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Michael Cordua, 35, opened his first Churrascos restaurant in Houston in 1988 and a second in 1990, but the opening of Americas restaurant in 1993 fueled excitement for its use of ingredients from North, South and Central America, and it was hailed by Esquire magazine as "Best New Restaurant of the Year." We caught up with the busy Cordua during his stint as a guest chef at the Cuisines of the Sun event at the Mauni Lani Bay Hotel and Bungalows resort on the Big Island of Hawaii
Title: Owner of Churrascos and Americas restaurants in Houston.
Birthdate: July 26, 1959.
Hometown: Managua, Nicaragua.
Education: Texas A&M University, graduated in 1980 with a degree in economics and finance. Career highlights: Being named one of America's "Ten Best New Chefs" by Food & Wine magazine; receiving the 1994 Robert Mondavi Award for Culinary Excellence.
You are a self-taught chef. How did you become interested in the kitchen?
I was 16 when I came to the States to go to college [in College Station, Texas]. A year of cafeteria food was all I could bear. I started to cook, and it was a big fiasco. For my first refried beans I opened a bag of dry red beans and fried the beans in oil - without boiling them. You can imagine.
How did you get over those first mishaps?
That summer I went home [to Nicaragua], asked a few questions and I started to cook some of the dishes I grew up with. I did a pretty good job, and my roommates and friends kept asking me to cook for them. That was the last time I had to clean my apartment.
You have a philosophy of creating a simple "yumminess" in food. Would you explain that?
In my travels I have come across, particularly in the United States, some chefs who are so concerned with being exotic and unique that they have left pleasure out of the recipe...