At Home With
At Home With... Richard Sandoval
Chef Owner of Denver’s Tamayo, Zengo and La Sandía

For culinary pioneer Richard Sandoval, it all started in his grandmother's bustling kitchen in Mexico City when he was a young boy: "Every weekend there were big family reunions. Fifteen to 20 people would sit down at her dining room table and she would bring out course after course," he says. "My palate was already evolving and appreciating all these different flavors, textures and ingredients."

Now, Sandoval has cooked up a global concept in cuisine—Modern Mexican—that pleases palates at his distinctive restaurants from Denver to Dubai. In his own words, Modern Mexican involves "taking traditional recipes and putting my interpretation on them." It’s "old ways in new hands."

Though Sandoval is at home in kitchens countrywide, if you found him at his Denver riverfront apartment, he might be crafting his "spicy, sweet and silky" mole sauce. "Mole’s one of my favorite dishes," he says. "It’s made with a chocolate base and chiles. It’s a very complex sauce, with a nice balancing contrast between spicy and sweet."

He’s given Denver three restaurants, each with its own inventive concept, and his vision never sleeps. Next, he’s planning to launch a culinary school at his father’s restaurant in Acapulco to welcome young Mexican pupils into the kitchen on ­scholarship. "I’m very fortunate for what I have now in the restaurant industry. This is my way of giving back."