A Denver chef used to be not too long ago named one of the crucial nation’s most fun culinary personalities via The Meals Community, and he hopes to provide working example of the worth immigrants give a contribution to america.
Byron Gomez is the chief chef at Brutø, a Michelin-starred eating place, and a well-known face on TV displays corresponding to “Best Chef” and “Final Chunk Resort.” Quickly, he’ll make his debut as one of the crucial new judges on hit sequence “Chopped.” This week, he used to be amongst 25 folks spotlighted on The Meals Community’s annual Sizzling Record, billed as a window into the “thrilling meals personalities and up-and-coming culinary rock stars” making their mark in meals media.
A local of Costa Rica, Gomez may be a Deferred Motion for Early life Arrivals (DACA) recipient. DACA recipients, often referred to as “Dreamers,” are immigrants with out everlasting prison standing who arrived within the U.S. as kids. As President Donald Trump seeks to apply via along with his marketing campaign promise of mass deportations, Gomez needs to modify the narrative about immigrants and display they’re necessary now not simplest to native workforces, but additionally the ethos of American prosperity.
“My greatest message that I may inform folks is please train your self ahead of you’re taking any drastic movements or any judgment upon anyone else. My instance is a first-rate one: I’m a contributor to the economic system, I’m a contributor to the society right here in america,” Gomez mentioned. “I’m residing my American dream. It might change into a nightmare at any level, however I’m nonetheless going to stay on preventing.”
Gomez moved along with his circle of relatives to Lengthy Island, in New York, when he used to be 8 years previous, and at age 15, he were given his first task at Burger King. In spite of missing any formal coaching as a chef, Gomez advanced within the eating place business, in the end touchdown roles at Michelin-starred eating places like Café Boulud, Atera and 11 Madison Park.
After reducing his enamel in New York, Gomez moved to Colorado, the place he served as govt chef of the now-closed 7908 Aspen supper membership. In 2021, Gomez joined an elite cohort of cooks when he competed at the 18th season of Bravo’s “Best Chef,” which used to be based totally in Portland.
Final March, Gomez took over the kitchen at Brutø, which earned its first Michelin big name in 2023. The 18-seat eating place, which serves an 11-course tasting menu, maintained its big name standing at the newest Michelin awards, introduced in September.
That adventure is what makes popularity from The Meals Community a “pinch me roughly second.”
“I’ve labored very laborious my whole lifestyles to get the place I’m at now,” Gomez mentioned. “It’s very humbling.”
In his first 12 months at Brutø, Gomez has embraced the eating place’s dedication to sustainability and proscribing meals waste whilst additionally hanging his authentic stamp at the menu. Visitors who dine there quickly get to style each in motion in lots of plates, together with a Costa Rican-inspired dish that includes fish and bananas. It comes with a black banana puree made out of peels and fruit which were fermented for 9 days, in addition to a sauce made out of dehydrated scallop skirts, the shellfish’s muscular membrane that’s typically trimmed and discarded.
The menu isn’t restricted to serving Costa Rican delicacies, alternatively, so someone anticipating that will probably be “rudely woke up into figuring out you’re going to have an enjoy of worldwide delicacies the usage of many ways,” Gomez mentioned. Leaning into fermentation and making an investment in positive components that will probably be in a position months or years down the street has glad his interest for kitchen alchemy. However the greatest adjustment, Gomez mentioned, has been adapting his cooking to Brutø’s wood-fired oven.
“We don’t have the apparatus that the majority eating places do, so it’s additionally very astonishing the volume of skill and ideation that is going at the back of each and every dish,” Gomez mentioned.
As Brutø shoots for a 2d Michelin big name, Gomez and restauranteur Kelly Whitaker are on the lookout for leading edge techniques to collaborate with different artists within the culinary global and past. In January, for instance, they hosted a dinner that paired classes with tracks from a food-inspired hip-hop album entitled, “michelinman,” via rapper Blvck Svm. Each and every track performed more than one instances – two times with lyrics and as soon as instrumental, Gomez mentioned – permitting visitors about seven to ten mins to complete each and every plate.
On March 31, Brutø will workforce up with Oklahoma Town eating place Nonesuch, which earned a James Beard nomination this 12 months after Whitaker’s Identification Est Hospitality Crew bought it in 2024. The dinner will spotlight in the community sourced components that exhibit terroir from each and every locale’s respective state, Gomez mentioned. Tickets value $95 on OpenTable, with non-compulsory beverage pairings starting from $65 to $80.
Gomez considers meals a bridge that connects people regardless of their variations. He hopes to assist the sense of neighborhood discovered round a dinner desk ripple during different facets of lifestyles.
“All this hatred, all this anxiousness that’s occurring, meals bridges all of that. Everyone must devour on the finish of the day. Everybody must have that heat dish that reminds them of a few type of convenience. So if I’m in a position to talk up on that via those platforms of a plate of meals, then I’m doing my phase in society,” Gomez mentioned.
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