Alex Raij is a first generation Argentine-American who grew up in the Midwest, attended culinary school, and lived in Milan and the Pacific Northwest before falling in love with Basque chef Eder Montero. Together they have opened five restaurants.

Alex and Eder set a new standard for Spanish restaurants stateside starting in 2004 with Tía Pol (which they no longer own) and in 2007 with El Quinto Pino, named the Absolute Best Tapas by New York Magazine. In 2008 Alex was included in Bon Appetite’s “Women Chefs: The Next Generation,” and soon after opened Txikito, her and Eder’s singular Basque restaurant that transports guests to this celebrated region. Txikito, which reopened post pandemic in 2022, landed in the top 50 of the New York Times “100 best restaurants in New York City”. Their third restaurant, La Vara, opened in 2012 and explores Jewish and Moorish legacies in Southern Spain; that same year Alex was awarded Eater’s first Chef of the Year award. La Vara went on to earn Michelin stars from 2015-2018, named one of the 12 most outstanding restaurants of 2013 by GQ. More recently in Alex and Eder opened Saint Julivert, a small fish restaurant informed by travel, there they earned a Michelin bib gourmand and Le Fooding’s Best New Bistro award in the first year.

Alex and Eder are six-time James Beard Award Semifinalists for Best Chef: New York City and Finalists in the 2019 Outstanding Restaurateur category. The Basque Book: A Love Story in Recipes from the Kitchen of Txikito, is Alex’s deeply personal writer’s debut inspired by home cooking traditions of the Basque country.

Alex aims to make dishes that capture a sense of place while retaining personal intimacy that connect and intersect with deeper interests around the role of food and restaurants in our culture.