Jordan Maddox
Audio By Carbonatix
The following is sponsored content by Snowbird Frisco.
Long before his professional career, Snowbird Cocktail Lounge & Kitchen Executive Chef Alvaro Vazquez found his love for food inside his childhood home, watching the matriarchs of his family prepare meals with their own personal touches.
“I was born and raised in Cuba in a family with strong Spanish traditions,” Vazquez says, reminiscing about times spent in the kitchen. “My love for food came at a very young age. When I was a kid, I saw my mom and my grandma working in the kitchen and making the food, and I could tell just by the smell who was cooking. The food tastes so different and depends on the person who was prepping it. I wanted to put my own touch on it.”
It wasn’t until Vazquez was in his mid-twenties that he began his professional journey. With no real culinary experience to speak of, he enrolled in the Auguste Escoffier School of Culinary Arts in Denver, Colorado, where he earned an associate degree in Culinary Arts.
His early career was saturated with talented mentors. As he climbed the ranks to become a chef and run his own kitchen, he learned from the likes of Johnny Curiel, who holds two Michelin stars, and Chris Ponte, who owns three Michelin-recognized restaurants. One of those restaurants, On Swann, is where Vazquez began to lead the kitchen as Chef de Cuisine and helped maintain the restaurant’s Michelin-recognized status for the two years he worked there.
As he grew into his own as a chef, Vazquez began to home in on his style. He did not want to limit himself to one cuisine. He wanted to mix flavors and create dishes that evoked reactions, but he found that each dish he created inevitably included some flavors from home.
“In Cuba, there are aromas and flavors that you don’t find somewhere else, like in Mexico,” Vazquez says, explaining that the flavors that are natural to someone often influence how they make their food. “When you try the food, you notice that it’s missing something, and it’s something that is already natural for you. And you give those flavors to a food.”
Because of that, his “something missing” is often a flavor from home.
“There’s a little bit of heritage in every dish,” he says. “I will never sell a dish or put a dish on the menu that I wouldn’t eat myself, and because I have that taste, that’s what I want to find in the dish as well.”
Now, as head chef at Snowbird, he brings flavors from Cuba, Mexico, Spain, Italy and beyond to create exciting new dishes as well as unique takes on the classics. The menu at Snowbird truly has something for everyone.
Jordan Maddox
Dedication to the craft of fine food is apparent in every dish on the diverse menu at Snowbird. Vazquez isn’t afraid to take culinary risks, and he isn’t married to a single cuisine. For him, food is an art. Similar to colors in traditional art mediums, ingredients influence one another, blooming to life and taking on different flavors depending on the pairings.
For those who love culinary risk-taking, the Red Snapper Sashimi offers an interesting flavor profile. Raw red snapper bites are arranged in a vinaigrette that combines passionfruit and chili oil, giving the dish a trifecta of sweet, spicy and savory tastes.
The Ricotta Crostina, a whipped ricotta with refreshing notes of lemon, truffle-infused honey drizzled over the top and a light peppering of smoked paprika from Spain, is a refreshing, light starter that fuses Italian and Spanish flavors. The ricotta is cut with lemon juice, and the tangy citrus pairs deliciously with the sweetness of the honey and savory dash of paprika. Another unlikely flavor combination on Snowbird’s menu is the Truffle Gnocchi, which comes dressed in a unique pesto that is made with pumpkin seeds, bringing out slightly nutty undertones in the dish.
While Vazquez has dedicated his career to developing dishes that fuse flavors from around the world, the food is only half of the equation for him.
“The mission was clear,” he says about his role at Snowbird. “I wanted to make people happy. I wanted my guests to feel like they’re walking into someone else’s home, like they’re being taken care of. I wanted to transmit feelings, whether with the food that we make or the treatment they get. The food is just fifty percent of everything.”
For Vazquez, the title “Chef” extends beyond curating and preparing food. His goal is to elevate a customer’s full experience, and he is passionate about making each guest feel not only satisfied with their meal, but also completely taken care of.
“I always try to thrill them in ways that you can’t imagine,” he says with a smile. “If they want a cappuccino and we don’t have a cappuccino, we’ll go across the street. We’ll get a cappuccino for you. We try to never say no.”
Vazquez takes pride in creating off-menu dishes for customers with specific allergies, dietary restrictions or preferences. If there is something the customer wants that is not on the menu, he tries to make it happen. For him, these challenges present new opportunities for growth and offer customers a deeply hospitable experience that they may not find elsewhere.
