CHEF JOSE VALINES

Private Chef-Live Cooking Demonstrations-Event & Menu Consulting-Corporate & VIP Catering • Pop-Up Dining Experiences-Culinary Team Building Workshops-Food Styling for Photo/Video

Miami, FL, United States

Chef Jose Valines is a Culinary Institute of America‑trained chef with roots in San Juan, Puerto Rico and a career that's run through Miami's Coyo Taco and Gigi, New York's Bernie's Holiday Restaurant, and now Florida's Space Coast at Time Out Sports Bar Plus. Co‑founder of the hospitality consulting group Cooking Militia, Jose brings kitchen craft and genuine hospitality together — for private events, live cooking experiences, and anyone who wants their guests to taste the difference.

About

Jose Valines started in professional kitchens at 12 years old, cleaning seafood — the beginning of a hospitality education that really started at home. His parents volunteered at soup kitchens, and watching them serve people shaped how he thinks about food to this day: "genuine hospitality really had an impact on how I cook."

By his teens he was learning the Brigade system and basic culinary fundamentals, groundwork that carried him into the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Before and during that training, he put in 70‑plus‑hour weeks as a line cook at a French bistro in San Juan — grueling hours that also gave him his business partner, forged over shared shifts and downtime at the bistro.

His career took him through Miami, where he served as Chef de Cuisine at Coyo Taco and Executive Chef at Gigi, before he was named Executive Chef of Bernie's Holiday Restaurant, BHR Caterers, and Crust Italian Eatery in Rock Hill, New York in 2018 — praised by ownership for "the creativity, experience, and drive" to elevate the restaurants' seasonal, farm‑to‑table program. Since then his path has run back through Florida kitchens, and he now leads the kitchen at Time Out Sports Bar Plus in Cocoa Village.

Alongside his restaurant work, Jose co‑founded Cooking Militia, a hospitality consulting group built to educate and develop kitchen staff — chef apparel, tools, and training programs aimed at food‑cost control and profitability, "so both employee and employer win." It's the same philosophy he brings to any kitchen he runs: keep the energy positive and the environment healthy, because "the customer will be able to taste the passion — or lack of it."

For arts and entertainment bookings, Jose is available for private chef experiences, interactive live cooking demonstrations, event and pop‑up menu development, corporate and VIP catering, food styling for photo and video shoots, and kitchen/hospitality team‑building workshops through Cooking Militia.