La Cocinoteca - 37120 León

Juan Emilio Villaseñor is a Mexican chef from León, Guanajuato.

His first contact with the kitchen was in 1990 at the age of 17, as a barbecue in a small smoked-food restaurant.

He started taking it more seriously in 1996, and in 2010 he and his family started the "La Cocinoteca" project, which is now a benchmark restaurant for gastronomy in León, Guanajuato.

In 2014 he was appointed ambassador chef of the cuisine of Guanajuato and since then to date he has traveled as his representative through Asia, Europe, North and South America  cooking at events as a representative of the gastronomy of his state and of his city. He has carried out gastronomic research on the cuisine of León and the Central Mexican Highlands.

He is currently a Fire Master of the Mexican Grill Society, he is an instructor of cooking techniques with charcoal and smoke; He has participated in several world championships such as Memphis in May and other events inside and outside the country. In February of this year they were ranked # 32 among 500 teams in the World BBQ at the Rodeo Houston in Texas.

His education has been formed in travel, in research, in markets, in experiences lived around the world, in constant practice,  in the books and in the  knowledge of techniques that he has learned for many years in different countries.  

In 2019 he won the second prize for the most traditional tapa in the World Tapas Championship in the city of Valladolid, Spain.

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He is currently the chef who runs La Cocinoteca in the city of León, Guanajuato. Awarded in 2019 as the best hotel restaurant in Mexico by the magazine "Travel and Leasiure". It is the first restaurant in León, Guanajuato that is part of The Guide to the 120 best restaurants in Mexico by Mexican Culinary.

La Cocinoteca is a benchmark in the cuisine of Guanajuato and León.  In addition, in 2020 he was awarded as chef of the year in the Mexico gastronomic guide 2020 for his contribution to the gastronomy of Mexico during the pandemic.