Chefs and Restaurants

Bellota's Manny Barella on Holding His Ground While Building His Career

Rebecca Treon

When Manny Barella was first developing the menu for Bellota in Denver, it would have been easy to let owners Bill Espiricueta and Steve Redzikowski (talented chefs in their own right) take the lead. But Barella wanted to showcase dishes like black mole (whose mother mole sauce is now more than six months old) and esquites cooked risotto-style in cream and topped with lime, charred...