Jose Vela, Chef de Cuisine
Chef de Cuisine Jose Vela was recently named Up-and-Coming Chef of the Year at the prestigious Houston Culinary Awards, sponsored by My Table magazine. Chef Vela has been working in the kitchens of John Sheely's award-winning restaurant ventures since the original Riviera Grill opened in Houston in 1995. The Mexico City native first ventured to Houston as a drummer with his rock band in that same year. To supplement his living expenses, he decided to look for work in a commercial kitchen.
Growing up in a traditional Mexican family, boys stayed out of the kitchen, but Vela was interested in learning more about cooking. As a young engineering student in Mexico, he lived in an apartment with a small kitchen. Away from family for the first time, he had to prepare his own meals.
Vela started at Riviera Grill as a dishwasher, staying after his shift, volunteering to help on the prep line so that he could learn. Vela quickly impressed Sheely and within a few months put the budding chef on the line, and he has remained a fixture in Sheely's kitchens since. Vela was part of the menu development team for Mockingbird, adding his considerable ideas to the concept, which opened in 2002.
Vela likes “being in the weeds,” referring to the near-panic atmosphere in a restaurant kitchen when the chefs are slammed with orders from a full house. He attributes his aptitude for engineering for his proficiency in the busy Mockingbird kitchen. “You just have to stay focused, concentrate on each ingredient, one at a time, and carefully build each plate…and then rush to the next order and keep on going,” he laughs.
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