Alejandro Tort | Chef and Recipe Designer.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alejandro Tort and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alejandro, what do you attribute your success to?
I think the factor is the same one that push me to do it. Keep the original recipes from my family ,and keep the quality on the ingredients to get a real nice and tasty result. Always It’s like a travel backk in time. Finding something we lost because the industralization of the food. It’s a cultural factor, an heritance .

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Well, i think I was lucky in some way, because my first job in a restaurant was at the restaurant of Chef Francis Malmann, in Punta del Este, Uruguay , where i coming from. That was a summer job but show me how this bussiness need to be managed. Everything was under strct control. Every area, every employee. Very proffessional
I’ worked there for five more summers ,and then started full time in another restaurant of his own.
That experience was like a college for me.
After 4 years of culinary school at Gato Dumas institute, working with Chef Mallmann was such of big experience to me.
When i moved to United States ,
i’m start a little place in Evansville,WI called “La Trattoria” and goes pretty well.
Then , some life changes makes me move to Houston ,TX in 2013, and open this little place called ” The Horse & the Turtle” remembering an old child tale that my grandma use to read me at bed time.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Houston is a cosmopolitan city, you always have too many places to try. Personally, i love to try different kinds of food, from different cultures.
I love the steak houses, some vietnamese soup places
Also some Mediterranean and Arabic food spots.
And some nice bars to talk an listen some live music. Like Avant Garden .
But I’m still exploring and trying new places every weekend.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My grandma !! For sure. She was my first and better teacher, after notice that i am really interested and get some skills , she teach me all her old Italian family recipes, that were kept and passed 7 generations on my family. Now it’s my time to keep that recipes alive and going on.
I got some other teachers , but my Grandmother was the best of all !

Website: thehorse&the turtle.com (under construction yet)

Instagram: The Horse and the Turtle

Linkedin: Alejandro Tort

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehorseandtheturtle

Yelp: The Horse & the Turtle

Image Credits
Alejandro Tort