Beloved restaurant owner remembered for kindness, empowerment

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – The Brazos Valley lost a beloved community member and restaurant owner.

Chef Jorge Chunga was the owner of Fusion Peru and passed away May 8 from a bacterial lung infection.

Along with being a well-known chef, Jorge Chunga loved being a friend, husband and father.

“All of you knew him as chef and all these things, but to me, I knew him as dad,” Carlo Chunga said.

Carlo is one of Jorge Chunga’s children.

“Very stubborn man but also with the kindest heart, tough love but also just to make sure that we didn’t go through the same struggles he did as a kid,” Carlo said.

His father was from Piura, Peru and started working at an early age.

“He’s always told the story, like, I started working at 14 to help pay money for the family, for everybody,” Carlo said.

That work ethic followed Jorge Chunga as he moved his family to the U.S. in 2003 to have a better life.

They moved to L.A. where Jorge Chunga was an ice cream truck driver.

About a year later, they moved to College Station.

“His first job here was at Chili’s, so we always loved eating at Chili’s cause he worked there for a really long time,” Carlo said. “Before he worked at other different jobs until we finally started like, okay let’s do something with food.”

Before opening the Fusion Peru food truck in 2015, the chef used his home as a restaurant every Sunday.

His brick and mortar restaurant opened in 2017.

KBTX featured the chef and his restaurant in September 2023 during Hispanic Heritage Month.

“My dad loved having families here but also students too, made sure all students were fed well,” Carlo said.

Chef Jorge Chunga also loved to empower others, especially those behind the scenes, according to Carlo.

“He was like the first chef, but it was truly all the workers,” Carlo said. “The people in the back, all the cooks who really should also get those awards too because it was a team that got us to where we are now.”

That’s part of the legacy Jorge Chunga leaves behind.

“He has really empowered a lot of people in my family as well to come through any adversities that come our way but also to find empowerment when they feel down in life,” Carlo said. “He’s always reminding people, find empowerment through that. How can you take all of that negative energy, all of those bad thoughts into something more positive not only for yourself but the people around you.”

If you would like to support the Chunga family, click here.