Celebrity chef now serving up food at WVU

Jan. 10—When it comes to food, Lily Wagner knows what she likes.

Every morning for breakfast, the WVU engineering major from Dover, Del., digs into a bagel without fail.

Heck, she even posts the doughy repasts daily on her Snapchat — just because.

During lunchtime Tuesday at Caf é Evansdale, Wagner got to sample something a little different.

And, a lot tasty.

"Oh, my God, " she said. "Incredible. This is the best food I've ever had out of this place, and I'm a senior."

Off to one side, a certain celebrity chef heard the review — and beamed.

"Are you liking it ?" Aaron Sanchez asked. "Good. Good, good. That's what we want to hear."

Sanchez, the TV chef who is currently a judge on FOX's food competition shows "Master Chief " and Master Chef Junior, " was on campus to launch a new endeavor with the help of Sodexo, the food service giant that also partners with West Virginia's flagship university.

His Adobo Cantina, which holds the center grill spot at the caf é, will bring a variety of the traditional Mexican fare and other culinary takes for which he's known.

This day was a soft-opening of sorts for the newest addition to WVU Dining Services.

Just don't call it another outlet in a food court or dining hall, he said.

It's more like a restaurant onto itself, the chef said — and that's how he was treating it for this lunchtime crowd that poured in for an abbreviated menu of carne asada, chicken fajitas, Mexican rice and charro beans.

He asked diners about the food, while shaking hands and posing for selfies.

As a kid in New York City, while his buddies were hanging out on the corner, he was hanging out at the grill, in the kitchen of Zarela, his mother's restaurant.

Zarela Martinez — she co-opted her name for the restaurant — was born in Mexico, and educated in the U.S. as a child.

As a young woman, she found herself in El Paso, Texas.

She was divorced, which also meant she was a single mom to two boys, Aaron and his twin brother, Rodrigo, who is now an attorney.

After an apprenticeship with New Orleans-based celebrity chef, Paul Prudhomme, she leapt to NYC, to launch her restaurant, with its adjoining catering business.

The little family from Texas made a huge impression in the big city, her son, the chef, said, grinning.

That's because Zarela smoked out their entire apartment building one night during their first week in town while toasting chiles for a recipe.

"I started thinking about the restaurant business when I was 13, " Sanchez said.

"By the time I was 16, I knew I was going to be a chef, " he said.

His mom's advice ? "She told me to work hard and learn from my mentors — but to still be original."

He listened. Like is mother, he studied with Prudhomme, too.

And, like her, he parleyed that experience to open his Johnny Sanchez restaurant in New Orleans.

But not before wielding a spatula on television.

He became an off-camera legend in the early days of the Food Network during one Thanksgiving when he cooked an entire turkey with all the trimmings in the small kitchen of his apartment — then hailed a cab and hustled the whole deal, on his lap and with oven mitts, to the studio for the taping.

"It's not like now, " he said. "You didn't have the space for prep kitchens or anything. You improvised."

Adobo Cantina is also a kind of culinary, pioneering journey here, said Evan Jacobsen, who is the general manager of WVU Dining Services.

"Not only is this a great opportunity for us to work with an incredible chef, " Jacobsen said.

"It also brings a one-of-a-kind experience to Caf é Evansdale."

Sanchez added a second helping.

"A lot of college students get opportunities to travel, " he said. "They get to enjoy different cultures, and food is all part of the experience."

The Cantina's executive chef, Monica Gaarz, was smiling as she greeted students from her post behind the counter.

She hails from El Paso, also, and has been in Morgantown for exactly three days, after an extensive training period at Johnny Sanchez in New Orleans.

"Yeah, I'm still in boxes, " she laughed. "But we're good."

Like her boss, the TV chef, she's looking forward to some menu-dissertations, too.

After all, as both chefs are wont to say, when it comes to what's on your plate, Tex-Mex isn't Mexican — and Mexican may not be what you think it is.

West Virginia, however, turned out to be everything he heard it was, Sanchez said.

"Tell you what: This is a warm, welcoming place. I was a Mountaineer the whole time and didn't know it."

And Wagner, the Bagel-Snapchat queen ?

Well, you can now count her in as an Adobo Cantina fan.

"I know where I'm gonna be every day."

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