Jonah Miller

Listen to the interview to learn how Jonah fell in love with Spanish cuisine, what it's like opening your own restaurant in your twenties, and why he thinks you shouldn't go to culinary school.

Long before he opened Huertas, chef Jonah Miller was just a 13-year-old kid enjoying a meal with his friend Nat at Chanterelle, David and Karen Waltuck's legendary New York City restaurant. Nat had received a gift card to the French restaurant, which closed in 2009, as a bar mitzvah present. "Two thirteen-year-old guys, dinner at Chanterelle...they were surprised to see us. But very welcoming," Jonah said.

A week later, Jonah and Nat wrote the Waltucks a thank-you letter and asked if they could intern in the kitchen. The teens spent the next two summers at Chanterelle. Before they played baseball at night, they could be found honing their knife skills, prepping vegetables, and learning how to butcher meat and fish at Chanterelle.

"That was a perfect, perfect place to start. I've been very lucky. It was a perfect place for us to get our feet wet," Jonah said.

Set on a career as a chef, Jonah stayed in his hometown to study Food and Restaurant Management at New York University and supplemented his classes with hands-on work at Gramercy Tavern and Savoy. After working at Maialino for three years, he recently opened Huertas, a Spanish restaurant in Manhattan's East Village.