Meet Chef Tyler Tyler Aponte is a native Texan and started learning how to cook around the age of 5 from his mother and grandmothers. It wasn’t necessarily that Tyler was interested in food at the time, but more to the fact that he was a picky eater combined with his upbringing, which was either eat what was made or simply make your own food. So that’s what he did. After several years Tyler started to enjoy cooking and began to make food for his family and friends always using them taste testers. At the age of 15 Tyler started working in professional kitchens and after graduating high school he attended culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in Austin, TX, where he earned a degree in Applied Science (Culinary Arts). Upon completing an externship at Walt Disney World in Florida, Tyler moved back to Texas and began working as a kitchen supervisor at The Ballpark in Arlington, home of the Texas Rangers. Tyler then started working for a company called Levy Restaurants at Texas Motor Speedway all the while still working part-time at the Ballpark.