James Campbell Caruso is known for turning heads with his style of cooking which he describes as a "Latino-Mediterranean blend." As executive chef at la boca restaurant in Santa Fe, James combines his love of cultures and food to create a unique cuisine that brings together the best of traditional and contemporary flavors of Spanish-speaking countries.

Caruso was born in Boston and raised in Basque, a region located between the French-Spanish border, where he was "home-schooled" in cooking and eating Mediterranean foods in his large Italian-American-Basque family. He worked through the ranks of some of Boston's most popular eateries before moving to New Mexico in 1988. The move inspired him to learn more about Latin American and Spanish foods, which he accomplished through experience, research and cooking tours of Mexico and Spain. As executive sous chef at the famed La Casa Sena in Santa Fe, James won rave reviews, both locally and nationally for his balanced and sophisticated blend of old world flavors and modern techniques. In 1996, Caruso moved on to become executive chef at El Farol.

Caruso wrote an extravagantly photographed cookbook, "El Farol: Tapas and Spanish Cuisine," and is now working on concepts for two additional cookbooks on modern Mediterranean food. He is also a chef and instructor at the Santa Fe School of Cooking, where he focuses on Southwest and Mexican cuisine.