Gabe Erales earned two engineering degrees, but he kept thinking about restaurant work. He had started at fifteen, working for his brother at a Steak and Ale in El Paso. Later, while studying at the University of Texas, he continued working in kitchens. The energy, the learning, and the chance to make something kept drawing him back.
Gabe tells Tab how cooking became a way to explore his family's roots in Mexico's Yucatán. He describes developing a voice by learning from other cooks, understanding ingredients, and recognizing the experiences he wanted his own food to express. His engineering background remained useful, giving him a methodical approach to experiments and a way to think about what happens when food meets heat.
Their conversation moves through El Paso, Mexican cuisine, and the people who help shape a cook's career. Tab brings his own experience as a hairdresser into the discussion of learning technique and gradually discovering what feels like your own work. Both recognize the time it takes to build skill and the value of continuing to ask questions after years in a profession.
Gabe also shares a change in direction following the closure of his restaurant, Bacalar. He had already been supporting Hands Offering Hope, an organization providing culinary education and opportunities for young people in Maya communities. Its founders approached him about taking a leadership role. He describes accepting that responsibility and helping relaunch the organization as OÍDO.
He explains the name through a familiar response in a Mexican kitchen: heard, or I hear you. For the organization, it also expressed a commitment to listening to the communities it served. Gabe talks about mentorship, training, fundraising dinners, and helping students move into hospitality work with more experience and support.
The work gave him another reason to return to the region his family came from. He could introduce people, share what he had learned in kitchens, and help a student find a place to use those skills. The next generation of cooks would bring its own experiences, ingredients, and ideas to the table.
