LUIS CORDOBA – VENEZUELA

Empanada Competition: Sunday August 18th (3:00pm – 4:45pm)

Luis Manuel Cordoba  is a Venezuelan Chef, born in Maturin City, holds a degree in International Studies from the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He grew up from a family lover of good food, which sparked his culinary passion at an early age. He’s an entrepreneur, sybaritic, self-taught cook, adventurous, traveler and lover of the different international cultures.  During each trip he doesn’t lose the opportunity to taste different local flavors, visiting the most authentic ethnic places of the cities in terms of gastronomy.

He opened his first own restaurant during 2001 in Mérida, one of the main culinary Venezuelan City. Later, Luis Manuel conformed in conjunction with his brother, chef of international cuisine; a catering company dedicated to serve the corporate needs of the local market. He specialized as a culinary consultant and organizer of both corporate and private events, offering customized solutions to his customers, always with the gourmet touch and taste, which characterizes him.

Based on his adventure and entrepreneur soul, he moved to Toronto on April 2010, with his family. Since May 2010, he has been working as the chef of Arepa Café, the main Venezuelan arepera in the city, reaching a lot of positive reviews from food writers and critics in the Canadian press and community, based on the great authentic gastronomy proposal.