Meet the Maker: Chef Manuel Benitez

Meet Chef Manny, a Los Angeles native with an extensive culinary background and a gift for creating ethnic dishes with a contemporary twist. Our founder, Jennifer Parra, was fortunate enough to work with Chef Manny during her restaurant career and was thrilled to partner with him on developing the menu for Mercado Lula’s original iteration… a Mexican inspired box lunch concept for catering. 

Manny spent much of his culinary career in New York and Los Angeles, from fine dining to fast casual concepts and currently works as a culinary consultant. He's also super dad to two adorable daughters. 

We are pleased to now offer some of the recipes created by Chef Manny for Mercado Lula here on our blog, such as the Fuerza Bowl, Esquites Salad, Citrus Marinated Shrimp Torta, and much more to come. ¡Buen provecho!