Barquera grew up in Mexico City and credits his mother and grandmother with his love of all things culinary. He remembers the traditional Mexican cuisine that his mother lovingly prepared and also French flavors that his grandmother introduced to the family table. Barquera found his place in the family kitchen at a very young age as he began helping with family meals at age eight. His fascination with ingredients and technique continued to grow so at age 21 he moved to the United States to pursue a culinary career and refine his skills.

Barquera’s first professional kitchen was Ciboulette – working for culinary superstar Jean Banchet of the legendary Le Français in Wheeling, Illinois. He remained with Banchet for 2-1/2 years as a line cook and learned both the basic and the finer points of a successful restaurant kitchen. From Ciboulette, Barquera moved to NAVA where he spent two years under the tutelage of Kevin Rathbun. To this day, Barquera considers chef Rathbun his culinary mentor and also acknowledges that Rathbun had a tremendous influence on both his cooking style and work ethic. And it was also in NAVA’s kitchen that Barquera met his next chef, Scott Serpas. Barquera left NAVA to open Sia’s with Serpas and served as sous chef where he continued to hone his culinary skills. From there he spent time as the chef in the kitchens of Barcelona, Van Gogh’s and Ali-Oli.

In January 2007, Barquera joined the kitchen at The Fickle Pickle and quickly developed an affinity for Southern cuisine. Badgett recognized this passion and selected Barquera as chef de cuisine for his next project – Relish. Barquera enjoys his new position at Relish and is excited to be working with Badgett in creating good food – new Southern cuisine.