YO SOY is the culinary adventure of Mikey Corona and Brian Riggenbach. We are partners in life and in business based in the very lively city of Chicago, having met in the fall of 2004, our culinary and professional life journey has been evolving ever since. Aside from creating memories since our meeting in 2004, here is a little something about our lives seperately before then (if you are still jonesin' to find out more)....

Brian was born in Illinois, raised in Naples, Florida and has traveled the world and entrenched himself in world cuisines and fine arts settling in Chicago six years ago. He is a painter, cook, speculator and evocateur. Food has always been a central tenant in Brian's life, from the earliest days of curiosity in picking fresh strawberries to more complex incarnations later on. Beginning at a local restaurant in Florida washing dishes, Brian moved up the ranks gradually until serving at some of Chicago's best restaurants. Working closely with the professionals he met along the way created an ad hoc university of life, studying fine wines, foods, techniques and methodology which has propelled him to the next level. The underlying chemistry and art of food has driven him to delve into the reasoning, philosophy and soul of food. Along the linear development of interest in food arose a deep and passionate resonance with the fine arts. Through drawing, painting and sculpting Brian's early life can equally be traced by the physical marks left behind. Brian studied at Florida State University, independently in Paris and Northern Italy, then formally again at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.  For more about Brian's Paintings Click Here  . Clearly the connections between the fine arts and cooking arise from a passion to create and share, through color, texture taste and smell. While culinary pursuits may be more visceral, the underlying goal strikes a beautiful balance between two courses of study, which is where we are at today. Cheers and enjoy!

Mikey edges in from the graphic  design platform and relies heavily upon these learnings as well as his upbringing. Mikey was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, and was highly influenced by his latin family cooking! In Texas, Tex-Mex cuisine is a huge part of Texas living, and the flavors of this culinary corner are amazing! Think of roasted corn with a mixture of spices , beans cooked with pork, and roasted cumin rice with splashes of tomato. Homemade tortillas and tamales are also a cornerstone, with fantastic barbacoa breakfast sundays debuting once a week in his home. In high school Mikey worked at a restaurant at the ripe age of 15 as a dishwasher, and then quickly moved up the ranks to salad boy as well as busboy! It was a high school pupils dream! NOT! But, He did realize the truth on how restaurants were run from the belly up, and had an appreciation for the true team effort it takes to operate one. Mikey then moved to Houston to persue a larger city way of life, where art was introduced into his life by his colorful surrondings and his new found friends and step mother Angela (from Mexico city). It was after a brief stint in Boston that Mikey landed in Laredo, texas for 6 months, where the true Mexican lifestyle was presented, and honed in on! The vivaciousness of the mercados, the food cooking on street corners, the bright colors of the art lining the streets, all fed his ultimate goal of combining all of the above in whatever city he called home. And here is where Chicago enters! After graduating from Columbia College Chicago with a B.F.A. in Ad Art Direction, while simultaneously working for a top restaurant in Chicago, Mikey realized that everything was coming full circle..and his and his partners time was coming to show what the culmination of all this has come to thus far...