ALO Demo Kitchen Theater Presentation
Sunday, April 11th | 5:15pm

Executive Chef
Verdanza Hotel, a member of Summit Hotels & Resorts

The youngest Chef de Cuisine of any full service hotel in Puerto Rico, and the youngest to be featured at Saborea Puerto Rico, Damián Hernández’s youth belies an accomplished career with a promising future.

Born and raised in the small beach town of Añasco in Puerto Rico’s west coast, the son and grandson of cooks, Damián discovered the culinary world serendipitously when he was tasked with the cleaning of his father’s kitchen. From cleaning to observing, to lending a hand in the prepping of ingredients and finally trying his hand at experimenting with dishes, the expected segue was formal training in the culinary arts.

Damián began his career as a line cook at Rincon Beach Resort, a four-star hotel on the island’s west coast. Within two years, he had systematically moved up the ranks to achieve the Executive Chef Position.  In late 2008 Flagship Services Corporation, the company that owns and manages the Verdanza Hotel in San Juan, presented Chef Damián with the challenge of taking to the next level the culinary offerings of this full service hotel in San Juan – a professional dare he took on with oomph and to rave reviews.

Damián's unique style blends masterfully his classical training in Culinary Arts with his own homespun take, resulting in dishes that are sophisticated but accessible, never pretentious.  Using locally-grown ingredients such as root vegetables, fresh fruits and herbs, he reinterprets ‘haute cuisine’ with a house-made flair – a style that is perfectly in tune with the vibe of Verdanza Hotel.

When not busy at Verdanza Hotel’s signature Eighty20 Bistro or overseeing the hotel’s banquet kitchens, Chef Damián is helping shape the next generation of local culinary talent as a Culinary Arts Instructor for the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico.