In upscale dining, every small detail matters, from the feel inside the restaurant and how it changes as the sun sets to the music underscoring conversations between friends, family and lovers. Most importantly, the details of the dish as it arrives at the table.
What we often don’t see are the people behind the artwork.
At The Mariner in downtown Corpus Christi, a floating tapas bar with an upscale date night feel, the hands making those final tweezed-on touches, the eyes that see the balance and structure of a dish before it goes out into the world, all belong to Sous Chef Alec Montalvo. After three years at the Republic of Texas, Montalvo’s arrival at The Mariner in April of this year reimagined the presentation of its Mediterranean-inspired dishes.
With the recent departure of longtime executive chef Eric Morin, Montalvo and the small kitchen team find themselves manning the ship in the meantime—and with no dip in the quality of their dishes.
“A big part of our success is just teamwork,” Montalvo said. “We all work really well together, and everyone’s very passionate. Everyone’s ready and wants to learn.”
A student of the job, Montalvo learned his earliest lessons not inside a culinary school, but in his childhood kitchens. He grew up in a Mexican household where food represented family, connection and home. His parents guided him through his first dish, chorizo and eggs, and eggs prepared a thousand different ways remain his comfort food to this day. He learned about baked goods and chile anchos from his aunts, picked up knife skills from his father and first fine-tuned his creative vision through his mom.
“Growing up, my aunts, my grandma and my mom [were] big gardeners,” he said. “My mom [and] her best friends would make these big, beautiful wreaths. That taught me about composition and balance. It’s a big part of making anything look nice; the [use of] different textures, different colors.”
Montalvo continued to build skills in kitchens across Corpus Christi—thanks in large part to the chefs who stayed late to guide him—but his real graduation into the world of fine dining came during his time at the Republic of Texas. Starting as a line cook at the bottom of the food chain, Montalvo’s skills and curious nature made him the perfect student for then-executive chef Devin Falcon. By the end of his first year, under Falcon’s guidance, Montalvo rose to sous chef of what he considers the “benchmark” for fine dining in the city. The restaurant’s pace and standards turned his three years there into a crash course in the profession, a necessary but difficult step in his journey as a self-taught chef.
“I love the Republic of Texas,” he said, struggling to find the right words. Despite the lessons learned, the constant volume took a toll on his love for the craft. “It was one of the hardest things to leave, but it was also killing my spirit and my soul. [The Mariner] has relit my passion.”
Jumping from a kitchen serving upward of 300 guests for its dinner service to a small team focused on shareable plates for fewer than 100 guests on busy nights gave Montalvo a much-needed sense of freedom. Without the pressure of perfection and timing on that scale, Montalvo’s ability to slow down and focus on the minuscule details of each plate leaving the window has sparked his creative eye once more.
In the first five months of his tenure, Montalvo brainstormed entirely new plating for the ever-changing menu—reimagining everything from the sauce consistency of the braised short rib to plate sizes and how they fit together on the table.
“People eat with their eyes first,” he said. “All the recipes, all the flavors [are] good, so now it’s up to me to make sure it looks good as well.”
The culmination of years of training, 16-hour days, thousands of plated dishes and even more finely chopped ingredients sits on every plate that leaves the window at The Mariner. Montalvo knows most won’t notice the fine details, that most will devour the plate in less than five minutes. He notices them, though, and that commitment helps raise the bar of our local culinary scene.
Contact: harrisonslanding.net/the-mariner | @themarinercc
