Cuisine
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New Food, New Orleans FIVE OF THE CRESCENT CITY’S NEWEST CHEF-DRIVEN DELIGHTS
By Alexandra Kennon
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t hardly needs to be said that opening a restaurant in New Orleans in 2021 was no easy feat. Despite obstacles in the form of a major hurricanes, the Delta variant, and staffing shortages, a handful of tenacious chefs were able to successfully found exciting new restaurants that firmly hold their own, even in a town with an overabundance of delicious options.
Ssam style Charmoula Octopus; Photo by Paprika Studios, courtesy of Mister Mao.
“Oh shit, what are we gonna do with our lives?” It’s safe to say that Chef Sophina Uong and her husband and partner William “Wildcat” Greenwell are not the only people who had such a thought in the throes of the pandemic. In their case, though, the moment of 36
existential weirdness and uncertainty is what led them to open Mister Mao, the “unapologetically inauthentic” “fun, spunky, tropical roadhouse” that opened on Tchoupitoulas Street in July 2021. Diners who come into Mister Mao— which is not a Chinese restaurant, despite
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the name’s implications (actually, it’s named for the couple’s cat)—are asked to approach the experience with an open mind. “I felt for like the past two years we’ve just all been just kind of stuck inside, so it was just like, ‘Okay, if you want to come outside to see your girlfriends … come in this little loud place and have different flavors,” Uong said. Originally from Long Beach, California, where her mom ran a chain of donut shops, Uong first experienced Louisiana years ago when she and her daughter took a Greyhound bus to spend a weekend in Lafayette with Runaway Boucherie: a group of young, up-and-coming talented chefs that included Ryan Trahan of Vestal. “I spent the weekend with them and met a bunch of folks out there and cooked for a couple of days and drank a lot of Jameson,” Uong remembered. “And then just learned the difference between what a roux does and a jambalaya.” After she and Greenwell’s stint living in what she described as the “Polar Vortex” of Minnesota, the pair, “headed towards the sun,” and landed in New Orleans. They opened Mister Mao first as a popup and now as a brick-and-mortar in the building that formerly housed Dick & Jenny’s. A self-proclaim eclectic, Uong furnished the space using items found in thrift and vintage stores. On a prominent wall in the dining room presides a mural by artist Margie Tillmam depicting two tigers, inspired by Greenwell (who runs the bar program’s) tongue-in-cheek nickname, “Wild Cat”. The menu at Mister Mao reflects its chef’s widely-varied culinary background, which notably includes her claiming the Grand Champion title on the Food Network’s Chopped: Grill Masters Napa in 2016. While Uong draws flavor inspiration from all over the map, the cuisines she leans into most at Mister Mao are Southeast Asian, Mexican, and Indian. Uong is of Cambodian descent herself. “So I know all of those flavors, which is what I grew up with,” she explained, noting that Cambodian cuisine is more akin to Laotian or Thai food than the lighter, sweeter flavors of Vietnamese food that New Orleanians tend to be more familiar with. She picked up an affinity for Mexican ingredients and techniques while working at Oaxacan farm-to-table restaurant Calavera in Oakland, California. And, “Indian is all just through memory, and like taste
memories of what I’ve had,” Uong said, recalling that she had a friend back in California whose mom would teach her certain masalas, but withheld some details and ingredients. “Sometimes you learn from people, but they don’t tell you everything,” she said. “So, you have to figure it out.” Some standouts from the unusual menu include: Escargot Wellington; Pineapple Hawaiian Rolls served with charred eggplant, mint, garlic confit, and balsamic; a version of the Indian street food panipuri with pickled blueberry and “fiery mint water” poured table side; Kashmiri Fried Chicken with Szechwan pepper and black salt lime cream; and a Dark Chocolate Tart with black garlic and peanut sesame brittle. The menu is divided into playful categories like “Drinking Snacks,” “Food We Love to Share,” “You Don’t Have to Share,” and “These Bring Us Joy & Hellfire Heartburn”. Uong said that she markets her use of these various influences as “inauthentic” largely due to past experiences working in restaurants that were lambasted for being culturally appropriative—notably Lucky Cricket, Andrew Zimmern’s Chinese restaurant and Tiki Lounge, in Minnesota. “And so, part of me is a little bit traumatized by all of that, just, you know, when you have picketers in front of the fence,” Uong said, noting the particularly challenging climate for today’s chefs who are interested in incorporating international flavors they may not personally have a claim to. “I’m just really sensitive to the fact that I don’t want to feel like I’ve stolen anything, but I think cooking belongs to everybody.” As for her own heritage, Uong has happily observed that South Asian guests have generally enjoyed the offerings at Mister Mao, “inauthentic” as they are. “So that’s for me, that’s a personal victory, you know?” Uong said. “My mom, she’d be like, ‘That’s not Cambodian’ and I’m like, ‘I know.’” Each influence on the menu is “mostly personal” for Uong and Greenwell. “We just like spicy stuff in general,” Uong said. “And we do miss some of the Asian food that we could get on the West Coast, or through traveling to New York or something,” She also wanted to ensure that the price point was accessible enough for younger service industry employees to be able to afford a meal at Mister Mao. “I wanted to price things where it’s fairly affordable for people of our industry. You know, the
