For the first time, a Prince George’s County native won chef of the year from the Restaurant Association of Maryland. He pushed the county, and local lawmakers, Tuesday to do more to help other restaurant owners who want to do the same thing he is.
Tobias Dorzon grew up in Riverdale, Maryland, eventually made it to the NFL and opened his own restaurant in Texas. But in 2022 he came back home, using his own money to open up Huncho House in Hyattsville.
“It took a lot for me to come home,” he said to the Prince George’s County Council during his speech. “I’m not going to lie. It took a lot for me to come home.”
Dorzon’s fine dining spot opened up in Hyattsville where a Five Guys restaurant used to be. He’s hopeful that the recognition he’s getting from Huncho House, as well as his next restaurant set to open soon, will remind people about just how strong the culinary scene is in Prince George’s County.
“We usually don’t get recognized because I mean, growing up in P.G. County, we really didn’t have anything to go home to, or go out to eat,” he said. “You had to go into D.C., go to Virginia, or go to Montgomery County. And it’s important that we have so many amazing chefs in our county and so many amazing opportunities to do things.”
To do that, he said it’s important for the county to do more to help other small businesses get off the ground, too. While he was able to invest his own money into making success happen in Prince George’s County, he said there are lots of others who need more help than what’s available from the county, especially compared to other parts of the region.
“I’m always going to continue to advocate,” he said, “because I want to stay in the county and I want to continue to grow the county. I was one of the rare few that took the risk in coming back to the county to be able to give something to our county that I know we never had, because I grew up here.”
The county’s chefs have been celebrated for their work on television and elsewhere. Earlier this year, Dorzon competed with other world class chefs on the Food Network’s “Tournament of Champions.”
“Prince George’s County is being talked about nationwide on national television, on ESPN, on Food Network, on CBS, on every major network because of something that we continue to do,” he added. “As Hunch House … as 1123 (his next restaurant) opens up, you will continue to see how much me and my team are pushing excellence and that’s it. In order to continue to push it, we just ask for a little bit of help.”
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