website | chefaaronsanchez |
Aarón Sánchez (born February 12, 1976) is a Mexican-American celebrity chef, restaurateur, television personality, cookbook author and philanthropist. He is the executive chef and part-owner of the Mexican restaurant Johnny Sánchez in New Orleans.[2]
He co-starred on Food Network's hit series Chopped and Chopped Jr. and hosted Cooking Channel's Emmy-nominated Taco Trip. 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 also a contestant on The Next Iron Chef. He is the author of two cookbooks, and had a memoir released October 1, 2019.[3] He launched the Aarón Sánchez Scholarship Fund to empower aspiring chefs from the Latin community to follow their dreams and attend culinary school.[4] As of 2017, he is one of the judges/hosts of FOX's hit reality-TV culinary competition series MasterChef since Season 8 onwards after previously guest-starring in a select number of episodes in season 7 as a guest judge, co-hosting alongside Gordon Ramsay, Joe Bastianich and Christina Tosi. He has also joined the judging panel of MasterChef Junior since its 7th season, which debuted in March 2019, after guest-starring in season 5, which debuted early 2017.
Personal life
[edit]Aarón and his twin brother Rodrigo, an attorney in New York City, were born in 1976, in Chihuahua, Mexico to Zarela Martínez, a restaurateur and the author of several cookbooks, and Adolfo Sanchez and later moved to El Paso, Texas.[1][5] He began cooking at an early age, helping his mother prepare traditional Mexican foods for her catering business.[6] In 1984, the family moved to New York, and his mother launched the acclaimed Café Marimba, where Sánchez began to cook in a professional kitchen. At age 16, Sánchez's mother sent him to New Orleans to spend the summer working with Chef Paul Prudhomme.[7] In 1994, Sánchez graduated from Dwight School, and began to work full-time for Prudhomme in New Orleans. Sánchez was married to singer Ifé Mora from 2009 until 2012. He has a son named Yuma.[7] On episode 21 of MasterChef season 9, he revealed that his mentor was Jonathan Waxman.[8]
Career
[edit]In 1996, after working under Prudhomme, Aarón returned north to study culinary arts at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island.[7] In 1996, he returned to New York, and worked in the kitchen at Patria under nuevo-Latino chef, Douglas Rodriguez. Sánchez met his future business partner, Alex Garcia while working there.
Garcia left Patria in 1996 to open Erizo Latino, taking Sánchez 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."[9]
Sánchez then became 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, a restaurant inspired by pre-Revolutionary Cuba. Sanchez then moved to San Francisco, working under Chef Reed Hearon at Rose Pistola.[10]
Eamon Furlong hired Sánchez 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 had 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.[11] Sánchez sold his interest in the Paladar restaurant in 2010.
Sánchez went on to become chef of Mexican New York eatery Centrico, which closed in 2012.[12]
He opened the restaurant Johnny Sánchez in Baltimore with fellow chef John Besh in August 2014. The Baltimore location closed in September 2017.[13] The pair opened a second Johnny Sánchez location in October 2014 in New Orleans. As of February 2019, Besh is no longer a part of Johnny Sánchez; Aarón Sánchez and partners, Miles Landrem and Drew Mire, purchased and now own the restaurant. The three partners also are planning to develop a second restaurant in New Orleans, eyeing the Mid-City area, though the name and location have not been announced.[14]
In 2017, he joined MasterChef US Season 8 as a judge alongside Gordon Ramsay and Christina Tosi, replacing Graham Elliot, to taste and help judge contestants' cooking and baking with Ramsay and Tosi in order to crown the next MasterChef. He is an expert in many cooking techniques and global cuisines, but his specialty of cooking traditional Mexican cuisine is often used throughout the season.[15]
In 2019, he guest-starred on the first episode of Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back season 2 as an extra expeditor, and revealed he lives nearby to The Trolley Café in New Orleans.[16] Sánchez released a memoir, Where I Come From: Life Lessons From a Latino Chef, on October 1, 2019.[3]
In 2020, he guest judged a Mexican food challenge on season 19 of Hell's Kitchen.
Television appearances
[edit]| Year(s) | Title | Network | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001-2002 | Melting Pot | Food Network | Co-Host with Alex Garcia |
| 2002 | Boy Meets Grill | Food Network | Season 1, episode 1: "Latin Style Sizzle" |
| 2007 | Throwdown! with Bobby Flay | Food Network | Season 3, episode 2: "Puffy Tacos" |
| 2009 | Food Detectives | Food Network | Season 2, episode 1: "Tastes Like Chicken" |
| 2009 | Chefs vs. City | Food Network | Co-Host (7 episodes) with Chris Cosentino |
| 2010 | Food(ography) | Cooking Channel | Season 1, episode 11: "Hot and Spicy"[17] |
| 2010-2011 | Unique Eats | Cooking Channel | Season 1, Episodes 1-10
Season 2, Episodes 1–3, 5, 9-11, 13 |
| 2011 | Mike & Mike | ESPN | September 23, 2011 |
| 2011 | Aarón Loves New York | Fox Network | TV series documentary |
| 2009-2011 | The Best Thing I Ever Ate | Cooking Channel | Season 1, Episodes 1, 5, 7-9
Season 2, Episodes 1, 4, 5, 7, 9 Season 3, Episodes 5, 7, 9-11 Season 4, Episodes 2, 6, 11, 12, 14, 15 Season 6, Episodes 4, 6 |
| 2011-2012 | Heat Seekers | Cooking Channel | Co-Host (16 episodes) with Roger Mooking |
| 2012 | Food Network Star | Food Network | Season 8, episode 10: "Pilot Greenlights", Panelist |
| 2011-2013 | The Best Thing I Ever Made | Food Network | Season 1, Episodes 2, 3
Season 3, Episodes 7, 13 |
| 2005-2013 | Iron Chef America | Food Network | Season 2, episode 4: "Morimoto vs. Sanchez: Black Bass", Challenger Chef
Season 10, episode 30: "Thanksgiving Showdown: Thanksgiving Leftovers", Team Chopped Season 10, episode 31: "Holiday Battle: Gingerbread", ICA Judge Season 11, episode 13: "Tournament of Champions: Michael Symon vs. Geoffrey Zakarian: Battle Wings", Judge |
| 2014 | The Taste | ABC | Season 2, episode 3: "Guilty Pleasures", guest Mentor |
| 2014 | Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off | Food Network | Season 3, episode 6: "Sink or Swim", Judge |
| 2014 | Southern Fried Everything | Great American Country | Season 1, episode 7: "Tasty Taters"
Season 1, episode 9: "Yankee Fried" |
| 2014 | Rewrapped | Food Network | Season 2, episode 5: "Boy, Ar-Dees Good!" |
| 2014 | Finding Your Roots | PBS | Season 2, episode 5: "The Melting Pot" |
| 2015 | Beat Bobby Flay | Food Network | Season 3, episode 9: "Pot Calling the Kettle Beat", Judge & Mentor |
| 2015 | Best.Ever. | Food Network | Season 1, episode 1: "Best.BBQ.Ever"
Season 1, episode 2: "Best.Pizza.Ever" Season 1, episode 3: "Best.Burger.Ever" |
| 2014-2015 | Taco Trip | Cooking Channel | Host (18 episodes) |
| 2016 | All-Star Academy | Food Network | Season 2, episode 2: "Geography", Co-Host & Judge |
| 2016 | Celebrity Food Fight | Food Network | Season 2, episode 1: "Tom Arnold and Melissa Rivers: Down and Dirty Dinner Battle"
Season 2, episode 3: "Andy Dick Is Coming to Dinner" |
| 2014-2016 | Chopped After Hours | Food Network | 12 episodes |
| 2016 | Eat the World with Emeril Lagasse | Amazon Prime Video | Season 1, episode 6: "Forbidden Cuba"[18] |
| 2015-2016 | Guilty Pleasures | Food Network | Season 2, episode 1: "Thanksgiving Madness"
Season 2, episode 11: "Big Game, Big Eats" Season 3, episode 2: "Pizza and Pigzilla!" Season 3, episode 7: "Super-Stuffed Gluttony!" Season 3, episode 13: "O.M.G. Food!" |
| 2015-2016 | Chopped Junior | Food Network | Season 1, episode 10: "Birthday Cake Crush", Judge
Season 3, episode 7: "Think Fig", Judge Season 3, episode 8: "Curry Hurry", Judge Season 4, episode 8: "Got Elk?", Judge |
| 2009-2017 | Chopped | Food Network | Judge (143 episodes), Competitor (3 episodes)
First Runner-Up on Chopped All-Stars |
| 2016 - | MasterChef | FOX | Season 7, episode 6: "Gordon Ramsay Masterclass", guest Judge |
| 2017 | Simply Ming | PBS | Season 15, episode 3: "Aaron Sanchez" |
| 2018 - | MasterChef Junior | FOX | Season 5, episode 3: "Just Like Gordon", guest Judge
Season 5, episode 10: "Winter Wonderland", guest Judge |
| 2019 | 24 Hrs to Hell and Back | FOX | Season 2, episode 1: "The Trolley Stop Café" |
| 2020 | Hell's Kitchen | ITV2 (UK), FOX (US) | Episode: "Hell Starts Taking Its Toll" |
| 2021 | Selena + Chef | HBO Max | Season 3, episode 3: "Selena + Aarón Sánchez" |
Bibliography
[edit]Cookbooks
- La Comida del Barrio: Latin-American Cooking in the U.S.A., 2003, ISBN 978-0-609-61075-6
- Simple Food Big Flavor: Unforgettable Mexican-Inspired Recipes from My Kitchen to Yours, 2011, ISBN 978-1451611502
Memoir
- Where I Come From: Life Lessons From a Latino Chef, 2019, ISBN 978-1-4197-3802-9
References
[edit]- ^ a b The Untold Truth Of MasterChef's Aaron Sanchez
- ^ "Johnny Sanchez". Johnny Sanchez. Retrieved 2019-05-20.
- ^ a b Sanchez, Aaron (October 2019). Where I Come From Life Lessons from a Latino Chef. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 9781419738029.
- ^ Aarón Sánchez Scholarship Fund
- ^ "Zarela Martinez". Thirteen. WNET. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- ^ Beccaglia, Fernanda (November 29, 2013). ""Chopped" Judge Aaron Sanchez Gets Personal About Food and Life". HuffPost. Retrieved June 10, 2020.
- ^ a b c Walker, Judy (October 25, 2011). ""Chopped" chef Aaron Sanchez in New Orleans to revamp House of Blues menu". The New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- ^ Star World Taiwan (2019-03-20), MasterChef "Mentors of Mentors" Challenge (Chinese subtitles), archived from the original on 2020-12-02, retrieved 2019-03-20
- ^ "The Dining in SoHo Is Snug but Worldly". The New York Times. November 24, 1996. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
- ^ Terrero, Nina (August 16, 2012). "Chef Spotlight: Aaron Sanchez on cooking for his kids and making Mexican cuisine easy". NBC Latino. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- ^ "The Thousand Best". New York Magazine. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
- ^ Morabito, Greg (August 29, 2012). "Nieporent's Centrico to be replaced by Distilled NY". Eater. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
- ^ Ian McNulty. "John Besh's Johnny Sanchez Baltimore has closed; no changes planned for New Orleans location". The Advocate. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
- ^ By, IAN MCNULTY |. "John Besh out at Johnny Sanchez; chef Aaron Sanchez, partners to run New Orleans restaurant". The Advocate. Retrieved 2019-05-20.
- ^ Price, Todd A. (October 7, 2014). "Johnny Sanchez brings Aaron Sanchez back to New Orleans to team with John Besh". New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved July 20, 2015.
- ^ "tvnz.co.nz". www.tvnz.co.nz. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
- ^ Hot and Spicy, retrieved 2019-05-20
- ^ Trainor, Michelle Ward (August 25, 2016). "Emeril Lagasse Reveals the Craziest Thing He Ate While Traveling the World for His New Series". People food. Time Inc. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
- ^ Roterman, Natalie (June 23, 2016). "'MasterChef' Season 7: When, Where To Watch Aarón Sánchez, Claudia Sandoval Episodes". Latin Times. Newsweek Media Group. Retrieved July 8, 2017.
- ^ "Watch Full Episodes of MasterChef Junior with Gordon Ramsay on FOX". FOX. Retrieved 2019-05-20.