i. Biography
Executive Chef at the Epicurean Hotel and Élevage SoHo Kitchen & Bar in Tampa, Florida, names the current scope of Jon Atanacio’s work: hotel hospitality joined to restaurant production. The role requires food that can hold a point of view while also fitting the operating demands of service, staffing, timing, and guest expectation. In that setting, the craft is measured not only on the plate, but in the systems that allow the plate to arrive correctly, repeatedly, and in rhythm.
The Path
Steakhouse training at Bern’s Steak House gave Jon Atanacio a working foundation in precision, pace, and room-aware cooking. In a landmark kitchen, polish is not decoration; it is part of how standards are transmitted through prep, pickup, service, and the guest’s read of the room. That kind of formation travels because it is based on habits: consistency, respect for systems, and an understanding that hospitality is built from small controls repeated well. Executive leadership at Epicurean Hotel / Élevage SoHo Kitchen & Bar extends that foundation from station craft into operational responsibility. The work broadens from making food to directing the conditions under which food is made: menus, teams, service flow, and the details that stay mostly invisible when they are handled correctly.
The Work Today
Hotel and restaurant cooking meet most clearly in the responsibilities tied to service, banquets, menu development, and training, areas that shaped Jon Atanacio’s earlier Chef de Cuisine work. Each requires a different discipline: service demands immediacy, banquets demand scale and control, menu development demands selection and restraint, and training demands the patience to turn standards into repeatable practice. Restaurant and banquet work, oversight of culinary and pastry departments, and management of a culinary operation place the craft inside the larger machinery of hospitality. A hotel kitchen needs range; a restaurant needs a clear point of view; an operation needs leadership steady enough to hold both without losing the details that make service credible. Daily kitchen work rewards completion in real time, a point Jon Atanacio has put plainly: "There is a sense of accomplishment that comes with each day as well as instant gratification." In a trade built on repetition and pressure, the measure is immediate: a service completed, a plate finished, a team moving together, a guest satisfied in the moment.
Signature
Signature work identified with Jon Atanacio includes Chef Jon's One Pan Wonder and Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler. One name points to practical, home-driven composition; the other to a fruit-and-pastry format built around sweet-tart familiarity and serviceable comfort.
In Their Words “One day at home, we needed dinner and had nothing planned. So I went through everything and made the following "recipe". Just threw it together with what we had. It has been a request from my wife ever since.” “There is a sense of accomplishment that comes with each day as well as instant gratification.”
Acclaim
The current title consolidates the scope of the work into one office: Executive Chef.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Jon
What is Jon Atanacio's current role?
Jon Atanacio is Executive Chef at the Epicurean Hotel and Élevage SoHo Kitchen & Bar.
Where did Jon Atanacio train or study?
Jon Atanacio trained at Bern’s Steak House.
