Chef Arthuro Paniagua

I'm Chef Arthuro Paniagua. I was born and raised in Costa Rica, originally from the Sarapiquí region, and I've called La Fortuna home for the last 15 years. I'm the dad of four amazing kids, partner to Jillian, and an okay soccer goalie. LOL!

Food has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. My great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother all spent their careers in the kitchen, making me the fourth generation of my family to build a life around food. When I was little, we actually lived in the soda my parents owned, so the kitchen was quite literally home.

As a teenager, my family spent time in Turrialba, where our family business provided food services for an Argentinian company working on a large hydroelectric project. The owner took me under his wing and introduced me to Argentinian asado and the traditions behind it.

Turrialba also opened up another side of Costa Rican food for me. Growing up in Sarapiquí, Caribbean flavors weren't completely unfamiliar, but this was where I became much more exposed to Caribbean cooking and its traditions.

I didn't think of any of this as a culinary education at the time, but looking back, I can see how much it shaped my curiosity about food: where ingredients and techniques come from, how they travel, and how different cultures become part of the way we eat.

In 2011, I moved to La Fortuna and continued working in hospitality. After a few different ventures and meeting Jillian along the way, we opened Casa Paniagua together in 2015 as a 60-seat restaurant in Nuevo Arenal. A few years later, we brought Casa Paniagua home to La Fortuna and completely changed the concept.

Today, we mostly welcome guests into our home for private dining experiences. For the right experience, my team and I are also happy to pack up the kitchen and bring Casa Paniagua to you.

What I love most about cooking is learning. I research ingredients, techniques, and food traditions from all over Costa Rica, from Indigenous and ancestral cooking to Caribbean traditions and the many international influences that have become part of our food.

I'm fascinated by how food travels and evolves, but still connects us to where we come from. I bring that curiosity into the modern kitchen, mixing what I've learned with my own experiences to create food that tells a story while still being something you simply want to eat.

After all these years, I'm still learning, experimenting, and discovering something new.

I can't wait to welcome you to our home in La Fortuna, or maybe bring a little bit of our home to you.

Pura Vida!

Chef Arthuro Paniagua