welcome, chef

Veteran chef boasting global chops takes over Medical Center hotel and restaurant

A new face will lead the culinary direction at the InterContinental Houston – Medical Center.

Harol Ortiz, a native of Venezuela with a career that spans the globe, will head the hotel's culinary program. That includes menus for Safina's, the InterContinental's modern Mediterranean eatery, its cosmopolitan craft cocktail space, The Naturalist Café & Lounge Bar, along with overseeing culinary aspects of the hotel's events, and functions.

“Chef Ortiz has the expertise, creativity, and skill to execute the premier culinary experience guests have come to expect from the InterContinental Houston – Medical Center,” said Doug Kelly, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing in a release announcing Ortiz's appointment. “His experience at some of the best hotels on the IHG roster is proving this to be a seamless transition, and we we’re especially excited to see him execute his vision for Safina, which has become a dining destination unto itself.”

Prior to this move, Ortiz was the executive chef of Hotel Colonnade Coral Gables, an Autograph Collection property in the Miami area. He was also the chef and proprietor of La Churuata, a Latin barbecue restaurant with an emphasis on Venezuelan specialties.

He's a two-time Greater Miami and The Beaches Hotel Association Inn Key Awards Best Chef winner. He also served as executive chef of the InterContinental the Willard – Washington D.C.

Ortiz began his culinary career in Miami, where he learned about Asian, Indian, and French cooking techniques. That spurred a desire to go to culinary school, and he enrolled in Miami's Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree in food and beverage from San Ignacio University.

Diners should expect Ortiz to bring a "land meets sea" sensibility to the InterContinental, according to the hotel's press release. He is currently working on a steak menu that's designed to showcase and augment the InterContinental's extensive wine program.

His summer menu will include a poached pear salad with Cambozola cheese and organic mixed greens and bone-in short ribs with potato pave, green bean and carrot bundle, and a merlot demi-glace.

Seafood dishes such as grilled octopus with fennel roasted potatoes, and yellow Romanesco sauce, and pan-seared Chilean sea bass with roasted corn puree and green beans will also be on the menu.

That sounds like the perfect recipe for elevated Med Center dining.

Harol Ortiz bring considerable expertise to Houston.

Photo courtesy of InterContinental Houston – Medical Center

Harol Ortiz bring considerable expertise to Houston.

NYT best dishes

Houston Mediterranean restaurant makes NY Times' best desserts list

Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen/Facebook

Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen is the only Houston restaurant on either list.

The New York Times included four Texas restaurants among its favorite dishes of 2025. Divided into two lists — The 23 Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S. in 2025 and The 14 Best Restaurant Desserts We Ate Across the U.S. in 2025 — the dishes are:

Bad Honey Bunny at Mercado Sin Nombre (Austin)
Ketan Hitam at Yeni’s Fusion (Austin)
Konafa Naama at Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen (Houston)
Picadillo Macaroni and Cheese at 2M Smokehouse (San Antonio)

Times food writer Priya Krishna, who authors the entries for all four Texas dishes, traveled to far west Houston to visit Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen. “The konafa, a signature here, arrives with a molten layer of cheese under a sticky-sweet layer of golden, nutty semolina. The craft is evident, the konafa gone in a few bites,” she writes.

Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen Konafa Naama Don't skip dessert at Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen.KSayad Mediterranean Kitchen/Facebook

In Austin, Krishna praises the rice pudding at Yeni’s Fusion. “This barely sweet version, lush with coconut milk, aromatic with pandan and as soothing as warm porridge, is the gentlest way to end a meal,” she states.

Already hailed as one of America’s best breakfast spots by Bon Appetit, Krishna singles out a honeybun at Mercado Sin Nombre. “The coiled honey bun at this semi-clandestine cafe looks almost cartoonishly perfect, and the heady scent of cardamom and honey hits you before you even take a bite. Somehow, it tastes every bit as plush and elegant as it appears,” she writes.

The picadillo mac and cheese at 2M Smokehouse showcases how the San Antonio restaurant incorporates Mexican flavors into traditional Texas barbecue. “Imagine Hamburger Helper, but spicier, punchier and even more luxuriously creamy. It’s not easy to one-up the singular, thickly spiced brisket here, but the picadillo mac and cheese — which runs as an occasional special — holds its own and then some,” Krishna writes.

The New York Times regularly shines its spotlight on Texas restaurants, In September, it named four establishments — ChòpnBlọk (Houston), Isidore (San Antonio), Lao’d Bar (Austin), and P Thai’s Khao Man Gai & Noodles (Austin) — to its list of America’s 50 Best Restaurants.

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