Often, a restaurant’s kitchen leaders are also its unsung heroes, toiling behind the scenes to provide a pleasurable dining experience for the eatery’s patrons. In this series, we shine a spotlight on talented, creative, and unique individuals who have become, or are becoming, the culinary superheroes of our city, and explore the paths they have taken to establish themselves as rising or recognized gastronomic stars.
In this chapter, we introduce you to local rising star Joe Valdez.
Chef Joe Valdez has spent more than half of his life in Las Vegas. After coming up through the ranks at both casual and fine dining establishments over the past 20 years, the 36-year-old is now sharing his talents and creativity with us at Basilico Ristorante Italiano in the Evora luxury apartment complex on Buffalo near Russell. This new executive chef position shows how versatile he is, excelling across various types of cuisine.
Tell us about where you were born and grew up.
I was born in Redlands, CA. We moved to Reno when I was seven, to Las Vegas when I was nine, and to Denver when I was 16.
What brought you back to Las Vegas?
Unfortunately, drugs and alcohol got the best of me, and I moved back to Las Vegas and started to get sober when I was about 25. In 2015, Chef Emery Childress essentially picked me up off the street, and I got clean and have now been sober for 11 years.
What made you decide to become a chef? How old were you, and how did you make that happen?
I’ve always worked in restaurants, from my first job as a server/expediter at Red Robin at age 16. My career really took off, and by the time I was 19, I had been promoted to a manager opening new restaurants, and at age 20, I became a kitchen manager. Red Robin gave me a lot of the safety, sanitation, and operations [education] on how to run kitchens. Unlike most chefs, I started in the corporate world, then moved to smaller, boutique restaurants, and learned from Emery about guest care and everything there is to know about food.
Who were some of your early mentors that you learned the most from?
When I first came back to Las Vegas, Chef Emery Childress took me under his wing and taught me everything. I worked for him at his Emery’s La Barista Catering and went from running high-volume burgers to Italian fine dining. Also, Nelson Berrios, who was executive chef when I worked under him as executive sous chef at Mercado Della Pescheria and Matt Fresinski, who was corporate chef and promoted me to executive chef at Café Americano at the Paris Resort and Casino when it opened. I met Constantin Alexander through the pool (billiards) world. He’s a great shooter. Many moons ago, he posted on Facebook that he was looking for a chef for Table 34, and a few of our mutual friends suggested he hire me, which he did. After Bramare opened, I ran the kitchen there as well.
What brought you to Basilico?
After Table 34 and Bramare both closed, I took a month and a half off to spend time with my wife. I had eaten at Basilico and love cooking Italian, so I applied to an anonymous post about an executive chef. It turned out to be posted by Marisa Martino (co-owner of Basilico), and she hired me. Since starting here, I feel it’s been a great fit for me. The team here is fantastic, and I love the drive Rudy Aguas (co-owner of Basilico) and Marisa have.
Tell us about your restaurant and what makes it stand apart from other Italian restaurants.
There is a plethora of Italian restaurants in Las Vegas, and 80% of them are good, and 20% of them you’d probably only visit once. At Basilico, I’m making dishes people want to eat every day. We’re right next to this beautiful apartment complex called Evora, and I see the same faces there all the time — four or five nights a week. What sets us apart is our hospitality. And we have a beautiful patio and a killer happy hour with flatbreads, two pastas, spicy shrimp, and truffled potatoes all priced at $10, and a cocktail of the day that sells like hotcakes.
What are some of your favorite dishes currently on your menu?
Our new Fall Menu just came out. All of our pastas are made in-house, [one such dish is our] Bucatini Fra Diavolo with shrimp, Calabrian peppers, and white wine. The Pork Belly with fig sauce is killer. My new Pork Chop with sweet vermouth and butter sauce, peppadew peppers, and cippolini onions is a play on sausage and peppers. For dessert, our new Coffee Cake Focaccia Bites is my ode to Bramare, where I used to do blueberry focaccia bites, and we’re doing it a bit differently here with coffee cake served with cappuccino gelato. It’s like Italian churros—warm, sweet, and kind of savory.
How do you come up with your recipes? What are some of your favorite ingredients you like to use in your recipes?
I pull from past experiences and past dishes, and do little twists here and there. Keeping up on social media is really helpful and seeing trends, reading quite a few cookbooks, and remembering the teachings from people like Emery Childress, Matt Fresinski, and Nelson Berrios and playing off what works and doesn’t work.
Ingredients I’m loving are Calabrian peppers, especially during the fall; Colatura, which is a play on an ancient Roman fish sauce and like a concentrated anchovy liquid; fall ingredients like fig, butternut squash, and sage; and crudo currently on our menu with kanpachi, orange, lemon, and Calabrian mayo.
What do you think of the Las Vegas culinary scene?
Diversity (of restaurants) here is unlike anywhere else in the world for sure. You can have grand dining experiences, and I don’t think there are many cities—maybe New York City and L.A. — that can rival us, and the overall collection of chefs here is incredible. Restaurants like Tamba are killing it right now, Pisces at the Wynn is fantastic, and everything James Trees is doing. You don’t see a city like this, pushing through adversity and still setting the bar so high.
What do you like to do in your downtime, when you’re not working?
My wife, Sophia, is number one in my life for sure. We’ve been married for three years and are expecting a baby boy in November. Hanging out with our two dogs, an Akita-St. Bernard-mix and a mutt I rescued from the office park next to Table 34. I also like to play video games, shoot pool, and occasionally compete in tournaments.
What are your plans for the future? Do you intend to stay in Las Vegas?
Las Vegas has been home for me off and on for 20 years now, plus my wife has a great job, so we plan to stay here for the foreseeable future.
