From Little Havana to kitchens across the country and overseas.
Leo Velazquez was born and raised in Miami-Dade County, Florida, in Little Havana. The neighborhood's cafés, ventanitas, and family tables taught him early that cooking is how a place remembers itself.
He started on the line at 17. Now 47, he has thirty years in the kitchen and twenty-five as an executive chef, running brigades with the same urgency he learned flipping pans after school on Calle Ocho.
Along the way he has opened several restaurants across the country and overseas, each built around live fire, Cuban-rooted Latin flavors, and technique clear enough for the home cook to follow. Today he splits his time between those rooms, his cookbooks, and Velazquez Studio.
A working timeline.
- 1996
Starts cooking at 17 in Miami-Dade, cutting his teeth in Little Havana kitchens.
- 2001
Steps into his first executive chef role. Twenty-five years leading kitchens follow.
- 2010s
Opens restaurants across the country, building rooms around live fire and the Latin pantry.
- 2020s
Expands overseas with new openings abroad while refining recipes for home cooks at Velazquez Studio.
"Cooking is the most honest thing I know how to do. The fire either listens or it doesn't."