User:Chefmartinlopez/Chef Martin Lopez

Born in Mexico City by an Italian mother, the versatility of ingredients were shown to Martin at an early stage. At seven years old, he was already part of the kitchen household responsibilities and showing his passion for cooking. As he endured different tasks assigned to him. Having three brothers and three sisters made a large family and with European traditions needless to say there was a lot of cooking involved. Chef Martin fell in love with the art of cooking from a very early age. His mother, his inspiration and teacher, along with the rest of his family were high critics and supporters. In 1984 he graduated from Alton High School and on 1988 he graduated from Escuela International de Ideomas with emphasis on tourism and languages. After schooling he did his internship at Cafe de France in St. Louis Mo USA, which was a platform for him. After a long journey travels to Europe, Mexico, and South America; Chef Martin has created an array of dishes of multicultural cuisines. He started to combine ingredients from around the world to create pieces that now all of us are more accustomed to marrying and combining Latin America and Italian ingredients to create his dishes. His background and his love of art along with his cooking developed into what he calls now Mexican Novelle with European overtones.

His culinary expertise include Southwest, Mexican, classic French, American novelle, European pastry. Some of his special skills are Ice Carving, Pulled Sugar, Wedding Cakes, Garde Manger, 3D cakes, and Tallow. He is a member of the American Culinary Federation, US Pastry Alliance, and The Retail Bakers of America (RBA) -Nationwide.

"I believe that cooking is a celebration and art, I get my ingredients and I feel the textures, smell the aromas then the utensils become my tools, the pots and pans become my palette and the plates are my canvas"