A Christmas tree with disco balls sparkles in the lobby of Hawkeye & Huckleberry Lounge. The modern cowboy restaurant by Brian and James Malarkey, which launched June 16 along Century Drive, is decked for the holidays with Christmas lights, garland and a few steak-shaped ornaments.

Recently, it welcomed a new executive chef: Carlos Anthony Ochoa.

Ochoa relocated to Bend with his wife while at the top of his game. The San Diego Reader named him Best Chef in 2023. He led the kitchen at Brian’s Herb & Wood restaurant for eight years. Together, Brian and Ochoa have opened 13 restaurants across the country, some on TV.

When Ochoa came to Bend for the June opening, he was transfixed by the restaurant and by Central Oregon.

“Something special is going on here. There’s like this energy in the room. There’s a feeling in the food and in the staff, the staff is so bought-in to really making this a place where people feel at home,” he said.

A chef’s dream

Hawkeye & Huckleberry Lounge is committed to sourcing ingredients locally, growing some of its vegetables on the Malarkeys’ P-B Hawkeye Ranch in Tumalo. Ingredients are also sourced from Rainshow Organics in Sisters and Groundwork Organics in Junction City, Ochoa said.

On that summer trip to Bend, Ochoa lived among the cows. He picked onions from the ranch, then brought them to the restaurant to cook.

“As a chef, this is what you dream of — this is literally what you dream of — a steakhouse where you grow the cattle and you grow the vegetables. It’s just so special and again, we’re just getting started,” he said.

Father-son relationship

Brian Malarkey and Ochoa consider their relationship like a father and son.

Malarkey said, “Carlos has worked with me for so long — we think the same — we cook the same — it’s hard to figure out what came first, the chicken or the egg.”

The dynamic duo excels at motivating people around them. Malarkey has the ability to make his team feel like they can take on the world, a powerful ingredient in the restaurant industry, Ochoa said.

“We’re not in the business of making line cooks, we make chefs,” Ochoa said.

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Shaping future chefs

Ochoa didn’t have the luxury of gaining hands-on education in restaurants as a student, so he has dedicated part of his career to teaching kids how to grow and prepare food. In San Diego, he partnered with nonprofit organizations such as Berry Good Food and the Ecology Center and implemented garden programs in public schools. Ochoa raised money to build gardens in schools where students were studying gardening, sourcing and seasonality.

Then Ochoa, who like Malarkey is no stranger to the Food Network and has routinely appeared on “Guy’s Grocery Games,” “Beat Bobby Flay” and “Tournament of Champions,” created a game similar to “Chopped,” a series in which chefs are challenged to transform a basket of mystery ingredients into a three-course meal.

Students were asked to create a dish using a combination of ingredients from a designated sweet, savory, salty and sour table, an activity designed to teach them how to create flavor with food.

Malarkey is also dedicated to sharing his expertise with up-and-coming culinary professionals. On the same day as the first test meal at Hawkeye & Huckleberry Lounge, he gave a commencement speech at the Cascade Culinary Institute.

The restaurant is working with Thor Erickson, a culinary instructor at the institute. In the hopes of receiving chef feedback, students of the Retail Baking Operations course sometimes share the pastries they’re working on for the Bakery Kiosk, an aspect of the class that allows them to test their products in a real-world setting.

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“As business owners in something of this scale, we have an impact. We impact our farmers. We impact the community,” Ochoa said.

Ochoa loves to instill passion and excitement for food in others. He also just loves to see people happy, one of the reasons he became a chef in the first place.

“I was so attuned to what it means when you feed somebody and how that makes them feel when you take care of them,” he said. “My grandmother was always the last person to eat. And that stuck with me.”

“As a chef, this is what you dream of — this is literally what you dream of — a steakhouse where you grow the cattle and you grow the vegetables. It’s just so special and again, we’re just getting started.” — Carlos Anthony Ochoa