When chef Danny Calleros and his 10-person brigade at Ardovino’s Desert Crossing found out he was named a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef in the Southwest, there was little time for celebration.
After all, there was a dinner service to contend with that night.
Such is life in the kitchen.
“It is something that we all worked hard at, even those who worked here before me,” said Calleros, the executive chef at the Sunland Park, N.M. restaurant. “The nomination is great, but this is not a win; it’s just motivation to keep working harder.”
The James Beard Foundation named Calleros a 2026 semifinalist for best chef in the Southwest region of Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Oklahoma.
Three other area chefs, Andrés Pablos from Accá, and husband-and-wife Gabe and Melissa
Padilla, owners of Café Piro, were also named semifinalists. Taconeta was named a semifinalist in the Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program category.
Finalist will be determined March 31 with winners announced at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards Ceremony June 15 in Chicago.
Ardovino’s Desert Crossing is known for its garden setting, wood-fired dishes and regional influences.
Photo by Ruben R.Ramirez
Ardovino’s Desert Crossing, the Italian restaurant known for its garden setting, wood-fired dishes and regional influences, celebrated its 25th anniversary last year.
It is owned by siblings Robert and Marina Ardovino.
“Danny is the best chef we’ve had,” Robert Ardovino said. “He really deserves all the accolades.”
Ardovino is also ecstatic for the other James Beard semifinalist.
“I’m happy the James Beard Foundation has started recognizing the region,” he said. “To bring that notoriety down here is important for all of us.”
Like all great chefs, Calleros, who began his career busing tables for banquets at Ardovino’s and washing dishes at La Cuesta Mexican Food, had to take time away from El Paso to learn to appreciate it and develop new skills.
The Santa Teresa native worked in some of the country’s hottest food cities — Charleston, Austin, Asheville and Nashville — and trained under renowned chef Sean Brock.
“I worked with chef Brock in Charleston,” Calleros said. “There were so many talented people working in that kitchen. When I left, I was a little upset that he didn’t even know my name. I felt unappreciated. As I got older, I realized why should he even know my name if I didn’t do anything for him to recognize my name?”
He later moved to Austin, chasing name recognition and valuable experience.
“It never felt like home,” he said of Austin. “You don’t know what you have until you don’t have it. That’s what I love about El Paso. I didn’t know what this place meant to me until I went away.”
Calleros, 38, is appreciative of what he has learned via his culinary travels.
“I learned Lowcountry cuisine, where Southern meets the ocean, at a family restaurant called The Firehouse Restaurant in the Charleston/Hollywood area of South Carolina,” he said.
Lowcountry food is a distinctive coastal cuisine from South Carolina and Georgia, blending West African, French, Caribbean and Native American traditions.
The cuisine is centered on rice and fresh local seafood such as shrimp, crab and oysters, and okra.
“What we learn outside of El Paso and bring back is part of the reason we are doing amazing things here,” he said. “That’s the reason we are now being recognized on a national level. But I also have a lot of appreciation for the chefs who stayed here and struggled to keep the scene alive.”
Calleros has worked in some of the country’s hottest food cities and trained under renowned chef Sean Brock. He is appreciative of what he has learned via his culinary travel.
Photo by Ruben R.Ramirez
Calleros always loved to cook, spending hours watching his grandmother and mother in the cocina, always willing to help.
“I had dreams of going to college but the counselors flat-out told me I was not going to college,” the Santa Teresa High School graduate said. “They told me I had to choose a skill. I was put in one of those crazy classes where they taught you how to properly fill out an application and how to write a résumé. How to be just another skilled worker.”
Although discouraged, it forced Calleros to follow his passion.
“I love food,” he said. “I would cook at home. I watched a lot of Food Network, a lot of Emeril Lagasse, that’s why I wanted to go to the Scottsdale institute.”
Because of the high cost of tuition at Arizona Culinary Institute in Scottsdale, Calleros enrolled in the Culinary Arts Program at El Paso Community College.
Under the tutelage of EPCC Culinary Arts director, chef Jesus Lugo, Calleros excelled.
“I was young and having fun,” Calleros said. “Ardovino’s was my first real job. I got to hang out with my friends, I got to eat, listen to the rowdy chefs. There was a French chef who worked here when I started. He taught me a lot and showed me around the kitchen. He was very raw. The kitchen back then was pretty brutal. You had to be tough.”
His first opportunity in the kitchen was also at Ardovino’s.
“I was busing tables and I told the chef that I was going to culinary school and I would like to work the pizza station,” he said. “My mom says, ‘Que no habla, Dios no le oye.’ He put me in banquet service where I did a lot of chopping, a lot of filling pastas, then he let me start at the pizza station.”
Calleros’ relationship with the Ardovino family began years before, when he was knee high.
“I remember meeting Mr. Ardovino, their dad,” he said. “I lived down the street and I remember my grandpa dumped a huge pile of wood on their property. He came over and he was upset. I was little kid and I remember him pointing to me and said, ‘And you’re helping, too.’ He made us move the pile.”
He also recalls his mother paying 25 cents to swim in the Ardovino swimming pool.
“All that makes this personal,” he said. “I’m not just another person who got a job here. I grew up here. This is my backyard. This is my happy place. This is my utopia. This is paradise. It’s an escape from the crazy, real world.”
Calleros and Ardovino describe the menu as European-influenced Italian food with a border twist.
“It’s traditional Italian cuisine, meaning it’s prepared using fresh ingredients, that’s what Italy is all about,” Ardovino said. “It’s about the fresh product, not about the sauces. We use what’s available on our farms.”
Ardovino’s menu has always been based on Italian cooking. His parents and great uncle were all traditional Italian chefs.
“Growing up in my grandmother’s kitchen and my mom’s kitchen, it’s always been based on the roots,” Ardovino said. “We still keep local ingredients on the plate and explore new ways to incorporate them in our dishes.”
Entrees include goat cheese stuffed salmon, mushroom pasta and chicken Vincenza. The restaurant also specializes in wood-fired pizzas such as honey pizza, artichoke pizza and pizza rustica made with hot sopressate, pepperoni and mild Italian sausage.
“We can’t help but add ingredients available in town,” Calleros said. “We were raised on chiles, we were raised on rice and pasta. To me, it’s a no brainer to implement those influences of growing up here into what we do. We do it every day.”
Ardovino’s Desert Crossing is known for its garden setting, wood-fired dishes and regional influences.
Photo by Ruben R.Ramirez
Ardovino hopes the James Beard nomination will help border residents appreciate the local culinary scene.
“This reminds people of what we have in our own backyard, and that’s important,” he said. “El Pasoans can be complacent. They’ll save their money and go out of town and spend it like crazy, but we need them to spend it here, at home, otherwise places like mine can’t exist.”
Calleros said the nomination means a lot to him, but he is not ready to take a victory lap.
“Robert and Marina’s ideas, their vision, is something I need to continue carrying on and make other people who stood before me proud of what we are doing,” he said. “It’s a huge, huge responsibility.”
He doesn’t want the recognition to change how he views service.
“Every service is my concern,” he said. “Every person who walks through our doors is important. Sometimes we’ll hear. ‘Make this nice because it’s for a food critic or make that nice because it’s for a VIP.’ Why should I make it nice, just for them? Why not make everything nice for everybody who comes through our doors every weekend?”
The success of the Ardovino kitchen will not be determined by the James Beard Foundation. It will be measured by the smiles and full bellies of its customers.
“We make every service, every day, like we are working towards an achievement,” Calleros said. “I don’t want this to influence my daily ideals. We don’t work to win. If we win, we win. If we lose, we lose. We need to carry on that same motivation and how we felt that high and work towards the next high, the next service. If we work hard, every night, hopefully we can achieve it.”