Felipe Botero

The Path

Training at LaGuardia Community College, Culinary Academy in Long Island, and New York City College of Technology gave Felipe Botero a formal base before the intensity of New York City kitchens took over. That education mattered as structure: a framework for the repetition, pressure, and precision that define professional service. In those early years, the work was immediate and practical, but it also built steadily, with each station and menu adding to the standards that followed. The first New York City role was line cook at Veritas in New York City, where precision carried the weight of the service. From there, the move to Sous Chef at The Chester in Gansevoort Meatpacking District, New York City expanded both responsibility and scale. He then returned to line cook duties at Union Square Café in New York City (from 2016), later becoming Private Dining Room Sous Chef at Union Square Café in New York City. Each step sharpened a different part of the trade: repetition at the line, oversight in Sous Chef work, and the narrower demands of private dining within a high-tempo kitchen. In 2019, Felipe Botero moved to Le Jardinier in New York City (from 2019) as Sous Chef, entering a restaurant whose culinary language would become central to his later work. The progression continued with Sous Chef posts at Le Jardinier in Miami and Le Jardinier at MFAH in Houston, TX (from 2021), carrying the same sensibility across cities and teams. The arc from New York to Miami and then Houston reads as a steady rise, grounded in consistency, technical control, and the ability to translate seasonal ideas into composed plates. Today, Felipe Botero is Executive Chef of Le Jardinier Houston. The title is concise, but the path behind it is layered, and the restaurant now reflects the accumulated vocabulary of his earlier kitchens.

The Work Today

At Le Jardinier Houston, Texas, Felipe Botero’s cooking is centered on Seasonal French menus that follow the rhythm of nature and use ingredients at their peak. The emphasis is on restraint and timing rather than excess. His work depends on balance, and on the kind of confidence that comes from letting ingredients arrive at the right moment. The Houston chapter is marked by plating and seasonal ingredient-driven dishes. That means composition matters as much as flavor, with each element arranged to support the whole and keep the produce vivid in its own right. Creativity, exceptional technique, a fine palate, precision, and deep respect for ingredients are all part of the same approach: inventive, but exacting; refined, but still rooted in the product. That combination gives the menus their forward motion: not display for its own sake, but ingredients presented when they are ready. The line of his career, from Bogotá to New York City, through The Bastion Collection and into the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, gathers in Houston around a clear point of view. At Le Jardinier Houston, that point of view is expressed through seasonal dishes that are carefully composed and quietly assured.

Career - Executive Chef — Le Jardinier Houston, TX - Line cook — Veritas, New York City - Sous Chef — The Chester, Gansevoort Meatpacking District, New York City - Line cook — Union Square Café, New York City (from 2016) - Private Dining Room Sous Chef — Union Square Café, New York City - Sous Chef — Le Jardinier, New York City (from 2019) - Sous Chef — Le Jardinier, Miami - Sous Chef — Le Jardinier at MFAH, Houston, TX