Chef Mario Pagan has long been a fixture of Puerto Rico’s restaurant scene, having purchased his first restaurant, Chayote, in the Miramar neighborhood of San Juan in 2000 from late chef Alfredo Ayala, a man Pagan considers to be his mentor. Books and television appearances soon followed, including a stint on The Next Iron Chef where he competed alongside another culinary notable who recently opened a restaurant in our town, Maneet Chauhan.