Alvarez received international recognition in September as one of only three U.S.-based winners in an awards program held by Northstar Meetings Group and the Singapore Tourism Board.
Q: You were working in Dallas for years until you transitioned to the Irving area. How did that happen?
A: When I was at the Dallas Convention [Center], I got a phone call from a friend of mine, and he said, ‘Hey, they’re looking for a chef, and there is some interviews that’s going on. Are you interested?’ So I said yes. He never mentioned [where it] was at. So it ended up to be Texas Stadium, and that’s how I got into Irving.
Q: So you’ve worked with the Dallas Cowboys, but how did you get plugged in with Jerry Jones?
A: When I first started working with Texas Stadium, I knew about Jerry Jones, but I didn’t know much about [how he was]. And so one day my boss ... came to me and she asked me, ‘Are you willing go and cook for the Jones’ house?’ ... I said [I was] surprised, but yes, I’m gonna take that challenge.
I was part of one of his birthdays they did at his house. They [rented] everything; we do all the jobs from there. Lots of holidays, Easter especially. I was cooking for the family. So it became ... lots of holidays—Easter, especially.
Q: And how did you arrive at the Irving Convention Center?
A: I saw the building under construction, and I didn’t know what it was about, what it was going to be. So I didn’t have any idea that it was going to be the convention center until a friend of mine and I started digging in and getting more information about it. We tried to apply, but we didn’t have all the right information back then, plus it was under construction.
Q: What did building your new kitchen look like?
A: We [were] part of buying all the equipment, and some of the construction or the way the kitchen was designed didn’t work out for this kind of operations. It was built to be a la carte kitchen and not this type of production kitchen. So we had to create some of the [kitchen] from the beginning. Luckily I have ... good managers to support me.
Q: How does running a kitchen geared toward large events differ from running a restaurant?
A: It is a big difference. [At] a la carte restaurants, you prepare it and you serve it right away, and it is very rarely that you’re gonna miss consistency. Preparing for big number of people is more steps to it. And you got to make sure that that is cooked at the right temperature, doesn’t get dry, doesn’t get over-cooked and it tastes good at the same time and has a nice presentation. It’s very important that we have presentation since lots of our customers eat salads with their eyes.We also have to do lots of custom menus for different events we have, and they have a special request and you know, we have to create all of to that to work for them.
Q: What is a dish you are working on right now that you are excited about?
A: Since it’s the holidays ... we have an event for 600 people, and we are doing poached pear salad. ... That one took a week to work on it. Not because of the pear that needs to be poached. It is the quality that we want to serve and [present].
Q: What do you personally prefer to make when you are cooking for yourself?
A: I personally like a steak salad. So a nice sirloin. I always like it with a nice mushroom sauce and lemon just by itself.
Since [I’m] from Mexico, I have to eat lots of Mexican food. So chili rellenos is one of them I like a lot, or handmade enchiladas.
