Chef
Carol Reyes
- Discipline
- Chef
- Venue
- Bóveda · Restaurant
Made By record
Awards & recognition
1 total
verified records
Portrait of Carol Reyes
i. Biography
“My mission with Boba is to showcase what we're capable of doing here in Puerto Rico.” For Carol Reyes, Executive Chef of Bóveda Restaurante in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that sentence sets a clear horizon: the work points back to place, to ingredients, and to the people who grow and produce them. The origin is even closer to home, in her maternal grandmother's cherished recipes, the first inheritance behind a career built through study, hotel kitchens, and Puerto Rican dining rooms.
The Sunday letter
Read Made By's new profiles every Sunday.
Meet the chefs, winemakers and sommeliers behind the places we cover. See a sample below before you subscribe.
See a sample of the Sunday emailOne email a week. Unsubscribe from any issue.
Coming Up
Carol Reyes trained at Universidad del Este and Culinary Institute of America.
Where They Are Now
Reyes is Executive Chef at Bóveda Restaurante in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In that role, her work gathers the personal and professional strands that shaped her: a grandmother's recipes, formal culinary study, Puerto Rican restaurant experience, and a stated commitment to local ingredients. Her own description of the project is concise: “Boba is a space where the classic and the modern comes together.” That idea gives her cooking a particular tension. The classic is not treated as a museum piece, and the modern is not treated as escape; each becomes a way to read the other. What makes her position especially clear is the way she speaks about capability. The emphasis is not only on what one chef can do, but on what can be shown from Puerto Rico, through Puerto Rican products and producers, by a kitchen working from San Juan rather than looking away from it.
Signature
Carol's signature dishes include branzino, local tomato salad, and koshino.
In Their Words “Although my cooking is not traditionally Puerto Rican, I always try to incorporate local ingredients on my menu and support local farmers and producers.” “My mission with Boba is to showcase what we're capable of doing here in Puerto Rico.”
Honors
The dated milestones in her career are educational: Universidad del Este in 2001 and the Culinary Institute of America in 2006, followed by leadership roles in Puerto Rico, including Chef de Cuisine at 1919 Restaurant and Executive Chef at Bóveda Restaurante.
FAQ What is Carol Reyes's current role? As of 2026, Carol Reyes is Executive Chef. Where did Carol Reyes train or study? Carol Reyes trained at Universidad del Este and Culinary Institute of America.
The Sunday letter
Get the next Made By profile in your inbox.
We send one email every Sunday morning with the people we profiled that week.
See a sample of the Sunday emailOne email a week. Unsubscribe from any issue.