About Sous Chef Fernando Ortega Born in 1975 in one of the largest cities in the world (Mexico City), Fernando Ortega grew up with a passion for good food, helping his mother with her fast food business.  In 1999, Fernando immigrated to the U.S. landing in the emerging culinary capital of Las Vegas, Nevada.  As luck would have it, he began his career working for Piero Selvaggio’s Valentino Restaurant at The Venetian, working for the James Beard awarded Chef, Luciano Pellegrini.  Starting out as a dishwasher, Fernando’s tenacious work ethic rapidly moved him up through all the prep stations of the highly-acclaimed Valentino kitchen:  preparing soups, sauces, cutting meats and working the fish station while also working the pasta prep station where he learned the intricate skills of making hand-made Italian pastas from scratch. Soon, Fernando’s talent and hard work led him to the position of lead pasta cook on the Valentino line.  Within five years Fernando was able to achieve his goal of learning all the stations in the prestigious Valentino kitchen.  In 2004 Fernando was offered a job as Sous Chef at Gaetano’s Ristorante, where he worked alongside Executive Chef Cunninghame West, helping the restaurant earn the award of “Best Italian Restaurant off the Strip.”   His experience there helped him take the next step in 2006, as he returned again to the Valentino Group as Sous Chef of the then newly-opened Giorgio Restaurant at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, working alongside Executive Chef Nico Chessa.      Now Fernando is taking another step upward in his culinary career by taking on the position of Executive Sous Chef at the Valentino Vin Bar in Houston at the Hotel Derek, where once again he will be reunited with Executive Chef Cunninghame West who he is very happy to work with again.   For Fernando, uprooting his family to move over a thousand miles away was not an easy one, but “my family moved to Houston Texas to be part of the new dream of Piero Selvaggio and Luciano Pellegrini.”  He puts it best when he says “I’m a real example that when you have a dream and you go for it, you can make it real.”