MARC QUIÑONES
EXECUTIVE CHEF / PARTNER
Level 5 Restaurant/Hotel Chaco
Classically trained at Le Cordon Bleu at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute, Marc Quiñones traveled the country before taking on the stoves at Bien Sur at Sandia Resort and Casino, the Inn and Spa at Loretto, and MÁS at Albuquerque’s Hotel Andaluz. In March 2023, the Bronx and New Mexico–raised chef took charge of the kitchen at Level 5, the rooftop restaurant at Hotel Chaco, and immediately started to shift the restaurant’s menu to modern, seasonal New Mexican.
Quiñones’s commitment to hard work, passion for cooking, and personal charisma are evident to fans who watched him compete on the Food Network’s Cutthroat Kitchen, Chopped, and Beat Bobby Flay and FOX’s Hell’s Kitchen. His work has been recognized at home too, with multiple awards for best chef in the city and a 2024 nomination for Best Chef Southwest from the James Beard Foundation.
Which dishes on your menu best capture your culinary philosophy? At Level 5, I call our food “modern New Mexican ranch cuisine” because our New Mexican ancestors were ranchers and hunters. One dish that speaks to the ranch cuisine tradition is our cast-iron asparagus calabacitas, which feature both Chimayó red chile and Hatch green chile along with cheddar cheese from Tucumcari, New Mexico. Another dish that directly correlates to my philosophy is our pork belly with a Native American Anasazi bean ragout and toasted corn.
Do you have a guilty pleasure stashed away in your home refrigerator or pantry? My guilty pleasure has always been Polska kielbasa sausage with fried eggs and a burnt tortilla slathered with butter late at night. I always have a rope of Kielbasa stashed away in my fridge!
How do you relax at the end of a long service? I am a marathon runner, so before — or many times after — a long service, a nice jog followed by reading some type of culinary literature or watching a food documentary always cleanses my mind. What brought you to New Mexico? What makes you stay?
We came because my grandfather, who was living out here, was terminally ill. I was 13 years old and moved into the Barelas neighborhood of Albuquerque. After a stint back in New York City after high school, and college in Scottsdale, Arizona, I came back to Albuquerque in 2007. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: I might be from the Bronx, New York, but New Mexico has made me the chef that I am, and I will always be supremely privileged and honored to represent this great state with pride.
In Hotel Chaco I 2000 N.W. Bellamah Ave. I Albuquerque 505-318-3998 I hotelchaco.com
Patricia West-Barker was a restaurant reviewer and edited the food section of “The New Mexican” for more than a decade. Discovering new sources of delicious dishes is still one of her greatest pleasures.