‘Do it all’ whiz chef Espinoza returns to Chinati dinner
Once upon a time in 2006, chef Brian Espinoza attended his first Chinati Open House dinner with his dear friend Sam Hamilton. During dinner in the arena that evening, swept up in the glorious sights and heady buzz of socializing with friends and visitors from all over the world, the magic happened. He leaned over to his friend and shared his newfound desire—“To one day do this dinner.”
He has attended every single dinner since that time and last year brought his dream into reality in the biggest way possible. He rented a refrigerated truck out in Oakland, California, his home, filled it with fresh produce and anything else he couldn’t source out here and drove out to Marfa and set to work. He wowed the crowd.
He admits, “I knew at some point it would happen for me to chef the dinner. Last year was that moment. While it was indeed a mountain of work, every bit of it was worth it. I don’t have the means to write large checks to organizations that I love … but I can cook! I love Marfa and the Chinati Foundation.”
It’s not normal to attend a dinner for approximately 250 guests, look around the room and think, “This I want to do.” Most people give at least a little pause with a dinner for only six. Brian is a big-picture guy who can whip out his sewing machine and go to town making new, huge, custom cushion covers, table runners and napkins, repaint the interior of the house, install an HVAC system, build a small pool, make complex multicourse dinners, trim up the yard and cacti in the alley, plant fruit trees, build a shed, attend endless art and social events, including those he hosts, work on his tan, be pleasant to all he encounters, including a snake in his woodpile, and call it a short vacation.
His chefing began when he interned and trained at Chez Panisse while a student at UC Berkeley’s School of Architecture. The owner of that restaurant, Alice Waters, still revered for her then trendsetting commitment to local farmers, their produce, and crafting a menu around what crops were fresh and in season, has become a household name. The restaurant continues to thrive.
Brian, on the other hand, stepped away from the kitchen there and will once again become a man in motion to make this dinner another special night for those in attendance. He wants to add his personal touch to what he felt at the first dinner with all the elements of people around a table enjoying each other’s company and food—when something “fantastic” transpired in the arena.
Alice Waters hired Brian for an open position in the kitchen after he auditioned by making her a tryout lunch. “Oddly, the lunch I made for Alice Waters which landed me the job is very similar to the meal I’m preparing for Chinati dinner this year,” he says.
Hopeful questioning about the menu brought this response, “I don’t want to spoil the surprise! But it definitely taps into my Mexican heritage.”
The gobsmacking task of planning and prepping a meal for 250 has begun in the kitchen, as has the intrigue and mouth watering anticipation of those who know his food. Brian, the hardest working, most fun loving perfectionist brings his talents to another dinner, another year of sharing his love of cooking and most admired stamina to those lucky enough to hear the words, “Dinner is served.”