{"id":4661,"date":"2014-07-13T15:13:28","date_gmt":"2014-07-13T21:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/?p=4661"},"modified":"2014-07-13T15:13:28","modified_gmt":"2014-07-13T21:13:28","slug":"top-chefs-the-celebrity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/top-chefs-the-celebrity\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Chefs: The Celebrity"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s an exciting time for foodies in Los Cabos. Talented chefs from the world over have flocked here and are powering kitchens with innovative dishes, bold flavors, and quality, locally sourced ingredients. In this series, writers Chris Sands and Sandra A. Berry profile some of the region\u2019s top chefs.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Chef<\/a>

Chef Tadd Chapman. Photo by Francisco Estrada.<\/p><\/div>\n

Well over six feet tall, celebrity chef Tadd Chapman jokingly describes himself as a \u201cstrapping young lad.\u201d Indeed, he is a robust young man who is charming, strong willed, and knows exactly where he is going. At just 37\u00a0years old, he is already owner of three popular restaurants in San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo.<\/p>\n

Born on Vancouver Island on the west coast of Canada, Chapman lived with his father after his parents divorced. At 15, he wanted a car. His dad told him to get a job to earn money. Instead of one, Chapman got and held down two jobs, including a position peeling potatoes. He was able to buy a beater of a car and launch his culinary career, going from dishwasher to prep cook to line cook. His father wanted him to study law or medicine, but young Chapman found he had a natural gift he wanted to pursue. \u201cYou either have it or you don\u2019t,\u201d he says of his taste as a chef, which he undoubtedly developed on visits with his mother whom he describes as \u201ca fantastic cook\u201d who also managed restaurants during his young years.<\/p>\n

He took culinary classes in high school. Good grades earned him a scholarship to Vancouver Island University Malaspina, where he trained under several well-known master chefs. After graduating in the 98th percentile of his class, he went to work at Kananaskis Resort in the Canadian Rockies. From there he went on to brave Canada\u2019s Northwest Territories. Around the same time, his father was making several trips to Los Cabos, eventually moving to San Jos\u00e9 del Cabo. Chapman visited in 1998 and saw an opportunity for a restaurant. After a series of buying, selling, and partnerships in various restaurant ventures, Chapman opened Habanero\u2019s Gastro Grill and Tequila Bar, a neighborhood eatery, in 2004. The fine dining establishment Don Sanchez followed in 2012, then the Retro Burger Bur.<\/p>\n

Chapman talks fast and thinks even faster. His knowledge and passion for food have grown to include wine and tequila. And Chapman has quickly become not only one of the most notable chefs in Los Cabos but also a bit of a celebrity chef, having appeared on a food show on KTLA 5 in Los Angeles. Readers of a local magazine named him Los Cabos\u2019 best chef in 2010, and he was one of three top chefs featured in Mexico Traveler<\/em> magazine in 2012. But Chapman\u2019s favorite honor came when an 8-year-old told him his burger was better than those at McDonald\u2019s. Chapman is married with two children. He does the cooking in the family, saying his children prefer his cooking because their mother \u201ceven burns water.\u201d Chapman is a \u201cgrill-kind of guy\u201d and enjoys steak and veggies with a salad. His favorite dining out option, though, is sushi. Could there be a fourth Chapman restaurant in the works?\u2014S.A.B.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s an exciting time for foodies in Los Cabos. Talented chefs from the world over have flocked here and are powering kitchens with innovative dishes, bold flavors, and quality, locally sourced ingredients. In this series, writers Chris Sands and Sandra A. Berry profile some of the region\u2019s top chefs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,13,277],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news","category-restaurants","category-san-jose-del-cabo-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4663,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions\/4663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}