When chef Michael Diaz de Leon took over Bruto in 2020, he was handed “4 partitions, a fire oven and a few induction burners,” he mentioned.
Three years later, Diaz de Leon has reworked Bruto right into a Michelin-starred restaurant with a Michelin sustainability award and a 2023 James Beard nomination.
“Nobody actually understands how a lot work goes into establishing a Michelin-starred restaurant,” Diaz de Leon mentioned. “I didn’t take over a Michelin-starred restaurant. I began it from scratch. It required three years of 70-hour work weeks.”
However on Dec. 17, Diaz de Leon cooked his final meal within the Bruto kitchen. He’s leaving Denver restaurateur and chef Kelly Whitaker’s Id Est Hospitality Group to satisfy his lifelong dream of opening his personal restaurant within the Mile Excessive Metropolis.
“I’m pleased to have left my mark on the Denver meals scene, however this isn’t the top,” Diaz de Leon mentioned. “I’m going to come back again stronger. I can promise you that.”
Diaz de Leon mentioned he all the time deliberate to maneuver on from Bruto, Whitaker’s downtown Denver Mexican-inspired omakase restaurant, after three years. “I had already made the choice to maneuver ahead earlier than Michelin, and that simply occurred to be the cherry on high,” he mentioned.
Whitaker and his group are nonetheless looking for their subsequent Bruto govt chef, in line with Diaz de Leon.
For his final Bruto menu, Diaz de Leon featured the primary dish he ever created for the restaurant: fireside bread with mole blanco dipping sauce, which ended up touchdown on The New York Instances’ 2023 Finest Restaurant Dish record. “It was an amazing ending to such a lovely chapter,” he mentioned.
Diaz de Leon set an ordinary for different fine-dining institutions in Denver when he stepped on the scene together with his visually beautiful dishes, elevated palette and keenness for sustainability. He’s happy with the younger cooks he’s helped push within the kitchen, who Diaz de Leon mentioned “are actually a few of the strongest cooks within the metropolis” and “can get into any door now with Bruto on their resume.”
However “I’m human, not Superman, and all of us ultimately get drained,” he mentioned. Now, Diaz de Leon goes to take a while off to journey for inspiration.
He’s headed for a 14-day journey to South America on Christmas, the place he’ll spend most of his time cooking at numerous occasions. Then he plans to go to his hometown in Texas to get again to his roots earlier than zipping off to Mexico in February, the place he’ll take part within the ticketed “Rockies within the Riviera” dinner collection in Tulum with different Denver cooks.
“I’m an artist, and if I’m caught within the kitchen six days per week, I’m not inventive,” he mentioned.
As soon as he’s accomplished racking up frequent flyer miles, Diaz de Leon is wanting ahead to a little bit of relaxation. “I must be a dad for a bit of bit,” he mentioned. “It’s time for me to get again to my household. My youngsters deserve their dad on the weekends and weeknights.”
In April or Could, he plans to host some ticketed underground pop-up dinners to arrange for the eventual opening of his personal restaurant in 2025.
Diaz de Leon hasn’t landed on a reputation or location, however his aim is to “open the most effective eating places in America, no matter accolades,” he mentioned. The restaurant, like Bruto, will characteristic a wood-fired menu, a masa program and a small fermentation lab.
“I wish to construct Bruto on steroids,” he added.
Diaz de Leon is presently engaged on constructing his hospitality group, dubbed Pinchi Umami, the identical identify he used for his pop-up dinners earlier than beginning at Bruto in 2020.
“I wish to construct a restaurant the place you may get Michelin-style service, however it’s reasonably priced and approachable for anybody within the metropolis,” Diaz de Leon mentioned. “I would like my daughter Luna’s instructor to have the ability to sit down subsequent to Governor Polis, and make it particular for anybody who walks within the door.”
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