Gabe Erales

Executive Chef, Comedor Restaurant

Hailing from the beautiful border town of El Paso, TX. Gabe was raised influenced by the Mexican culture around him. He was especially impacted by the food he grew up eating cooked by his Mother and Father within a family that moved to the US from the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico.

Gabe is a graduate UT Austin (BS Mechanical Engineering), University of Oklahoma (Masters of Science, Mechanical Engineering and Le Cordon Bleu (Culinary Arts). He worked in some of Austin’s most notable kitchens as well outside of Texas in both Copenhagen and Mexico. Gabe’s strongest culinary influences came from Noma’s Chef Rene Redzpepi, Mexico’s Diana Kennedy and Dai Due’s Jesse Griffiths.

He was recently crowned the “Prince of Pork” two years in a row after winning the 2018 and 2019 Cochon555 Culinary Competition in Austin. He is currently the Executive Chef of the recently opened Comedor Restaurant, a modern regional Mexican restaurant in the heart of downtown Austin that was voted Best New Restaurant by Austin Monthly Magazine, Best New Restaurant in America by Esquire Magazine, and Best Restaurant in Texas by Texas Monthly. At Comedor Restaurant, Gabe helped create the city’s first service industry run club (@comedorrunclub) with Co-Owner Chef Philip Speer to help shift promote industry wellness.

Gabe continues to honor the timeless and traditional techniques and ingredients of Mexican cuisine in his cooking and sourcing. He has created a personal brand of apparel called “ERA” that seeks to promote the preservation and use of Mexican landrace heirloom corn benefiting the Fundacion Tortilla in Mexico.

Gabe was voted as one of Tribeza’s “Magnificent 7” People of the Year for helping shape Austin’s community into a better place for 2019