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Latina chef added to resort's Culinary Titans photo wall
Chef Lorena Garcia's passion for food extends beyond creative or epicurean satisfaction.
"It is purely the love for that interaction and those connections that happen when we are all eating," she explained. "The most important partnerships happen in that exchange, in business, with family and friends, it all happens around the table or in the kitchen at home."
Garcia's new restaurant, Chica, opens at The Venetian this spring and will mark the first time that a major Strip eatery has featured a Latina head chef, according to The Venetian President and Chief Operations Officer George Markantonis.
"Chica is my baby," Garcia said. "It is close to my heart - it is the food that I have wanted to make for years. It is the realization of who I am as a professional today."
Garcia is highly successful in the kitchen and the broader business world, with popular restaurants at international airports in Miami, Atlanta and Dallas/Fort Worth, guest and host appearances on multiple TV cooking shows (including competing on "Top Chef Masters"), two cookbooks and a line of cookware.
"We are hoping to open in May - we are in construction now," she said. "I will definitely be paying close attention to see that every single detail is taken care of. This is the first restaurant of its kind. First Latina in Las Vegas on the Strip. We have so many first things, and I cannot wait to showcase them."
BLENDING LATIN CULTURES
Chica (Spanish for "girl" or 'woman') is owned by Miami-based 50 Eggs Inc., and will specialize in dishes inspired by the cuisines of Central and South America.
"We are going to be serving beautiful eclectic menus... that represent our culture as Latinos in the United States," Garcia said.
The restaurant will feature a large grill where all the meats will be prepared in a variety of ways distinctive to particular nations, ceviche, Venezuelan-style arepas, a mixology program and a selection of female-vintner-produced wine representing every South American country.
"This is who I am today - as a Latina that came to this country, who has been raised in the culinary world in the United States.
"In absorbing all the cultures of Latin...