Before finishing in the top five among 16 of the brightest and best chefs in the nation on “Top Chef,” Manny Barella had already signed on to become the culinary director for the up-and-coming eatertainment concepts Camp Pickle and Jaguar Bolera, created by Punch Bowl Social founder Robert Thompson. But we’ll come back to that later.
Born in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, Barella thought he was going to become a lawyer, and attended law school for three years before leaving to enroll in a culinary program to follow his true passion—”food, not cooking necessarily,” he admits. “When I was in law school, my moral compass didn’t align with what I was going to be required to do if I wanted to be successful … I’d rather have my career be about making somebody’s else’s day better.”
Growing up, Barella always had a healthy curiosity about the dishes his mom cooked up. “I would come home from school, we had this little game where I would open the door and I would tell her what she cooked for lunch just by smelling it,” he fondly recalls. “Food was the thing that I wanted to be surrounded by.”
The catalyst for Barella moving to the U.S.? A bad day at work, combined with finding out his girlfriend at the time was cheating on him. It was “my equivalent of getting bangs, you know. I’m out. I need to leave the country,” he jokes. Barella applied for a J-1 visa and landed a job at the Gold Strike Casino Resort in catering services in Tunica, Mississippi, of all places.
Two years later, he moved to Atlanta after securing a role as chef de partie at the St. Regis Hotel. His talent and ambition lead him to prestigious kitchens like the luxurious Sea Island Resort in Georgia, the five-star Calistoga Ranch in Napa Valley, and Napa’s Michelin-rated Solage Resort. His adventurous spirit later brought him to Boulder, Colorado, where he secured a position at the award-winning Frasca Food & Wine as chef de partie, before advancing to sous chef at Uchi in Denver.
Eventually, Barella was offered the chance to become an executive chef/partner by helping to rebrand the New American restaurant Acorn into a more casual Mexican concept, which became Bellota, Spanish for “acorn.” The restaurant opened in late October 2020 with a menu inspired by the cuisine of northern Mexico.
In 2022, Barella was recognized as a James Beard semifinalist in the Emerging Chef category. “I feel that when I started leaning a little bit into my culture, into Mexican food, that’s when my career just started skyrocketing. 2022 changed my life; that’s the year the awards started coming, the restaurant started making money,” he says.
Just a month after Barella agreed to be the culinary director for Camp Pickle and Jaguar Bolera, a casting producer reached out to Barella on Instagram to see if he would be interested in trying out at an open call for “Top Chef.” He asked his team what they thought he should do, and they told him to go for it. “Let’s see where this takes us, that was my mindset. They’re reaching out, and that in itself is a privilege,” he says. The timing was also ideal, since the eatertainment restaurants weren’t open yet.
In the first episode of season 21 set in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Barella won the first challenge after his green pozole with chicken and charred salsa verde impressed all the judges. “In the moment where Kristen (Kish) said my name that I won the first challenge, you can see it on my face,” he says. “I remember going back to my room and having that mirror moment where you’re like, maybe I can do this.”
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“That was eye opening,” he continues. “It just solidifies the thought, ‘my food can be good.’ We have good days and bad days, but knowing I can make food that is worthy of winning a challenge against 14 other chefs from ‘Top Chef,’ and with that being Mexican food, it is something that I will remember for the rest of my life. That was a very special moment.”
One of the hardest parts of being on the show was not being able to be there for family when his mother-in-law needed open heart surgery, and his fiance (now wife) got COVID and was planning a wedding all by herself. “Nobody prepares you for it,” he says. “You have these things in the back of your head, while from the other side, you’re getting all the stress and pressure, and the rewards at the same time, of ‘Top Chef.’”
At the same time, the camaraderie he built with the other contestants on his season have resulted in lasting friendships, which he says is one of the most rewarding outcomes from being on the show. Dan Jacobs and Kevin D’Andrea even attended his wedding in July, and some of his other “cheftestants” were invited but couldn’t make it.
Barella is also able to take the lessons he learned and translate them into his role at Camp Pickle, a national park and camp-themed social dining destination set to debut in Colorado; and Jaguar Bolera, an eatertainment venue featuring duckpin bowling, darts, foosball, and karaoke, which opened its first location at the end of May in Raleigh, North Carolina. One of those learnings? “Don’t hyperfixate,” he says. “Sometimes you’ve got to take a step back and see what other options do I have instead of, this is what I want to do, and you have that tunnel vision, where there’s so many other paths that you can take that could be not necessarily better or worse, just different.”
The ability to pivot quickly and think on his feet helped him when developing the menu at Jaguar Bolera. Inspired by the jaguar’s historical range from the Yucatan to the Carolinas, the culinary offerings range from lamb birria taquitos and Mexican tortas to shrimp & grits with habanero crema, creamy pepper grits, cotija, and cilantro.
Whenever supply chain challenges or delays come his way, he has a backup plan. “That is one of the biggest lessons in ‘Top Chef’—something will go wrong, and you just need to be expecting it,” he explains.
In addition to helping bring two new eatertainment concepts to life, Barella also serves as president of the Hispanic Chefs Association in Colorado, where he champions authentic Mexican cuisine and contributes his culinary talents to organizations that nurture emerging talent in the community.
A second Jaguar Bolera location is set to open soon in Atlanta, followed by Camp Pickle restaurants in Denver and Tulsa, Oklahoma, next year. “It is a path of growth that has completely changed my life. The things that I’m learning with this new opportunity are the things that excite me,” he adds. “All the work that happens for this to exist—it is fascinating to learn how to open a restaurant at this magnitude and on the other side of the country.”
This article is part of FSR’s “Top Chefs: Where Are They Now” October cover feature, which highlights lessons learned by eight former contestants and their post-show careers.
