The visiting chef was a former high school dropout and punk guitarist. The local chef, a former street car racer and aspiring mechanic.
The dropout became a dishwasher who graduated to making salads. The street car racer landed in a bistro preparing sandwiches.
Their paths cut through central Virginia and Southern Arizona and across the country until they intersected Wednesday evening inside an old San Antonio beerhouse, Southerleigh Fine Food and Brewery.
Here was one-time punk musician, Noah Sandoval, a two-star Michelin chef from Chicago. And there was one-time drag racer, Aaron Juvera, Southerleigh’s chef de cuisine and the first in the city to be Oyster Master Guild-certified.
Inside a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant, they served a menu of delectable Texas flavors, featuring gulf oysters with Virginia ham, pork ribs with coriander meringue and barbecue gulf shrimp with worcestershire nuoc cham.
The cuisine, paired with Southerleigh’s craft beers, included a surprise: a glass of Oystercore, a light and salty brew with notes of lemon, grapefruit and orange. “It takes 1,400 oysters to make the beer,” Juvera explained to tables of guests.
One guest, Ashley Bird, was taken by the oyster beer and raw oysters, harvested from the Gulf Coast. “The oysters were interesting,” she said. “You could feel there were two different flavors coming together.
The event brought together a graduate of San Antonio’s Culinary Institute of America, Juvera, and a culinarian from lauded restaurant Oriole.
A series of improbable turns in life brought these two into prominent kitchens. At 16, Sandoval dropped out of high school in Richmond, Virginia to pursue music. One day, a friend asked him to fill in for him as a dishwasher. Sandoval agreed and found a permanent job at Helen’s, an exclusive, white tablecloth restaurant.
“I had to figure out a way to pay my rent,” Sandoval said. “You don’t look a week ahead when you’re that age and you’re into punk rock.”
After two years, the chef asked Sandoval to make salads. Then the chef invited Sandoval to dine at the restaurant. The experience sparked ambition. Sandoval became a mentee of a James Beard semifinalist, David Shannon, and developed his culinary chops.
After moving to Chicago, Sandoval opened Senza, a since-closed gluten-free restaurant. In 2015, it earned a Michelin star. “The day they called, I was paralyzed,” he told The Michelin Guide in 2017. “I thought, ‘No way. I’m just a punk kid. This doesn’t happen to me.”
In 2016, Sandoval opened Oriole. That same year, it earned two Michelin stars. The Michelin Guide wrote, “Chef Noah Sandoval and team execute a thoughtful tasting menu that blends French and Japanese elements.”
Despite the recognition, Sandoval carries the self-effacing disposition of a novice. “There’s still no confidence in my body,” he told the San Antonio Report. “I’ve been winging it. I’ve been faking it my whole career. And somehow, here we are.”
Juvera’s path began as a boy scout. He cooked at campfire meetings. As a teenager, he took to adventure on the streets of Tucson, some of it racing. Other mischief veered over boundaries of law.
He found a bistro job at SaddleBrooke Ranch, a resort north of Tucson. A chef encouraged him to pursue an American Culinary Federation certification program. Juevera, instead, opted to pursue culinary school and applied to the CIA.
At 19, he moved to San Antonio and slept on the couch of a friend. He waited. Two weeks later, Juvera received his acceptance letter and began working at La Gloria. In 2013, he became part of the CIA’s first graduating class.
Juvera found his groove at La Gloria and helped chef Johnny Hernandez open other restaurants. In 2018, Juvera started at Southerleigh.
Seven years later, he stood beside a two-star Michelin chef inside Southerleigh’s Blueprint room. Behind Juvera was a walled blue print of the original Pearl Brewery. Above were two massive holding tanks from a facility built in 1894.
Juvera shared the history and answered questions. Then two chefs served a menu of rich flavor and texture, advancing a South Texas narrative that began in an old brew house.
