Arturo McLeod
Benjamin Steakhouse
Executive Chef Arturo McLeod of Benjamin Steakhouse has spent almost 40 years working in steakhouses; twenty of those years were spent at the famous Peter Luger in Brooklyn. He is a Panamanian who immigrated to New York in October of 1967 at the humble age of 13 with his two sisters to join his mother... READ MORE
Executive Chef Arturo McLeod of Benjamin Steakhouse has spent almost 40 years working in steakhouses; twenty of those years were spent at the famous Peter Luger in Brooklyn. He is a Panamanian who immigrated to New York in October of 1967 at the humble age of 13 with his two sisters to join his mother in Brooklyn. When you speak to Chef Arturo, you can see how grateful he is to his mother who became a registered nurse after arriving to America to make sure she could provide for her five children. Unfortunately, after just two weeks that Arturo arrived to America, his father passed away. As a way to help support his family, he started working at a place called Down State Medical Center when he was just 15 years old, and it was there that he started learning about food as a Dietician Aid.
Chef Arturo’s journey in the restaurant business really started at the late Gage and Tollner, a Brooklyn steak institution that opened in 1879. He worked there for about 12 years before they changed owners and he eventually started looking for new work. He was interested in finding something more stable and was encouraged to take a test to become a sanitation worker. In the meantime, while waiting for his results he saw a position available at Peter Luger’s in the newspaper and decided to apply. Even when he found out that he had passed the sanitation test, he knew he had to pursue his passion for cooking. It was at Peter Luger, where Chef Arturo spent the majority of his career perfecting his unique grilling techniques to become one of the foremost steakhouse chefs in the country.
After many years, Arturo decided to leave Peter Luger to open a new steakhouse with fellow Luger alumnis Benjamin Prelvukaj and Benjamin Sinanaj. Together, they opened Benjamin Steakhouse in 2006 on the non-descript East 41st Street in Manhattan, in the century old Chemist Club building, just one block from Grand Central Terminal. Arturo remembers their opening day and how excited they were for their first guest. Fourteen years later, Benjamin Steakhouse is the number one Steakhouse in Manhattan and second to only Luger’s in all of New York City according to Zagat’s Top 50 Restaurants. Chef McLeod oversees the Westchester location as well as Benjamin Prime. Additionally, Chef McLeod led the culinary team in opening Benjamin Steakhouse’s international locations in Tokyo (2017) and Kyoto, Japan (2019) a destination he never imagined he would go.
Chef McLeod prepares an amazing array of dishes sure to delight gourmands everywhere. The main draw is the steaks, and McLeod is a master at cooking juicy cuts of meat. Only the best USDA prime beef is used, and every cut is carefully dry-aged in McLeod’s specially handcrafted aging box, to the precise temperature and humidity level, for a minimum of 31 days. In addition to serving the finest quality beef, he’s had a few guests in the past that specifically asked him to prepare special dishes for them that was not on the menu, so he surprised them with dishes such as oxtail or beans and coconut that were considered more upscale back in Panama. Now, McLeod focuses all his attention on his steaks that are cooked to absolute perfection so that they arrive tableside sizzling on a piping hot plate.
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