Douglas Rodriguez is the executive chef and co-owner of PATRIA, New York's premier NUEVO LATINO restaurant, was born in New York to Cuban parents and moved to Miami in his early teens. After high school he continued his culinary career at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island and returned to South Florida to ply his craft. The critically acclaimed Yuca Restaurant is where chef Rodriguez set the Miami restaurant scene on fire with his innovative NUEVO LATINO cuisine.

Now the "MANHATTAN LATIN" is blazing a trail with his cuisine at PATRIA in New York City. Opened since February 1994, chef Rodriguez already has the critics raving. An endless source of energy, he has produced a cooking video in Spanish and is working on a dual language cookbook. Chef Rodriguez has been nominated twice for the "Rising Star Chef" by the James Beard Foundation.