IVETTE FELICIANO:

For two years, Chief Paxx Moll has been preparing farm-to-table meals at the San Juan restaurant El Departamento de la Comida, which means "the department of food."

When I cook, everyone is a VIP, Moll says. You give some of your soul and love to the person.

Moll works with a small network of Puerto Rican farmers for the restaurant's organic, signature dishes, like their falafel-plantain fritters and coconut flatbread.