Ignacio Mattos is the Invisible Chef. By most measures, his restaurants have become some of the most influential and acclaimed in New York City. Yet unlike so many chefs who crave recognition, the Uruguayan native seems to go out of his way to keep a low profile. So low that he does not appear on Wikipedia’s list of famous Uruguayans. (But maybe that’s a good thing?)
Mattos, 44, burst onto the scene in 2013 when he opened Estela in a cramped, second-floor space on Houston Street (so cramped that coat check was—and continues to be—a clothing rack outside the entrance). As much a restaurant as a wine bar, it featured deceptively simple but idiosyncratic dishes such as steak tartare (actually bison) and an endive salad that invited the diner to stuff the leaves with cheese and nuts, taco-style.
