Alex Garcia learned the recipes for Spring-based restaurant La Chef by watching her mother cook empanadas, pasta and pizza on Sunday mornings in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as a child.
Mastering her mother’s technique, Garcia crafts the cuisine that now constitutes her restaurant’s menu.
“My mother used to make homemade pasta on the patio,” Garcia said. “She made homemade pasta with the rolling pin—no machine, no nothing—and that was every Sunday. I was sitting there watching her. She didn’t let me touch [anything]. I learned like that.”
Now the Spring restaurant she owns pays homage to her heritage with its authentic slate of Argentinian food.
Anchored by its empanadas, La Chef offers 23 different filling options for its baked or fried Argentine turnover. The best-seller is criolla, which includes ground beef, eggs and green onions.
However, others enjoy dessert-style options, such as the apple and Nutella-filled empanada. La Chef’s menu has incorporated an Americanized flare as well with the cheeseburger and Buffalo chicken-filled empanada.
“It took me a year [to create the right recipe] because where I come from, we love empanadas,” Garcia said. “I want to keep it like if you come here and tomorrow you flew to Argentina, you will see the same thing. A lot of people have told me they’re better [at La Chef].”
La Chef also serves traditional Argentinian dishes, such as churrasco—a steak grilled with salt, topped with eggs and served with fries—and milanesa, which is breaded beef or chicken. The dessert menu features alfajor, a caramel treat wrapped in coconut, as well as assorted flavors of truffles.
Garcia opened La Chef in September 2014. It is the second restaurant she has owned and the first since relocating to Houston from New York in 2007. She worked as the executive chef at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital until she decided to open her own restaurant and cook the food she really enjoyed preparing.
“This is my passion, and it’s what I love to do,” Garcia said. “I’ve been cooking for 30 years.”
She chose Spring because of the lack of local Argentine restaurants.
“The community—they like it,” Garcia said. “It’s different. We have a lot of people [who] haven’t eaten an empanada before. They come back, and they’ll get more and more.”
La Chef has three employees, but she said her family has helped alleviate some of the stresses and long hours associated with starting a small business. Her husband, Marcello, and daughter, Vada, can be seen assisting customers, refilling the soda machine or washing dishes.
“Last night [Marcello] said, ‘This is hard work. I didn’t know a restaurant was [this much] work,’” Garcia said. “But he’s good with customers. He tries to explain everything and more because they don’t know everything [about Argentinian food].”
Expounding on empanadas
A common dish in Argentina, empanadas are folded dough or bread that are stuffed with a variety of items, such as meat, cheese, vegetables or fruits. Empanadas at La Chef cost $2.55 each or $29 for a dozen. Popular filling options include:
• Apple and Nutella
• Buffalo chicken
• Cheeseburger
• Criolla (beef and egg)
• Gaucho (steak)
• Hawaiian
• Pepperoni
• Pulled pork
• Shrimp and cheese
• Spinach
Other Argentinian fare
Milanesa a caballo completa: steak or chicken sandwich served with ham, cheese and two fried eggs ($10.95)
Fugazzeta: Argentinian-style pizza
stuffed with caramelized onions ($12.95)
Pionono: Spanish pastry topped with coconut shavings with Nutella and strawberry on the side ($3.50)
