The Vilcek Foundation launches a new manga biography highlighting the scents, stories, and experiences that inspire Vilcek Creative Promise Prize-winning chef and restaurateur Fabián von Hauske Valtierra. This manga is the fifth in a series produced by the foundation in collaboration with artist Hiroki Otsuka. The series uses bold images drawn from the lives and work of immigrant scientists and artists, and imaginative narratives to share our prizewinners’ stories with audiences of all ages. 

Bold tastes

Chef Fabián von Hauske Valtierra is known for taking a bold and playful approach to his work. His creations—from creme bruleé donuts with crisp exteriors that beg to be cracked by a spoon to deconstructed salads with smooth spirals of piped pistachio cream—have delighted diners in New York for more than a decade. In this manga, the chef recounts how his experiences in Mexico and the United States inspired one of his most famous desserts: a confection composed of cream, strawberries, and lavender. 

Born in Mexico, von Hauske Valtierra first moved to the United States to attend the French Culinary Institute in 2007. He then worked in restaurants in Europe before returning to New York to open the Michelin-starred Contra in 2013, followed by Wildair in 2018. In summer 2023, with business partner Jeremiah Stone, von Hauske Valtierra opened Day June Luncheonette in Hensonville, New York.

If you enjoy this manga, we encourage you to check out our others on architect and urban planner Denise Scott Brown, molecular biologist Mohamed Abou Donia, musician and filmmaker Blitz Bazawule, and neuroscientist Viviana Gradinaru.

Vilcek Foundation Manga

Launched in 2021 and produced in collaboration with Hiroki Otsuka, these biographical mangas are part of the Vilcek Foundation’s initiatives to use art and creative publications to further our mission: to celebrate and raise awareness of immigrant contributions to the sciences and society. 

The mangas use visual and narrative storytelling elements to highlight our immigrant prizewinners’ lives and achievements, and the places, people, and experiences that inspired them along the way. Presented in an accessible graphic format, the mangas are suitable for audiences of all ages, allowing children and adults alike to connect with these inspiring individuals’ stories. 

Fabián von Hauske Valtierra

Fabián von Hauske Valtierra is a chef and restaurateur. Born in Mexico, he received the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Culinary Arts in 2019 for combining diverse, international culinary influences into a singular voice that is ambitious, experimental, and accessible.

Hiroki Otsuka

Born in Japan, Otsuka has been a professional manga artist since 1994. His work has appeared in major Japanese publications and in galleries and art fairs in New York, Tokyo, and Basel. In 2007, Otsuka was one of 33 Japanese contemporary artists featured in the Japan Society’s centennial exhibition “Making a Home”; and in 2010 he was the Japan Society’s first-ever manga artist-in-residence during the exhibition “Graphic Heroes: Magic Monsters.”

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Manga Transcript

Fabián von Hauske Valtierra: 2019 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Culinary Arts

Your dessert with Strawberry & Lavender… It’s what we came for! Where did you get the idea, chef?

I don’t know! But I remember these car trips as a boy… On the way to visit family in Léon… We’d pass by strawberry fields in Irapuato—the most famous in all of Mexico.

My boyhood fantasy was that we might stop there and eat our fill! I had never tasted a strawberry in my life.

We never did stop. Actually, I didn’t taste a strawberry until I came to the United States.

You mean, your dessert didn’t start with a special flavor?

A dessert idea can start anywhere, I think. Sure, a taste. But also an emotion. A memory. A feeling of childhood joy. It’s funny what sparks a chef’s imagination.

On our car trips around Guanajuato… we passed churches that burned lavender at Christmastime. 

In my mind, the lavender complemented the phantom strawberries from Irapuato. In all my dishes, food and people meet in serendipitous ways.

That’s why I love working in New York City. It’s a diverse melting pot of cultures and palates.

In all my restaurants, the menus are a narrative and the experience is a conversation. A place for culinary surprises, inspired by creamsicles… or popcorn… or Gatorade! 

It’s a little home where diners can experience the creativity and contrasts that make New York great.

Wow! Another one of your desserts just went viral. Your Strawberry & Lavender was called… one of the best desserts in the world! 

So tell us, chef: What’s the art of the dessert? I mean a James Beard Award nomination before you were 30… Top honors from Zagat and Food & Wine. You must have a secret!

No secret, friends. But there’s one rule I do stand by: a dessert should make people happy!

Born in Mexico City, Chef Fabián von Hauske Valtierra is now based in New York, where he is known for his culinary innovations with restaurants like Wildair, Day June, and Mighties Burgers.