Catching Up with Jesse Perez

In the food world, there are high profile, intensely edgy chefs that make it seem like a privilege to experience their food. Others chefs are more down to earth, and simply charm you with the warmth of their soul, communicated through the dishes they prepare. Chatting with Jesse T. Perez during a quiet morning in his newly launched San Antonio restaurant Arcade, you get the urge to hug him. Kind, generous, and quietly valiente, Jesse has arrived at this moment in his career not by luck, but by courage, tenacity, and years of hard work.

Born in San Antonio, Texas, Jesse grew up surrounded by food and beverage professionals. His mother was a dietician, his uncle a bar owner, and his grandfather was a milk man, whose dispatch office was ironically only a few hundred yards from where Jesse’s new restaurant now stands. In the summer, Jesse and his family would travel south to the border town of Mission, Texas to visit his mother’s relatives. “The Torres part of our family was from the rancho– dove hunts and carne asada, the Perez side of the family was more urban and business oriented,” he explains. Visiting the border meant sack loads of fresh oranges and grapefruit shared by an uncle who managed citrus groves, and week-end jaunts to Port Isabel, for fresh shrimp and oysters.

Jesse was an excellent high school student, but experienced his first heart break when he was rejected by the University of Texas. “It was a clerical error,” says Jesse. He accepted a generous offer from the University of Michigan, a highly unusual choice for a kid from his close knit community in San Antonio. The culture shock of moving to Michigan almost convinced him to drop out, but Jesse pressed on, and graduated.

During his junior year, however, he took a job at a bar and grill, and did everything from waiting tables, to assembling hundreds of plates of nachos and hot wings, even performing bouncer duties at night. Eventually, he took a job washing dishes and bussing tables at a white tablecloth restaurant called The Earle in Ann Arbor, and one day, while helping Chef Shelly McAdams clean a wall, he asked if he could make a meal for the employees. She agreed, so Jesse prepared San Antonio style Tex-Mex soul food: crispy tacos, beans and rice. McAdams was so impressed that the next day she put him to work on the line.

After graduation in 1999, Jesse had planned to continue onto grad school, but took a job at The Westin La Cantera in San Antonio. He worked his way up to head chef, and became a friend of Mark Miller, founder of the Coyote Café in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and consultant for The Westin La Cantera’s fine dining restaurant, Francesca’s. At this point in his career, Jesse “fell in love with the craft” of cooking, and began to travel with Miller, researching recipes, and studying food trends.

Next, Perez hits the road…

After 7 years at La Cantera, Chef Perez was offered a job with the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group in Atlanta. Nervous about leaving San Antonio again, Miller told him “You need this.” Perez ultimately wound up working in Atlanta until 2010 when the chef was invited to head up the food and beverage for a new hotel in Los Angeles. Mark Miller nudged Jesse again, as star Hispanic chefs were few, even in California. Perez took on the West Coast, but a year later, when an opportunity presented itself in San Antonio, Jesse packed up and went home.

San Antonio had changed while Jesse was gone. The new Culinary Institute of America had installed its third campus smack dab in the middle of the city. Restaurants were popping up everywhere, and many were receiving national critical acclaim. The economy in San Antonio was alive and vibrant, and was ripe for the type of restaurant concept that Jesse had always dreamed of owning. The timing could not have been more perfect for a new adventure.

On July 10, 2012, Jesse received his financing for Arcade and he opened Valentine’s Day, 2013. His food is sophisticated, straightforward and thoughtful, just like the chef. So far, the response has been nothing short of phenomenal. Diners can expect long waiting times if they don’t make reservations, but Jesse has no apologies. “We have to defend our brand. Good food takes time, and I don’t like sending plates out of the kitchen that are not perfect.” Bold, but thoughtful.

Get a taste of what Perez is dishing out with his recipe for Lobster Soft Tacos. 

Lobster Soft Tacos