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Restaurant magazine profiles Never Blue chef

Jesse Roque

By Bill Moss, Published: December 21, 2016

Never Blue chef Jesse Roque, who won a statewide chefs competition last summer, has added national publicity to her portfolio.

Restaurant Hospitality, which covers the restaurant industry, featured Roque in a story and interview in which she talks about Cuban and Mexican influences from her Tampa upbringing that she blends with Southern flavors.

"I’ve been with my husband for 15 years and when we first met, he didn’t speak a word of English and I didn’t speak a word of Spanish," she tells the magazine's Tara Fitzpatrick. "We communicated with a translation dictionary. As a cook, I asked him what kind of food his mom used to make. He grew up in Mexico and his mom is an amazing cook. It was a struggle to get my husband to eat Southern food. If I made shrimp and grits, or pot roast with mashed potatoes and collards, he’d say, 'What is this and why are there no jalapeños?'"

Roque, who was honored as 2016 North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association Chef of the Year at the North Carolina Chef Showdown, named Never Blue for the road between Hendersonville and Saluda where her mother lived. Read the interview here.