Cuba Cuba's Enrique Socarras on integrity, stomaching raw bacon and his new Boulder restaurant

Lori Midson

This is part one of my interview with Enrique Socarras, executive chef of Cuba Cuba. Part two of that interview will run in this space tomorrow.

Enrique Socarras puffs on a cigar, intently studying the squiggles of smoke that swirl through the air. Cuban cigars are all they're cracked to be, he confirms, but Miami, where he grew up -- and where cigars are as ubiquitous as babes in bikinis -- is not. "Aside from partying and the beach, Miami really sucks," says Socarras, the executive chef/co-owner of Cuba Cuba who was born to Cuban exiles.

One of them, his mother, introduced him to the world of Cuban cuisine. "I come from a family of women, all of whom were great cooks -- my grandmother and great-grandmother, and especially my mother -- and I was exposed at a really early age to a variety of ethnic foods, especially Cuban, and I quickly developed a passion for food," recalls Socarras. But it wasn't until college that he actually considered becoming a chef. "I studied visual arts in middle school, high school and college, but in college, I was going out to eat a lot, taking girls on dates and seeing art as food on plates, and I realized that as much as I loved painting, you can't taste a painting." So, he says, "I decided to create food and get paid for it, because I didn't want to be a broke artist."

He worked the Miami restaurant circuit for several years, landing his first job as a prep cook and dishwasher at a neighborhood restaurant. "I was instantly intrigued by the organized confusion of a professional kitchen, and I knew this is where I belonged and wanted to be," says Socarras, who quickly moved up in the ranks, eventually landing a gig where he cooked for several high-profilers -- the royal family of Spain and the Dalai Lama among them.

But Miami eventually got the better of Socarras, and in 2000 he fled to Denver to help his sister open Cuba Cuba. "I knew I needed to get the hell out of Miami -- away from all the plastic, shallow, superficial closed-mindedness -- and my sister was already living in Colorado and wanted to either open a boutique or a Cuban restaurant and bar, and she decided on the restaurant, so I packed up and moved to Denver," remembers Socarras, who originally committed to a six-month stint to set up the staff, design the menu and get the restaurant up and running.