Cooking Up Conversation: Leche de Tigre chef-owner Emil Oliva looks to keep things fresh

Name: Emil Oliva
Job: Chef-owner, Leche de Tigre
Birthplace: Laredo, Texas
Years in food service: 12
Big impact: Oliva opened upscale Peruvian restaurant Leche de Tigre, 318 E. Cevallos St., with his brothers Axel and Alec. The Southtown eatery has gone on to win accolades such as an appearance on the first Texas Michelin Guide’s recommended list and a James Beard Award nomination for Emil Oliva in the Best Chef: Texas category.
Money quote: “That little house in Southtown has our blood, sweat and tears. It has that magic a lot of restaurants seek. Hopefully we will be there for a very long time.”

Do you ever plan to add a second Leche de Tigre location?

I think for Leche, we really want to have one special place in San Antonio. A second location would have to be in another city. Never say never!

We’re constantly inspired by our friends at Emmer and Rye Hospitality. [Editor’s note: Emmer & Rye is the group behind San Antonio’s Pullman Market and Ladino along with multiple Austin restaurants.] We really look to them for a lot of advice and how to move forward and how to grow. They’ve really changed Austin’s food and beverage scene, and now they’re changing the San Antonio scene because they come up with so many different unique concepts.

And, you know, we also love Chef Fermín Núñez [Este, Suerte], who has also been a great friend to us for the same reasons. They’ve always been there for us when we need advice.

So yes, there will be another Leche — in another city.

Tell us about your background in the industry.

I knew from the age of 21 that I wanted to be a restaurateur. My mother is Mexican and my father is Peruvian, so I was exposed to two of the greatest cuisines in the world while growing up.

Life took me through different paths from my restaurateur goal initially, but I always remained in hospitality. I tried to do different areas, restaurant operations, event organization and even wine sales. I tried to move around the hospitality industry to really try to get experience from all different sides, not just restaurant operations.

I thought about culinary school, but at the time, it was very expensive for me, so I wasn’t able to do it. And I believe things happen for a reason. I feel like I’ve gained a lot of hands-on cooking experience. When I would travel to Peru, I would be able to cook at some family’s and friends’ restaurants, and I got a lot of experience there.

Leche de Tigre is a concept that my brothers and I have been wanting to open for 10 years. You know, before we opened it … I didn’t know that I was going to be the one cooking!

I feel that it helped a lot in many ways, you know, not just for restaurants, but I was working with spirit and wine brands, so I was able to learn how brands market themselves and how they work with restaurants and bars. Every position I took was intentional with the goal to open a restaurant. I had never cooked professionally before, and so [Leche] is my first professional cooking job.

How did you feel when Leche de Tigre made Michelin’s Recommended list?

It was surreal. Being able to be there with some of the best talent in the state was really humbling. I think it motivated us even more because, of course, it’s a great honor. We really, really appreciate the Michelin Guide. There’s a lot of restaurants in San Antonio that we would have loved to see there as well. And so maybe this next year they will be, [because] there’s a vast pool of ever-growing talent in the city. The Michelin Guide does set a standard.

We don’t necessarily cook for the awards, you know, we cook for our guests every single day, but it’s so nice to be recognized.

How do you keep Leche de Tigre’s food and service quality consistent following the accolades?

It’s really because me, Axel and Alec came from the service industry. We really know what every single position is, and we’re very empathetic, you know? We try to create a service-based work culture. It comes from bartenders, from cooks, from front-of-house and back-of-house. I think us coming from being servers, bartenders and cooks, we have a little bit more of an understanding on what the staff needs and what they want, and we listen to them.

We listen to them on the small and big things, and I think that’s important to our staff. We’ve been fortunate enough to create that work culture where … we have very low turnover. We get applications all the time, every single day, and it’s flattering for us because that means people want to work here, because they hear that it’s a great work environment — and that’s really our goal, right? We just want people to know that here, when you walk in for a shift or for dinner, you know you’re going to walk in with a smile.

What’s up for Leche’s third year?

We want to get more involved in San Antonio’s culinary community. I think that’s one of our goals for year three — we want to focus on a lot of collaborations with local chefs and also some Austin chefs. We’re also considering adding an outdoor bar to relieve some of the pressure from the bar inside Leche de Tigre.

Being nominated for a James Beard Award is also a huge honor. We’ll see what happens with that. If we were to continue on into the finalist round and make it out to Chicago for the awards, that would probably change all my goals moving forward after that. It is a personal goal for us to go for a star in the Michelin Guide. And so we’re taking the steps necessary to get there to be considered to be in the running on service, on food as well.

We’re always looking to stay creative and keep things fresh. I have to credit my brothers for their hard work too — I don’t even think we would be where we are today if it wasn’t for them.

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This article appears in Mar 5-18, 2025.