Jezabel Careaga Loves Timeless Music, Food With Emotion, and the Jazz of Onions Cooking

1. When you shift from the chaos of dinner service to cooking at home, what song helps you reset?

Jezabel Careaga: “Pont des Arts” by St Germain.

2. If you could DJ a party with only songs that shaped your career as a chef, what three tracks would never leave the setlist?

“The Four Seasons” – Vivaldi
“Dos Gardenias” – Buena Vista Social Club
“El Mecánico” – Edmundo Arias

3. What’s your approach to the music program in your restaurant?

I always want it to feel like you’ve just walked into a hotel lobby in Miami — nostalgic, worldly, and warm. Our playlists include Argentine bands, plus music in French, Italian, and Portuguese. A lot of it is informed by St Germain, Buena Vista Social Club, Bandalos Chinos, and Ornella Vanoni.

4. Do you believe certain ingredients “sound” a certain way?

Yes, absolutely. Cooking has rhythm. The sound of onions hitting hot oil is jazz to me: spontaneous, alive, and full of energy. Kneading dough is like classical music — steady, meditative, and layered. And when a sauce quietly simmers, that’s ambient — time slowing down, everything finding harmony.

5. What was your first live music show or concert that you attended

Chayanne, for my sweet 16 birthday.

6. What is the one dish on your current menu that feels like a perfect song — timeless, balanced, and hard to improve?

Empanadas. They’re in their best iteration ever: quality ingredients, the right amount of salt and spices, juicy, with a crusty dough. Like standing on the Pont des Arts overlooking the sunset in Paris, listening to St Germain.

7. What genre of music would you compare your cooking style to?

Classical. I’m very much a purist in the kitchen — I work with the best ingredients possible and don’t believe in forcing fusion. Simplicity done right is timeless.

8. Podcasts or music in the gym?

Eminem!

9. Catching up with an old friend at a restaurant, do you choose karaoke, a vinyl bar, or a piano bar?

Vinyl bar first, piano bar second. Karaoke is not my type.

10. What’s your one wish for music in restaurants?

That they choose music the way they choose ingredients. It matters so much. I’ve had incredible meals at renowned restaurants ruined by odd pop music.

11. If your cooking career had liner notes, what would the hidden track be?

“Persistence.” It’s the song that plays quietly in the background of every milestone — years of work, mistakes, learning, and showing up again the next day.

12. What pantry items and vinyl album would you bring on a desert island?

Salt, dry pasta, ají molido from Northwest Argentina, and good olive oil. Vinyl album: Ray Charles’ “Georgia on My Mind.” It’s timeless, grounded, and full of emotion — just like a good meal.

13. Digital, vinyl, CD, or cassettes?

Digital!

14. What do you value most in restaurants?

The passion — the driving force behind it all — that translates into delicious food, a friendly ambiance, and good music.

15. If you could eat through a city for a day, where would you go?

San Sebastián. I’ve done it a few times and can never get enough.

16. What’s your favorite place to get a pizza in your city?

Pizzata Pizzeria & Birreria!

17. Favorite cookbook?

A few, but I’ll choose “Basque Country” by Marti Buckley and “Tartine” by Elisabeth Prueitt.

18. Favorite music video?

“Freedom! ’90” – George Michael, with the good-looking John Pearson.

19. Your ideal dinner party guests, dead or alive (but it must be music people)?

Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen.

20. The one thing you can’t resist splurging on when you go out?

Delicious food — it’s always about the food. The bite that leaves you breathless, the meal you’d happily have all over again.