Joining the NANRO USA Fellowship as part of the 2025 cohort, Chef Fidel Caballero grew up between Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and El Paso, Texas — a childhood shaped by the border, its flavors, and its rhythms. He began on the line at an Italian restaurant in El Paso, then ran a late-night food truck outside dive bars with friends, and worked his way through kitchens in Spain's Basque Country and Shanghai before opening his own restaurant, Corima, in New York in January 2024. That same year, Corima was named to Bon Appétit's Best New Restaurants list and earned a Michelin star. He had already been named a StarChefs NY Rising Star in 2023.
Chef Caballero describes his cooking, in his own words, as "progressive Mexican" — starting from his Northern Mexican roots and layering the techniques and sensibilities he has picked up across kitchens around the world. Whole-animal butchery and sustainability sit at the center of his daily practice, and for a chef whose own story crosses a border, the NANRO USA Fellowship visit to Korea became another layer he now carries alongside those roots.
