Owner Profiles

	Rene Rodriguez
	René Rodriguez was born to be a Chef. Born in Ottawa, Rene lived in Mexico with his family and first started cooking at the tender age of 12 while working at his uncle’s restaurant around delicious food and tantalizing Mexican aromas. Six years later René returned to Ottawa and started working as an apprentice cook. He spent the next six years working in various restaurants in Ottawa exploring his passion for food and building a career for himself in Canada. At the age of 24 he enrolled in Le Cordon Blue cooking school program and then went on to complete his Red Seal Certification and culinary courses at Algonquin College. With his education behind him, René mastered his skills working as a Sous Chef at a few of Ottawa’s trendy hotspots: Ironwood café and Luna Bar and Kitchen. In March 2001 René accepted an invitation to do a stage at the Fifth Floor Restaurant in San Francisco, under the tutelage of Executive Chef George Morrone. In June 2001 René was appointed Chef de Cuisine at ARC the Hotel where for two consecutive years he captured a two star rating from the dining guide “Where to Eat In Canada” and during that time ARC lounge was voted among best new restaurants in Canada by En Route Magazine. In 2002 and 2003 René was invited as a Chef Host for Canada’s Food Network Show Cook Like a Chef. At the time Cook Like a Chef was nominated by the James Beard award for best foreign cooking show in 2003. After two years at the helm of the kitchens at ARC, René worked at Social Restaurant as Chef de Cuisine until April 2004. Over the past 3years, René has been Chef de Cuisine at the Black Cat Café. The Black Cat was voted one of Ottawa’s Best Restaurant by Ottawa Magazine in 2006 and won 2 stars from “Where to Eat in Canada” in 2005, 2006 and 2007. In November 2005 traveled to La Havana, Cuba to do cooking demonstrations in conjunction with Agriculture Canada and Canada Pork International to tech Havana’s top Hotel Chefs how to cook Canadian pork and Alberta Beef. René Rodriguez took the position of Executive Chef at Luxe Bistro in August 2007 and worked there for 9 months and during that time Rene was chosen among the top 10 chef in Ottawa to participate in Gold Medal Plates 2008 at Hilton Lac Lemy. Rene has been traveling to Spain every year since 2005 for about 2 weeks every January to keep learning more about cuisine and to work with other chefs to share ideas and philosophies about great food and wine of this amazing country. The time has arrived for Rene to open his much anticipated Basque Restaurant Navarra at 93 Murray St. in Ottawa.