Beverage Program

Wine Pairing
Premium Spirits
Custom themed cocktails
Fresh Squeezed Juices
Locally sourced coffees & teas

Chef Guided Experiences

Cooking Instructional Demos
Culinary Tours
Paired Wine and Spirit Dinners
Chef Collaborations and Pop up Dinners

Staffing

Captains
Culinary
Servers
Bartenders
Steward & Attendants
Uniform options available
All staff insured, TABC and Food
Handler Certified

Rentals

China
Glassware
Silverware
Tables & Chairs
Lounge Vignettes
Tenting

Décor

Floral
Linen
Lighting
Printed Menus & Signage

Valet Parking

Certified & Insured
Uniform options available

Venue Selection

Site recommendation
Indoor & Outdoor options
Floor plans layouts
Preferred Vendor Status

David Cordúa

David Cordúa is Executive Chef and Principal of DMCordúa Hospitality and David + Michael Cordúa Events. A native Houstonian, Cordúa has over 15 years of experience in the restaurant, hotel and catering business.

Prior to his hospitality group, Cordúa was Executive Chef and Owner of Cordúa Restaurants of Churrascos, Americas and Cordúa Catering fame.

Following a degree in Finance from Santa Clara University in 2004, David received a Grande Diplome in cuisine and pastry from the Cordon Bleu in Paris in 2005. Training at notable restaurants including La Tour d’Argent and L’Auberge Bressane, he remained in Paris working as long as his visa allowed.

Upon his return Cordúa was hired as Food and Beverage Mgr. at the Hayes Mansion in San Jose, CA, hotel resort and conference center, where he managed its two restaurants, bar, banquets, private events and wine purchasing.

In 2008 David returned to Houston to open Americas in the Woodlands followed by Americas River Oaks in 2010. Overseeing menu development, recipes, training and implementation for Cordua’s four concepts as well as Cordúa catering subsequent openings occurred including Churrascos Sugarland in 2012, Churrascos Memorial City in 2014 and Churrascos Champions in 2015.

He co-wrote and published ‘The Cordúa Cookbook’ in 2013 to commemorate the family’s 25 years in operation. Cordúa represented Houston in a four Mexican city tour of dinners, cooking demos and public events as Houston’s food ambassador for Visit Houston’s ‘Hola Houston’ campaign in 2016. Recently he was the host of Houston Public Media’s nationally syndicated ‘The Houston Cookbook’ on PBS.

David lives in Houston’s Fourth Ward and enjoys spending time at Buffalo Bayou Park, The Museum District, the breweries and street art of Houston’s East End, and live music at Last Concert Café, The Big Easy and Cezanne’s.

Michael Cordúa

– a pioneer of the Latin-American culinary movement in the United States –

He created award-winning Houston-area restaurants including Américas in River Oaks and The Woodlands; Churrascos in River Oaks, Westchase, Sugar Land, Memorial City and Champions, Amazón Grill, and Artista.

Cordúa’s career has met with national critical acclaim. The original Churrascos was named one of the “Best New Restaurants in America” by Esquire magazine in 1989. Américas was named “Restaurant of the Year” by Esquire in 1993. Texas Monthly magazine named Artista “Best New Texas Restaurant” in 2004. Esquire named Churrascos one of the “20 Best Steaks in America” in 2008 and, most recently, Travel + Leisure magazine named Churrascos one “The Best Steakhouses in the U.S.” in March of 2013.

Born in Managua, Nicaragua, Cordúa moved to the United States in 1976 to study at Texas A&M University. He graduated in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a minor in Finance. While in College Station, he began to hone his cooking skills by preparing meals for his friends that reminded him of food from home. He also worked in the Sbisa Dining Hall at Texas A&M and got his first restaurant experience as a pot washer at Pepe Taco, a fast-food establishment.

Cordúa planned to return home to Nicaragua and work in banking after college but stayed in Houston in light of the 1979 Nicaraguan Sandinista Revolution. He worked in maritime shipping at the Port of Houston from 1980-85, which took him to London and other parts of Europe and exposed him to fine cuisine the likes of which he had never seen in his native country. Searching for his next career, Cordúa nearly purchased a furniture store before opening his first restaurant on August 8, 1988, at 9788 Bissonnet St. on the western edge of Houston. He modeled Churrascos after the popular restaurant in Managua – Los Ranchos – hoping to bring Latin-American cuisine beyond Mexican food to a mainstream American audience. His menu centered on the Churrasco steak, which has roots in Argentina and Nicaragua, and blended the excitement of American ingredients with the discipline of European techniques of cooking. The food was and is today inspired by Latin American cuisine but not native to anysingular country.

Within a year of Churrascos’ opening, Cordúa was approved for a loan to open a second location in 1990 in River Oaks followed soon after by the first Américas restaurant on Post Oak Boulevard in 1993. Today, Cordúa works in tandem with his son, David Cordua self-taught chef with no formal training, the Nicaragua native was the only Texas chef to be included in the prestigious Food & Wine magazine “Best New Chefs” Hall of Fame in 2008. He was named one of America’s “Top Ten Chefs” by Food & Wine in and received the Robert Mondavi Award for Culinary Excellence in 1994. He has been a James Beard Award semifinalist three times. In 2013, he was one of 25 chefs selected for the Food & Wine: Best New Chefs All-Star Cookbook, in which Food & Wine selected one chef per year from its annual crop of 10 “Best New Chefs.” The only Texas chef in the book, Cordúa is featured alongside American culinary royalty such as Thomas Keller, Nobu Matsuhisa, Tom Colicchio, John Besh and David Chang.