Daniel Alvarez
Union Square Cafe and Daily Provisions | New York
October 2019
Daniel Alvarez spent his childhood running around his parents’ Mexican-American restaurant outside of New York City. When the restaurant was sold to Alvarez’s uncle, 13-year-old Alvarez asked for a paid position as a dishwasher. Once he set foot in the kitchen, he never left. In 2007, Alvarez enrolled in Johnson & Wales University with the intention of pursuing savory cuisine. He surprised himself by falling in love with pastry. He followed his passion to a pastry internship at Jean-Georges, and later graduated with a degree in baking and pastry arts from JWU
In June 2012, Alvarez joined famed Pastry Chef Dominique Ansel as chef de partie at his namesake bakery. Ansel unveiled his famous and often imitated cronut with Alvarez in charge of prep and presentation each day. In July 2014, he left Ansel to join the Union Square Hospitality group as pastry sous chef under Miro Uskokovic at Gramercy Tavern. Two years later, he rose to pastry chef at Union Square Cafe and added quick-service spot Daily Provisions to his list of responsibilities when it opened in 2017. Alvarez quickly became known for his exquisite crullers, which he will bring to Daily Provision’s second location in the Upper West Side in Fall 2019. Alvarez was named one of Eater’s “Young Guns” in 2018.
