For others, he is the U.S.-based ambassador for Havana Club Rum. And nonetheless extra, he is the proficient photographer whose work is seen in Eater Miami, Edible South Florida, and Zagat. You may even discover him on the opposite finish of the digicam, featured all over the place from the Miami Herald and Ocean Drive to Bon Appetit, the New York Times, and — most just lately — People journal.
However, to those that know him personally, the longtime content material creator, occasion curator, foodie photog, and spirited storyteller owns the title for his longest-running gig but: Magic City’s most charismatic spokesperson.
Full of what can solely be described as cafecito-fueled power, Gutierrez cannot keep in mind when he wasn’t desirous to share his data, ardour, and love of all issues Miami and Cuba with everybody round him.
But earlier than he was the attention behind a few of Miami’s most drool-worthy meals photographs or promoter of spirits with inventive mixology mashups alongside the town’s high expertise, he held titles like “licensed web webmaster” and “digital advertising guru.”
“I initially went to highschool for pc programming and labored in promoting and advertising,” says Gutierrez, who ran the digital division for Tinsley for 15 years earlier than launching his meals podcast. “Every 12 months, I’d create an expert problem for myself, and a kind of challenges was creating Chat Chow.”
The “ah-ha” second got here to him whereas attending Michael Schwartz’s 2011 e book launch for Michael’s Genuine Food: Down-to-Earth Cooking for People Who Love to Eat. As folks have been clamoring to satisfy the James Beard award-winning Miami chef, peppering him with questions, an concept surfaced.
“I believed to myself, This is the kind of content material the world needs to be seeing. I believed it might be a enjoyable facet mission to study extra about viral movies and RSS feeds,” Gutierrez tells New Times.
As one of many nation’s first food-focused podcasts, the Chat Chow crew skilled nice success. They shortly expanded, producing content material nationwide, sharing tales from cooks, mixologists, and hospitality professionals from San Francisco to New York City with fast 15-minute interviews.
More than a decade later, what started as a facet hustle has since catapulted Gutierrez into the center of Miami’s hospitality world, a part of which incorporates making his annual look on the South Beach Wine & Food Festival.
This 12 months, Gutierrez returns to his acquainted submit, internet hosting two occasions throughout the 2023 Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival, certainly one of which he’ll host alongside certainly one of Chat Chow‘s most beloved topics — Cafe La Trova’s cantinero, Julio Cabrera.
Part of the Eater Event Series, the “Daiquiri Making Master Class” on Sunday, February 26, at SGWS Wynwood will supply visitors a lifetime of ideas and tips for whipping up certainly one of Cuba’s high tipples: the daiquiri.
According to Gutierrez, the category affords attendees a hands-on tutorial that’s meant to entertain and, maybe extra importantly, educate.
Most folks know the frozen, synthetic concoction that makes up most modern-day daiquiris, says Gutierrez, however the drink has a singular origin story relationship again to the late 1800s.
Today, it is also a cocktail that holds immense which means for each Gutierrez and Cabrera, who traveled collectively to Daiquirà — a small village on the southeastern tip of Cuba — to study concerning the drink’s storied previous.
“Learning about my land by way of Julio’s eyes, his nostril, his palate — visiting the locations the place he grew up — it was the start of my reconnection to Cuba,” explains Gutierrez.
Once a affluent mining city, at this time the seaside city affords one other declare to fame: house to an American mining engineer named Jennings Cox. Legend has it that Cox liked gimlets — a easy mixture of gin, lime, and sugar. When he ran out of gin, the miner grabbed a bottle of Bacardi, and the normal hand-shaken daiquiri was born.
Gutierrez can even co-host the sold-out “Make It Miami: A Tapas & Craft Cocktail Party” alongside Alessandra Garcia-Lorido, going down Saturday, February 25, on the National Hotel.
Thanks to Burger Beast Sef Gonzalez, the occasion will characteristic the whole lot from Max Santiago’s Max’d Out Donuts and Pastelito Papi’s pastries to Tio Colo’s Cuban ice cream sandwiches and guava hen wings from the “Perro Let Me Tell You” podcast crew and their Ping Pan Pollo popup.
“This is certainly a really Miami-centric occasion, from the Latin-focused meals and cocktails to the music — and now it is on the seaside,” says Gutierrez. “This 12 months, the purveyors we’ve actually scream Miami and actually characterize our tradition. It can be a lot enjoyable to carry that have to individuals who could have by no means had that earlier than.”
Daiquiri Making Master Class. 1:30 to three p.m. Sunday, February 26, at SGWS Wynwood, 2105 N. Miami Ave., Miami. Tickets price $95 at sobewff.org.