Featured Chef Profile: Carlos Villanueva

“Chef, cook, creator, master of craft, innovator… This means nothing with great quality products. There is nothing like peeling back the brown butcher’s paper to reveal snow white fat glistening in the marbled pink flesh of naturally-raised Niman Ranch pork.”

Chef Carlos Patricio Villanueva is a Cuban-American born in Tampa, Florida, in 1985. Growing up in his Cuban grandmother’s house, he began to learn the importance of product freshness. Carlos helped his grandmother tend the family garden every year up until he left for college. The most important lesson he learned from his grandmother was that “to grow the best product, you must take care of your soil, and then let nature take its course.” This is one of the values Carlos finds most important as a chef today.

After graduating from the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, Carlos continued his tenure at the CIA as a Teaching Assistant in their Meat and Fish Fabrication classes. It was there he would meet his later mentor, Chef Olivier Andreini CMC, who inspired his ambition to one day take the Certified Master Chef Exam.

Through his travels, Carlos has worked at two Michelin Star Sergi Arola Gastro in Madrid and three Michelin Star Martin Berasategui in San Sebastian, Spain. Upon returning to America, Carlos worked with James Beard Award winner Chef Tony Maws as Sous-Chef at Craigie on Main. Currently, Carlos is the Chef de Cuisine at Cloud Catering and Events in Long Island City, New York, where he and his team are changing peoples’ expectations of catering.