Some stories cannot be fully understood by looking only at the final result.
We see a restaurant with its doors open, a chef leading the kitchen, a team serving beautifully prepared dishes, guests enjoying the experience, and a business beginning to earn its place within the community. But behind all of this lies something much deeper: years of hard work, difficult decisions, life-changing transitions, sacrifices, family, love, and often, the courage to begin again.
As a Houston food photographer, I have learned that photographing a restaurant is not simply about capturing beautiful dishes. It is also about telling the human story behind the food, the people, and the business.
Behind What You See
was created to tell precisely those stories—the ones we do not always get to see.
In this first episode, we meet Gabriel Reyes, a Venezuelan-Spanish chef and the founder of Socarrat, a Spanish restaurant in Katy, Texas. His journey took him from Venezuela to the Canary Islands and eventually to Houston, where he began a new chapter, both personally and professionally. His story is not simply the story of a chef. It is the story of someone who discovered a passion, built meaningful projects, left important places behind, and had to reinvent himself to keep moving forward.
Gabriel speaks about Spanish cuisine with respect, about his family with love, and about his restaurant with a mixture of pride and humility. Socarrat was not created simply as a business. It was born from a desire to share tradition, quality, and an honest approach to hospitality.
The restaurant takes its name from the golden, crispy layer of rice that forms at the bottom of a paella pan—the part many people consider the most flavorful. In many ways, that also represents Socarrat’s purpose: to become that special place people seek out, remember, and want to experience again.
But the most powerful part of this story is not found only in the food. It is found in the journey.
It is in arriving in a new country. In knocking on doors. In taking care of his family. In asking himself difficult questions. In feeling afraid and continuing anyway. In listening to his customers, learning the business, expecting more from his team, and appreciating every person who walks through the door.
That is what we want to reveal through **Behind What You See**. Not simply the success visible from the outside, but the human story behind it. Because everyone who has built something meaningful has a past—and a story—that deserves to be told.
This episode is an invitation to look beyond the surface—to meet the man behind the chef, the immigrant behind the entrepreneur, and the dreamer behind Socarrat.
We invite you to watch the first episode of Behind What You See and discover the story of Gabriel Reyes: a story of food, family, reinvention, and purpose.