Some people are born to cook. It seems Chef Julian Silvera of The Tasting House in Los Gatos is one of them. “I always knew that I wanted to be a chef,” says Silvera, who began his career in his native New York. “It was never really a big question for me, just a goal that was always kind of there.”
Silvera loved the vibe of Manhattan and fueled himself on the unrivaled 24-hour energy that defines The City That Never Sleeps. “I always knew what I wanted to do, except for my brief passion for breakdancing at 8 years old,” he says. Admittedly, he’s given that up for fear of breaking something critical, like a hand or an arm.
Silvera and his fiancée, Mary Martin, moved to Florida during the pandemic, finding themselves in the right spot at the Knife & Spoon at The Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, just in time to be on the team that scored a Michelin star for the establishment in 2022. From there, the couple came west to Tasting House, eager to be in a place hallowed for its abundance of everything fresh from field, farm and fishers.
“Local tastes better,” says Silvera. “Fresh from the ocean to the table, from the garden to your salad … this brings the most intense and optimal flavors to your palate.” He often runs into guests at the local Los Gatos Farmers Market while buying produce, noting that this cements trust in Tasting House and its commitment to authentic food sourcing and support for the farmers and the community that surrounds them.
And it allows him to be his authentic self, too. “I cook with a lot of intensity, and it calls for the most intense ingredients. ”We wondered what flavors have motivated him in creating some of the dishes of which he is most proud. Short answer: nostalgia and curiosity.
Art direction by Curtis Cooke“At first it was everything new and exciting,” Silvera admits. “Flavor combinations I had never tried before … techniques that were edgy and molecular. Now it has become nostalgic moments in my life, and how I can re-create that moment I lived for a guest in the most impactful and memorable way.”
He is not exaggerating when he says that he has literally written 25 to 30 different versions of the menu for Tasting House since he started here. “I am constantly reinventing how I can stay creative, but also deliver my ideas to the community in a way that they can understand.”
Chefs sometimes waffle, or even bristle, when asked to describe their style of cuisine. Not Silvera. “I am globally inspired, for sure,” he says. “Taking ideas from everywhere I have been and want to go. Travel really wakes up that expressive part of my brain.” Cooking for people in Los Gatos is certainly far afield from serving food to diners in New York City or Florida.
“I think Los Gatos is such a tight-knit community,” he says. “It’s the only place I’ve ever lived where I know the guests, the farmers and the winemakers. It really is easy to get close to this place. I can’t even get a coffee without seeing one of the three, and I love it.”
Being on the cusp of the holidays and the season of warmth and spices, we inquired about his favorite ingredients for winter cooking. “I love cooking with pumpkin and squash,” Silvera says. “My grandmother’s pumpkin soup recipe is now a seasonal staple on the winter menu, and guests wait for it all year long.”
One thing you can expect on the Tasting House menu come November is Mimi’s Pumpkin Soup. Everything else is up to inspiration. An important part of being a tastemaker is the ability to create an expectation of something unique outside the doors of your restaurant, and much anticipated within.
Given the rapport that develops between chef and diner, we wondered how he wants guests to feel when they view his eclectic menus and unusual presentations. eclectic menus and unusual presentations. “First, I want them to feel like they have never seen any presentation like this before,” he says. “Then I want them to think they have never eaten anything like this before, and somewhere in the middle of these two experiences I want them to feel like ‘home.’”
Tasting House | 368 Village Lane, Los Gatos | tastinghouse.com
