Chef-led, from the menu to the kitchen floor.

Chef Irving Perez is the founder and culinary lead of Valiente Culinary Group, where he brings together two distinct professional backgrounds: medicine and culinary arts. A Medical Doctor and professionally trained chef, his work is centered on building food experiences and culinary systems that combine technique, organization, hospitality, and an informed understanding of how food fits into everyday life and performance.

Before moving fully into the culinary field, Irving built a career in medicine and healthcare administration in the Dominican Republic. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from Pedro Henríquez Ureña University and later held medical management and dialysis program leadership roles between 2009 and 2018. That experience developed a strong operational mindset around systems, teams, consistency, responsibility, and the relationship between food, habits, and health.

In 2019, he completed Professional Culinary Arts training at the Dominican Culinary Institute and began developing a culinary career that has since included restaurants, private and corporate events, residential chef services, menu development, kitchen leadership, and large-scale culinary execution in both the Dominican Republic and the United States.

His cooking draws from Contemporary Latin American, Spanish, and kosher culinary traditions, with additional specialization in meat cookery, advanced grilling, wellness-oriented menus, and performance-focused culinary design. His approach places equal weight on flavor, technique, ingredient quality, timing, and operational execution.

Irving has also developed and executed culinary programs for high-performance athletic environments and professional sports organizations, where food service requires more than a strong menu. Timing, consistency, logistics, preferences, travel, recovery periods, and reliable production all become part of the culinary system.

In 2019, he competed on MasterChef Dominican Republic, Season 2, finishing as a Top 9 finalist. The experience added a competitive and creative dimension to a career already shaped by discipline, technical development, and continuous learning.

Today, through Valiente Culinary Group, Irving leads a company that serves private clients, families, businesses, events, and performance-driven environments across South Florida. IN. Eat with Intention extends that work into weekly meal prep, corporate food programs, and healthy-lifestyle initiatives designed to make structured, high-quality eating more practical.

His medical background informs his perspective, but Valiente Culinary Group is a culinary company. Its services do not provide diagnosis, treatment, medical nutrition therapy, or clinical care.