Chef Jonas Favela
Words By Emily Schuermann / Photos by Rachel Waters
I have this nagging, recurring dream, and it is always the same: It is night and I’m driving a car recklessly, speeding down the highway. My headlights won’t turn on. If that’s not bad enough, my eyes won’t open beyond a squint, leaving me virtually blind. In these nightmares, I can feel the force of every curve and dread the impact of every approaching car. To my great distress, I can never figure out how to just open my eyes and slow the car down. Being a practical person, I often choose to believe this dream is a reminder I need to buy a new car. But, another, deeper interpretation is that I should learn to slow down and enjoy the journey.
That sentiment was present when I recently observed Chef Jonas Favela, Executive Chef at his kitchen in the National Hotel in Oklahoma City. When I asked what inspired him to become a chef, he thoughtfully traced his journey through several key milestones. Like many, his path began at home, with family—in his case, in nearby Moore.
Favela’s grandmothers were talented cooks. “Grandma Favela always had a pot of Mexican rice going and as soon as you walked in you were met with the smells of cumin, tomatoes, garlic, and chicken stock. She was ready to feed anybody who walked through her door,” he said. She would make the most delicious thin, crispy oatmeal wafer cookies. When I was 10, it was the first real recipe I tried to make.”
In middle school, Favela moved to Las Vegas to live with his father, a blackjack dealer. Seeing the city’s streets lined with rows of super-buffet restaurants, destination restaurants, and chef-owned kitchens ultimately galvanized his culinary career, and he later landed in Austin, cooking in kitchens at Pearl’s Oyster Bar and TGI Friday’s.
Ultimately, Favela returned to OKC where local restaurateur Chris Lauer hired him at the Metro Wine Bar. It was the greatest leap of his culinary career. “I worked with Chef Sears, who became one of my biggest inspirations and greatest mentors,” Favela says. “I wanted to be like him. He was nice and talented; he taught me to butcher properly and how to plan wine dinners and so much more.”
His next milestone came when he was hired as the Executive Chef at the Ranch Steakhouse. “During those years, I learned how to dry age my own meat and all about specialty cuts of beef,” he remembers. “It’s where I met my mentor Sheri Westover, who taught me how to be a good leader and the importance of hospitality, both to the guest and to the staff.”
Presently, Favela serves as the Executive Chef for Tellers and Stock & Bond, the two restaurants in downtown’s Art Deco monument, the National Hotel. He curates and prepares delicious, memorable steakhouse-style sides and perfectly prepared prime steaks.
In the Stock & Bond kitchen, Favela prepared his grandmother’s Crispy Oatmeal Wafer Cookie and Chili Colorado Sauce recipes. The cookie recipe he held on a sticky note required conversions from imperial to metric and adjusted cooking times and temperature to accommodate the commercial convection oven. After completing the calculations, he paused and exclaimed, to no-one in particular, “But don’t you dare use any fancy pure vanilla or vanilla bean—it has to be imitation vanilla! Grandma would not tolerate it!” He looked at me. “I hope these cookies turn out right, it’s been at least eight years since I’ve made them. Let me call my mom real quick and check …” The phone rang unanswered. “She always answers her phone, and this is the one time she doesn’t!”
Ten minutes later, the cookies were perfectly crisp and “just like grandma’s,” Favela said upon first bite. He tried to reach his mom again; this time she picked up. “I did it!” he exclaimed. Certainly, his grandmother, now deceased, would have been proud to watch as he delivered a bite to each person in the kitchen.
Growing up, Grandma Favela’s Chili Colorado Sauce seemed like a magic trick to her grandson. He couldn’t believe how a paltry list of ingredients, some hot water, and a blender transformed the few components into a delicious and versatile sauce. When his grandmother made it in his childhood, he enjoyed it over cheese enchiladas. Today, you can find it served at Stock & Bond brushed over a New York Strip.
Our long interview felt like a whirlwind. It ended with me sitting across from the chef with a steak and a plate of cookies between us. Over bites of Chili Colorado-coated New York Strip and oatmeal cookies, among stories about his grandmother and discussing a few new menu ideas, I realized he had spent most of our interview talking about the joy of working with others and his appreciation for his mentors. I reminisced through my own mentors and milestones, thinking, like Chef Favella, that it had all happened so fast. Maybe I should slow down and enjoy the ride.
