into a world of specialty ingredients.
Fast & Fermenting Slow with Junior Borges
REVOLUTIONIZING TRADICIONAL
AT ACOPIO | SAN JOSE
OVER AND ABOVE
As we move into the brighter days of spring, we look forward to getting back to seeing our customers, going to the farmers market again, and doing the outdoor activities we love.
President
AS WE MOVE INTO THE SUNNIER and more temperate days of spring, I am excited to share a handful of developments that have blossomed for CW West since the start of 2023.
At the top of the new year, my team in NorCal, which includes Andy Brown and Peter Saridis, was thrilled to acquire Mike Hudson Distributing based out of Petaluma, CA. Acquiring MHD, with its fifty-four-year history and reputation for being a quality, family-owned, and operated Northern California Distributor, ignites CW’s presence in the specialty retail market. We are very excited to move forward and collaborate with MHD’s amazing team.
A more recent advancement I am proud to share is the acquisition of Essence Food Service, a family-oriented importer and distributor focusing on Italian specialty ingredients based in Toronto, Canada. Adding Essence Food Service, achieved with the help of CW’s Jaime Salter, is especially thrilling for CW Canada, as it allows our business in this vast region to expand on what has traditionally been primarily a pastry-focused market for us.
I am also happy to share that CW West has recently signed a lease for a brand new facility in Portland, OR. We are elated to finally provide a stateof-the-art warehouse for Alexis Foods and Provvista to come together under one roof.
On a less sunny note, the weather on the West Coast these past months has created immense challenges. Our team has done a great job of rallying and ensuring that there is no interruption to customer service whenever possible. With several atmospheric rivers in NorCal, blizzards in Tahoe and Colorado,
frozen rain in Texas, and multiple road closures in Portland and Seattle due to storms, it has never been more crucial for our employees to go beyond the call of duty and make every effort to make deliveries outside of road closures. Our people have really been spectacular, doing what’s necessary to get the job done. I would like to give a special shout-out to our dedicated (and often brave) drivers who have fought the winter storms firsthand and always ensure that our customers get their orders through rain, sleet, or snow.
We look forward to getting back to seeing our customers, going to the farmers market again, and doing the outdoor activities we love. Having been isolated for so long, first by the pandemic and more recently by the weather, there’s a palpable spirit in the air with people energized by being out and about. We’re also seeing a lot of enthusiasm regarding people wanting to try new ingredients. Everyone also looks forward to the West’s beautiful spring and summer months when businesses can benefit from outdoor seating and increased sales.
Finally, I am very happy to share that our very own CW Magazine West, after enjoying much positive word of mouth and attention in our regions these past eight years, will be blossoming and expanding into CW Magazine National with its first Summer edition coming out June 15th. I look forward to our publication connecting the dots across CW’s vast territories and sharing the broad scope of amazing stories illuminating our extraordinary chefs and vendors from ‘sea to shining sea.’
Wishing everyone a bright and flourishing spring!
would say he had the most influence on my career. I was with him for almost 13 years on and off, and with him, I ran through the gauntlet of stations. It’s his tutelage that made it so that I could go out on my own and do the things that I’m doing now. I’ve taken so many of his systems and the way he works along with me.
Michelin recommended in 2022 and enRoute top 10 for “Best New Restaurant” in Canada in 2013, Pidgin combines multiple cultures and cuisines to create a new language in dining. Chef Paul Coleman shares his culinary adventure.
MY JOURNEY STARTED out of necessity. I was young, 17, and needed work. I didn’t have a career, was just getting out of school, got into cooking, and immediately found a passion for it; what I guess I would say was my calling. And as soon as I started, I knew right away that this was probably something that I was going to do for the rest of my life.
I started cooking in pubs and within months was running the kitchen. The culture was so much fun. Eventually, I changed positions and worked under the tutelage of a chef on a private riverboat that went from Kingston to Montreal and Quebec City on the St. Lawrence River. It consisted of doing things
outside of pub work: from opening a jar of mayo at the pub to making a mayonnaise from scratch; and it was mind-blowing for me to see my creations were putting smiles on people’s faces. This connection with people has always been with me throughout my career. And it’s one of the things that I thrive on now.
The experience of immersing myself in the culture of fine dining with Chef Pino Posteraro and Cioppino’s – it’s one of the top restaurants in the country, he’s one of the top chefs in Canada – and I
I eventually figured I had, well, not ‘all’ the techniques, but enough technique that I could start to implement my own thoughts and ideas about how to create food and create dishes. And I went out, did a few different places, and tried new styles of cuisine. It brought me to realize that what I really enjoy – what I survive at – is small restaurants and closer-knit teams, and that’s what brought me to Chef Robert Belcham and Campagnolo, a top farm-to-table restaurant in Vancouver. And it was because of Covid and the closure of Campagnolo that I found my way to Pidgin.
Pidgin is a very small restaurant. We have a kitchen of five cooks. When you think of the type of food we’re making with the small amount of stuff that we have, it’s pretty phenomenal.
We’re a variation of PNW Asian cuisine with a very specific Northwest Asian influence. We like to be farm-to-table and work with local producers and farms.
We have a nice melting pot of Asians with very broad Asian skills. I‘m Korean. We have two Chinese: a Chinese chef and a Chinese cook. And then we have another Asian Dutch. We have Korean kimchi and try to steer our menu towards the Japanese style of a cleaner, more finessed technique, showing the quality of the ingredients we’re using.
Many of the ingredients we use can’t be sourced from farms. We don’t have local artisans making these ingredients to the quality that we’re getting from The Chefs’ Warehouse. I’ve been so trained in European food, and I’m sure the Italian influence [draws me] to your bottarga (roe), risottos, and polentas that I’ve been adding to fuse with our Japanese fish, local farm-harvested ingredients, and foraged items. And especially your Japanese imports, such as your misos and soys; CW has been integral to our success.
The Michelin recommendation is great, but I was never looking to get Michelin recognition. There was no thought in my head that we were gonna go or get anything; that’s never been in my thought of making a dish. We don’t want to exclude people from the dishes that we’re making, so we want them to be comfortable. We want to cater to every single person.
I like pressure, and I enjoy bringing comfort and joy to people through the food. If I can also give them a little bit of myself then that relieves the [external] pressure that comes. It can be tough with Vancouver being the city it is. It’s a high-pressure city and we have lots of great, top restaurants, but at the same time, you try not to think about them.
Me, I like to stick to my own story. I don’t want to waver the influence to try to compete or try to do it in a way that ‘they’re’ doing. Pigeon is unique. And I think that’s why the people that work here do work here.
You know, personally, I want to stick around. I find a really nice fit here. I have free reign to cook anything I want. I have no restrictions, and I don’t have
anybody to tell me “No.” It’s really fun in that way, especially when it comes to cooking.
Outside of that, it’s just a matter of trying to get that life balance; that goal of both cooking and being able to enjoy what we’re doing. As a team, we’re very close to being there. And it’s one of those things. It’s hard to leave a place that’s treating you so well. My five-year plan is probably to be here, but my 10-year plan? I’m old enough that I just don’t know how much longer I can do it. But it’s one of those things I also don’t know if I could ever stop.
Like many one-of-a-kind, locally produced products, Itso/Notso Hot Sauce grew organically with its roots in family. Created initially by entrepreneur and hot sauce enthusiast John Matishius, Sr. back in 1995 from the bounty of his garden, the proverbial sauce baton was handed off and ratcheted up by his son Make Food Happy CEO John Matishius, Jr. (also a professional rock musician) to what it is today.
ITSO-NOTSO Original Sauces are comprised of the best chilis, garlic, mango, vinegar, and brown sugar available under the sun and free of dyes and extra preservatives.
Ideal for marinades, chilis, salad dressings, sauces, Bloody Marys, or as a condiment for guests on the table, or atop any bite where you want an exciting spice-forward flavor to savor!
We believe in savoring the good times, not taking life too seriously, sharing the wealth, the food, and above all–the love.
This past January, CW West was very excited to acquire and begin collaboration with stellar familyforward company Mike Hudson Distributing. Running parallel to The Chefs’ Warehouse in terms of arcing quality and integrity, MHD began in 1969 when Mike Hudson took over his wife Barbara’s small family distribution business.
BACK IN THE DAY, Mike Hudson would wake up early and fill his van, stopping at every delicatessen in NorCal. Known as the Salami Man, Mike’s customers were fiercely loyal, and just like The Chefs’ Warehouse with food service, Mike Hudson Distributing has been stopping the truck for independently-owned retailers for fifty-four years, a very exciting frontier for CW to be stepping into more fulsomely.
In 2000 Mike Hudson sold the company to three employees: George Parisi, Frank Haynes, and Jim Davis. George Parisi and his wife, Lufu, became the company’s sole owners in 2017. Over the last six years, despite significant challenges in the industry, the Parisi family has led MHD to its most profitable time.
Another attribute of MHD in parallel to CW is their overriding commitment to nurture, support and respect their employees, and foster a professional community where everyone is treated like family and their opinions and practices are embraced.
Based in Petaluma since its inception, MHD has grown from a one-man operation to a fleet of 19 trucks; from a refrigerator in Mike Hudson’s garage to a large warehouse and office space just off Highway 116.
Like with CW, for many small local producers, Mike Hudson Distributing has provided an accessible and supportive introduction to distribution. Being a family-owned company, George and Lufu Parisi have prioritized local business and welcomed the opportunity to connect with new purveyors as they expand their reach in Northern California.
‘Sonoma County is a bountiful area with many wonderful artisan food creators coming onto the scene each year. Supporting local artisanal food producers is important to us, our community, our customers, and our industry. We strive to support local and make sourcing these foods easier for our customers,’ shared Michelle Eighmey, MHD Marketing Manager.
Peter Saridis, CW Sales Manager, is ecstatic to be stepping into his new role of General Manager at MHD and collaborating with the great team therein. Peter shares his experience as General Manager and working with the MHD team so far. ‘Our full CW NorCal leadership team (headed up by CW NorCal RVP Andy Brown and CW West VP Bruce Luong) met up with MHD’s entire team and spent much time together sharing our company stories and getting on the same page. We all agreed that what everyone wanted was a partnership. So in CW’s mind, our work with MHD is ‘Operation Retain and Maintain.’
Peter speaks further on the importance of CW’s collaboration with MHD. ’I’ve been with six of their reps and their customers. Each stated how much they love their relationship with MHD and what the company has stood for all these years. I want to assure them that nothing will change. If anything, down the road, there may just be reconfiguring in the warehouse to bring more items to bring more value and help MHD keep growing their business.’
WITH A PASSIONATE AND AMBITIOUS mission of sparking a global movement, Cairnspring Mills, located in the Skagit Valley in northwest Washington state, is building regenerative food systems that lift farmers out of a commodity system by producing healthy, flavorful flours made from identity-preserved grains.
The practices of Cairnspring Mills are deeply rooted in being in harmony with the flavor of their grains and sustainability of their soils, unlike commodity grains that test simply for yield or protein. The grassroots company co-founded by Kevin Morse in 2016 has become the cornerstone of turning flour procurement back to its wholesome beginnings by sourcing specialty grains producing exceptional flavor in breads and baked goods while being naturally nutritious and easy to digest as nature intended.
Beyond being the ultimate flours in terms of deliciousness and health for humans, Cairnspring Mills grains are, wait for it… better for the planet. For example, their Trailblazer Bread Flour is made from grains known to have superior disease resistance, which is especially important in wetter climates such as Skagit County. It also produces a dark, rich crust and a rustic, earthy crumb that is so useful in hearth loaves. Another varietal with tremendous flavor, color and resilience is Cairnspring Mills’ Organic Skagit 1109 Specialty Flour, bred naturally by their neighboring Washington State University Bread Lab.
The epitome of pro-local farmer, Cairnspring Mills buys directly from their friend-farmer community who are committed to soil health. Cairnspring Mills farmers are contractually prohibited from using glyphosate as a harvest aid, and from using neonicotinoid-coated seeds due to their documented harmful effects on humans, pollinators, and wildlife. This band of integral farmers are also paid a premium over the prices they get in the commodity markets to ensure they are more than fairly compensated for the superior product they grow for Cairnspring Mills.
Committed to being completely traceable with their identity-preserved grains, Cairnspring Mills stores their wheat locally in small-scale grain silos. Each varietal is stored separately, and their wheat is never blended with commodity wheat or any other wheat they didn’t buy directly from the grower. This commitment to identity preservation and traceability does come with tradeoffs. Whatever they take off the fields at harvest time needs to sustain their customers until the following harvest. If they get a spike in demand, they can’t call a commodity grain broker to replenish their silos. However, they believe this is a worthwhile tradeoff because it is core to the unique flavors and quality baked goods that Cairnspring Mills is able to generate with their flours.
Cairnspring Mills utilizes stone-milling tech-
nology rather than relying on technology that’s standard for industrial flour mills. Stone-milling requires more attention and craft, and the buzz in the bakeries is that Cairnspring Mills’ flour offers superior texture and flavor.
With a unique mill that utilizes both rollers and stones, Cairnspring Mills’ grain is tempered for 24 hours before it enters the mill and allowed to pass through the rollers to make more readily available the essential bran, germ, and endosperm of the grain to be milled into the finished product, and then passed it through the stones twice. This allows them to maintain the natural nutrition and flavor of the grain. All Cairnspring Mills’ flours retain more of the bran and the germ. The germ is particularly important because it is where many of the nutrients, antioxidants, oils, and flavors are stored. Industrial mills remove this germ to create an extended multi-year shelf-stable product. Cairnspring Mills is milling fresh flour with a 12-month shelf life to preserve flavor and nutritional advantages.
CW Magazine caught up with enigmatic Cairnspring Mills CEO Kevin Morse (an experienced farmer and naturalist in his own right) to get to the heart of why the greatest artisan bakers in the nation are singing his praises.
Kevin, you grew up in an Italian-American family where you first experienced authentic food playing a central role in society and
Cairnspring Mills is revolutionizing the universe of old-world-new-world baked goods one bag of flour at a time.Photo by © Liz Barclay/Tartine Bakery
in life in general. Please share how this formed you as a person and purveyor.
You know, my grandparents and great grandparents were Italian immigrants from southern Italy, the Calabria area in Sicily. Being farmers with ten kids, the ability to grow their own food in America, which was not possible in the part of Italy they came from, was essential for them. A great gift my grandparents passed down to us was the opportunity to not only to sustain ourselves but to pursue education. This was really at the core of what gave my family a beginning in this country; the ability to elevate ourselves and pursue things our grandparents could never have gotten where they came from.
Then of course in the Italian culture you have family dinner every Sunday. The pot of tomato sauce is on the stove, the family gathered; uncles and aunts and cousins all show up. I always loved that. It gave me the feeling of security and safety, like I was part of something special. This really instilled in me the importance of ritual and family.
I remember asking my grandfather what life was like during the Great Depression and he replied saying, ‘Not much changed because we had a big family, we had a farm, and we could feed ourselves. This gave us the ability to also feed our neighbors and take care of our community; those who weren’t as lucky as us.’
Ever since childhood, I’ve been trying to recreate the food system and the sense of community and con-
nectivity that I had with my family because they realized the importance not only for their own wellbeing and nourishment, but that of the larger community.
So, you had a kind of ‘flour-power’ revolution prediction?
Not exactly. You know, when we started this mill, I was one of the original skeptics when people were talking about a mill and better flour. And then I visited our neighbors at the Washington State University of Redlands who were breeding and testing grain varieties that weren’t commodity grains, and that grew well in our environment. And I was absolutely blown away by not only flavor, which was the first thing I noticed, but the diversity of grains that were available for different applications. I immediately got very excited about it. I hate to say this, and hopefully my mother will forgive me, but the bread and the pizza that they made with these grain varieties was beyond anything I ever tasted growing up.
The folks at W.S.U. were really helpful in helping me understand what the possibility was in terms of grains and also the importance of choosing grains that were disease resistant, but that would also still yield well for the farmer, and finally that also possess flavor and aroma. You have to know that these elements are not part of the sourcing criteria for large industrial mills. For those, it’s the cheapest grade possible. Protein levels don’t matter or where it came from or how it was grown. So I learned there is a better way to grow and produce flour for bakers
and for the home bakers well. I literally had a re-education, as well.
This ‘re-education’ is inspiring a baking evolution with the greatest bakeries and pizzerias clamoring for your flours including pastry god Chad Robertson founder of acclaimed Tartine Bakery, Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco, and tenacious up and comer Jyan Isaac of Jyan Isaac Bread (also featured in this edition of CW Magazine.)When you started all of this, did you foresee such a high level of success and celebration for your flours?
Not initially to be honest, because most people thought we were crazy. ‘Really, you’re going to try to do something to a commodity flour market where there’s cheap product available everywhere?’ That was the general consensus. Initially, it was just the bakers in our community that started sharing their love of our flours by word of mouth. We didn’t have any kind of marketing. I was amazed at how fast the word spread, how much unsolicited help we got from the bakers and the bread lab and the farmers. This really was like an old-fashioned barn raising, everybody pitched in. The community was the foundation. I continue to be amazed at the flavor, quality and taste of the bread and pizza that people like Chris Bianco are turning out with our flour. This was a revelation for all of us.
Junior Borges is more than a chef. He’s a force of will, talent, and determination; a lesson on how humble hard work intermingled with vision can take you as far as your dreams can venture.
ROWING UP IN RIO DE JANEIRO, Borges was captivated by his grandmother’s dynamic cooking, steeped in Bahia’n homeland traditions. Though cooking beckoned Junior early on, the culinary trade at the time was not an acceptable pursuit for a young educated Brazilian man. Wanting to take the more ‘respectable’ route, Borges went to college to be a teacher and studied nutrition. However, it quickly became clear this was not the path he was supposed to be on.
In 2001 Borges followed his sister to New York City, where she had moved to follow her own ambitions. His mother soon would follow. Without
having yet learned to speak English, and the need to contribute to his family in the pricey Big Apple, Borges wound up working as an upscale bathroom attendant among other odd jobs, to make ends meet.
In his free time, Borges began to obsess over cooking shows and cookbooks that he would read in the aisles of Barnes & Noble. He set out to teach himself to cook and be facile enough with his kitchen skills to pursue a job in culinary. This self-training eventually led to his knocking on the doors of Sony Club and offering to work for free until he proved himself.
With grit and a natural ability unleashing opportunity, Borges soon began working at A Voce under Chef Missy Robbins (a James Beard Award Winner), Colicchio & Sons with Tom Colicchio, and after graduating from the International Culinary Center, was offered the Executive Chef position at Amali.
Executive Chef at Uchi and FT33 (Matt McCallister) in Dallas, TX, would follow. After stepping into concept development with Joule Hotel (Mirador, CBD Provisions), Borges became Vice President of Culinary at The Village in Dallas, where he opened Meridian in 2021.
CW Mag was thrilled to catch a moment with ever-in-motion Borges for a rich conversation about his life, his African-infused homeland, and the diverse culinary tapestry that has his modern Brazilian menu at Meridian sing.
You’ve said that food was a big part of your life growing up. Please share more about this.
Half of my family on my mom’s side come from Bahia, the largest African population in Brazil and the largest African concentration outside of Africa. So it’s a big part of the state’s roots, traditions, and culture. My grandparents migrated to Rio from Bahia in the 50s. This was not easy for my grandmother, who had twenty-three siblings.
Twenty-three siblings! That’s simply amazing. Much respect to your great-grandmother! What part of Africa was she from?
We don’t know exactly; probably West Africa because of the migration of slavery. My great-grandmother was born a slave. Unfortunately, our patriarchs die, and we don’t know which country they came from exactly.
Please share more about your Grandmother’s cooking that you loved so and that inspires many dishes on your menu at Meridian.
In Brazil, growing up in Rio, the cultures are very much rooted in the kind of things my grandmother would make for us. She was the oldest of all of her siblings, so she was like half Mom. Food was always a big part of life that connected the traditions she grew up with in Bahia and how you care for your family and show love. My grandmother’s family was very poor. Food was what brought everyone together. One of the dishes we would eat, which inspires what we do in the restaurant, is my homage to her: Skate Moqueca with charred plantain and coconut broth, dende oil, and steamed rice,which is essentially a fish stew cooked in red palm oil which brings all of these aromatics into the restaurant. Traditionally you put all the fish steaks with the bones in the stew, which flavors the broth. Our menu also includes variations on what I would eat as a child growing up in Rio--Tapioca & Brazilian Cheese Fritters with Benton’s country ham, farm pickles, and smoked hot sauce or Grilled Beach Cheese on a Stick with hot honey, oregano, and lime.
Going back to the African influences of your upbringing and cuisine, can you share a few central ingredients that resonate through your menu at Meridian?
For sure, Yuka, because it was indigenous to slavery. I also feel like one of the main ingredients of my grandmother’s food was manioca (a starch made by leaching and drying the root of the cassava plant, the source of tapioca) because there are so many different applications that you can make from it.
You are really educating your clientele in Dallas about what Brazilian food is all about.
Very few people here know what Brazilian cuisine is. Most
people think it’s a bunch of meat on a big skewer, like in a Brazilian steakhouse. We have a huge and rich culture in Brazil; there are so many different influences. The first I try and celebrate here obviously is African; the Yuka and the tapioca and the things I grew up with. However, Brazil also has the fourth largest Italian population outside of Italy, so I grew up eating a lot of pasta. There are also a lot of European restaurants like Portuguese in Rio and rotisserie chicken places where they serve the chicken with simple rice, beans and a little vinegar sauce like the Portuguese Peri Peri, which is very acidic and spice-forward that accompanies meats and other things. At Meridian, we pull from these different influences and try to show that Brazilian cuisine is eclectic.
Can you share a bit about the organic nature of your rise to success?
When I moved to New York at 20 years old, I knew I wanted to be around food, but I didn’t know exactly what that would look like. I didn’t have any money. I didn’t speak English and didn’t have the ability to go to school. It can be a scary moment in New York when you don’t speak the language or know anyone. My first job was giving out pamphlets. I barely had any clothes. I was just trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Then there was an ad for culinary school in the subway station, and my Mom said, ‘Why don’t you do that?’ And I was like, ‘Well yeah, I love food.’ And she’s like, ‘Yea, you’re always eating too.’ So that moment was really the start.
How did you not get discouraged?
I was in survival mode, right? It was me, my mom, and my sister in a small apartment at the time. Everyone had to work. I just felt very responsible that I had to contribute and do my part. So eventually, I worked for free in a kitchen for 6-7 months. And then, right around that time, I had a son, and I was like. ‘Okay, I really have to better myself and create a better opportunity for me and my kid.’ I always had this mentality of needing to prove myself. I’m Black, and I always felt I was behind. Why would they give me this job when they can give it to another guy? So I worked very hard.
You have worked with a lot of the big names, Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, and of course Tom Colicchio, to name a few, who believed in you and have advocated for your rise in this industry. Being at your current level, what do you feel you have in common with these mentors?
I always understood the chef’s work ethic. I remember even when I worked for Tom Colicchio. He was there basically every day opening the restaurant, and after three months, he wasn’t there every single day. And then somebody said, ‘Ah, Tom gets to do whatever he wants.’ I responded, ‘Do you understand that this man has worked for over 30 years? He has more than put in his work!’
Your resilience and self-possession, in spite of what you’ve had to work against, has been, in
some ways, a blessing. Because many people are born with everything and don’t get anywhere.
100%. I mean, thinking about it, so many stories and things that I have gone through have made me who I am and pushed me to be the person who is never satisfied and always wants to improve myself, be better and conquer more. To this day, I still have that. I don’t take no for an answer.
We have a huge and rich culture in Brazil; there are so many different influences.
by Kelli Colaco
estaurant dreams run in the family for the Vidrio family. As with most dreams, the journey to making them a reality is rife with unpredictable challenges as well as unforeseeable joy and satisfaction after all of the hard work.
LORENA AND CARLOS VIDRIO GREW UP IN THE RESTAURANT BUSINESS, first with their father’s food truck (before food trucks were cool, and were referred to as ‘roach coaches’) in L.A. This planted the first seedling of his dream to own a taqueria. Though his offerings from the food truck would surely make the Eater Top 10 list today, back in the 80s, such kitchen vehicles were frowned upon and lacked the ordinances to make them legitimate.
After an arduous hands-on build in San Jose at 854 N. 14th Street, Jose and Carmen (Lorena and Carlos’ parents), opened Taqueria Lorena offering high-level, authentic tacos and the kind of quality Mexican food that soon ignites by word of mouth. Jose’s dream had come to fruition, so much so that a sister venue would be opened on North 13th Street.
Sadly, in 2013 a fire took down Taqueria Lorena, which at that point had become an iconic destination. Due to the recession at that time, it was not possible to resurrect Taqueria Lorena and the venue remained shuttered for nearly a decade. During this period, Lorena and Carlos attended culinary school at the International Culinary Center in Campbell, CA. Lorena interned at Che TJ’s, and Carlos at Alexanders by the Sea. Ten years was also the gestation time for Lorena’s dream to take flight; to open a modern and innovative Mexican restaurant in the space of her family’s former restaurant.
Acopio (meaning together or to gather) opened in January 2022. With a jaw-dropping, authentic yet deeply dynamic and contemporary menu, and a sleek Aztec-influenced, modern design, Acopio, helmed by
talented Executive Chef Marshall Reid with Carlos as ‘asistente de comida’ and Lorena creating the desserts and handling administrative duties, has all the makings of a food destination hot spot.
Chef Marshall Reid’s menu, overflowing with creative spins on many of Lorena and Carlos’ cherished family recipes with nods to Carmen’s family who owned a tortilla factory, and Jose’s mothers and aunts, who are exceptional cooks who catered celebratory events back in Colima Mexico, entices and beguiles with Panela a la Plancha-grilled panela cheese, chile salt, tomatillo jam and radish salad; Mole de Pistachio con Pato—chile adobo duck confit; and Callos Incrustados con Chicharron—chicharron crusted scallops, roasted poblano crema, baby fennel, and guajillo-fumet foam.
The menu also benefits from an equally captivating bar program by David Pagan and includes cocktail pairing suggestions such as La Ex with pineapple jalapeño-infused tequila, house pickled pineapple, jalapeño and cilantro oil, or the La Fogata with amaras verde, bourbon, house-made cinnamon syrup and black walnut bitters, or the Bebida
Prohibida–Gem & Bolt mezcal, lime, passion fruit, house chamoy and chile salt. This, along with the vibrant menu, solidifies Acopio’s aspirations to take the family business to a whole other realm of restaurant.
Despite the high-level culinary nature of Acopio, its chief mission is, as in the name of the venue, ‘to bring people together.’ The neighborhood surrounding Acopio, which Lorena describes as ‘ungentrified’–code for still culturally-stimulating, is filled with a diverse collection of blue and white-collar workers and craftsmen; a mixed community that isn’t overwhelmingly (or annoyingly) affluent. Therefore, it is key to the team that their restaurant remains accessible and inviting.
An interesting aspect of the conversation percolating from Acopio’s innovative riffs on Mexican traditional cooking are the debates between the clientele, who appreciate the menu but feel compelled to get into the proverbial ‘what is authentic’ line of polite interrogation.
Chef Marshall, a former professional trombone player with a talented Southern comfort food grandmother, comments,’ In Oaxaca there are like a thousand different types of mole and everybody makes it a little bit differently. People like to say ‘authentic’ or ‘inauthentic,’ but that differs from family to family and from town to town. You grow up down the street from a friend and go over to the other friend’s house for dinner, and his grandma makes
her family’s authentic mole, and the other grandma will be like,’ No. That is not authentic. You have to put cloves in it! Ideally, people are accustomed to using what they have available’. Chef Marshall adds, ‘There are many legends surrounding the invention of mole. For instance, Oaxaca and Puebla in Mexico claim to create it. One legend alleges that nuns at a convent in Puebla created the dish in a panic from what few ingredients they had due to the impending visit of an archbishop. They served it with roasted turkey. A further story dates back to Mesoamerica when Moctezuma served it to Cortés when he arrived in Mexico, mistakenly thinking he was a god. Either way, the origins will likely remain a mystery, given that the first written recipes for mole only existed after the War of Independence in 1810.
Lorena, who spent many childhood summers in Colima, Mexico, with brother Carlos at her grandparent’s rustic ranch by the sea, observing her grandmother and aunts make their own cheese, butcher, and create sumptuous feasts for their private catering business, offers, ‘ If you think about it, Mexican food is rooted in so many ingredients, so many dishes melding many cultures that have never stopped evolving. Mole is one of the examples that, throughout history, has so many variations and components. Mole, which means ‘sauce,’ cannot come from just one culture because so many ingredients are involved. It’s just a huge mixture of ingredients that create a sauce. Mole is iconic for our culture. Our mole at Acopio
is in tune with this.
Our objective is to take things slow; make sure that we’re capable of handling whatever popularity comes our way. We don’t want to grow so quickly that we can’t handle it. We’re going to grow into it and can’t wait for that success. At the same time, we’re figuring out all the little nuances and challenges that still to this day come up. We adjust as we go. I also think because we’re doing something that’s a little bit too edgy for some people, who feel like Mexican food should only be ‘traditional,’ that a little bit of education is necessary to make sure that people understand that we’re trying to move forward not recreate traditions that are already well done in so many other restaurants.’
22-year-old Jyan Isaac gets up at 3:30 am on the days he bakes for his acclaimed (LA Times, Food & Wine Magazine), brick-and-mortar Jyan Issac Bread, on 16th and Ocean Park in Santa Monica.
LIKE SO MANY IN THE PROFESSION, Jyan was set adrift as a team member baker at artisanal bakery Gjusta when the pandemic unleashed its wave of damage, particularly to small businesses, back in 2020. However, with a more fervent dream up his sleeve, Jyan, 19-years-old at the time, put one foot in front of the other by starting a private business baking sourdough loaves out of his parent’s kitchen.
What began as selling his bread around the neighborhood, escalated to Isaac hand-delivering to his Instagram followers from a closed-down pizzeria, to a full-fledged ratcheting up and working out of his own location, Jyan Isaac Bread, barely two years later with six full-time bakers and 20-25 employees.
A sourdough devotee from the start, and inspired by revolutionary baker Chad Robertson of Tartine Bakery since middle school, Jyan shares how sourdough has long been his bread of choice. ‘There are a lot of aspects that led to sourdough being my specialty; the creativity behind all the different ancient grains (*Sourdough is the oldest form of leavened bread and was used at least as early as ancient Egypt) that are available nowadays. I love all the flavor profiles you can create. I have always been very tactile, so working with my hands is really important. The process of making sourdoughs is also very grounding, like a meditational-therapeutic all-day process. There are so many variables involved that are constantly changing. All of this is fascinating. For instance, any weather change makes the fermentation
different. So, you have to be in tune and adjust accordingly.’
With the game-changing evolution of pristinely procured antique grains and milled flours, like that of Cairnspring Mills Flours (See feature also included in this edition of CW Mag), on the rise, die-hard craft bakers like Issac are leading the charge. On the thrust of turning the wheel back to the days when bread was actually good for you, Jyan shares, ‘The nutrition aspect is also one of the reasons I love sourdough. It goes way back to the old ways of making bread. Traditional sourdough has a very long and slow fermentation process compared to more commercial breads, which take many shortcuts to make the bread really fast. Because these more commercial doughs do not have the time to break down, they’re very hard for the body to digest. This is why so many people have become gluten intolerant.’
Continuing his very educative bread-nutrition breakdown, Isaac continues. ‘At my bakery, we ferment overnight. It’s a very natural and slow fermentation. The grain breaks down properly, so
it’s easy for your body to digest. Because of this fermentation process, our bread offers a similar probiotic function to Kombucha or other fermented foods. It’s just the way bread is supposed to be made.’
With ‘flour-power’ the foundation of all great baked offerings, Jyan, whose company is currently building a big commissary kitchen in Culver City and moving all production there early this summer, comments on his hearty use and appreciation for Cairnspring Mills. ‘I use Cairnspring Mills because they offer the freshest flour on the market. With a lot of high-quality artisinal flours, you know they’ve been sitting around for quite a while. With Cairnspring Mills, you know the flour you get from them has been milled generally within the same month I get it at the bakery. This freshness greatly affects our bread.’
A straightforward, modest ‘old soul,’ it’s clear, Jyan is a young craftsman deeply in his groove and also someone who’s clearly not afraid of hard work. When asked what qualities he feels make up a great baker, he offered, ‘It just takes passion for the craft because you have to constantly keep learning and getting better at the process. There’s just so much to learn and it takes a really long time. Even to this day, I’m learning about the process, little things here and there. You just have to take things slow and stay open.’
by Kelli Colaco
When I had the opportunity to catch up with Chef Oscar Amador Edo for our interview, he had heard the news that his hard-earned restaurant, EDO Tapas and Wine, had been nominated as a James Beard Semi-Finalist. However, Chef Oscar’s yo-yo journey to that glory-filled moment could easily be the fodder for the next hit show about restaurant life for Netflix or HBO. Growing up in a small town adjacent to Barcelona, Edo remembers his early affinity for Catalonia’s rich culinary traditions.
Chef offered, ‘I grew up in a small town near Barcelona near the mountains and the Mediterranean Sea around fresh seafood markets. I remember going with my mom to buy fresh fish every day. Everyone in my family cooked; my mom and aunts were great cooks. My sister, who is now an interior designer, helped out at the first restaurant I opened when I was 22. Catalonia has amazing cooking traditions. Each region has its own ways of combining land and sea together on a plate. We also have a great variety of vegetables and fruits, lots of different types of mushrooms from the hills that you can’t get anywhere else, and big leeks we eat with romesco sauce. Being so close to France, there is big cheese culture, of course.’
With culinary school (Hofmann BCN Chef School) and stages at prestigious, three Michelin star restaurants El Bulli and El Racó de Can Fabes, Chef Oscar successfully owned and operated three venues--Ajo Negro, TapeArt, and A Mano for over a decade in Barcelona.
Despite his incredible success, Edo, charmed by his many trips to California and Las Vegas, decided to take the proverbial professional plunge. Leaving his hard-won reputation and excelling restaurants on the table, Edo and his wife picked up and relocated to the ever-growing, hot-food destination of ‘Sin City,’ Las Vegas.
Anyone who’s ever moved countries can attest, the status achieved back home doesn’t easily transfer to your new environment. Despite Edo’s extensive experience and success back in Barcelona as a high-end chef and restaurateur accustomed to creating tasting menus of Michelin-level excellence, he had never worked in a U.S. kitchen and did not know its distinct ‘system.’ It took a while for anyone to take a gamble on him.
Oscar was eventually hired at the prestigious Le Cirque. However, it did not take long for him to realize this was not where he wanted to grow his state-side trajectory. Chef offered, ‘It was just not a good fit for me. At the end of the day, I just felt like a number.’
Resigning from his position at Le Cirque six months after he started, Edo felt disillusioned; the dream he had envisioned unfolding in Las Vegas seemed a million miles away. With five kids and a wife to support, there was also the added pressure of needing to bring home the proverbial bacon. Chef shares his unpredictable pivot, ‘After Le Cirque; I was self-employed for many years, so, it was hard. I decided to open a food truck. We used to make some nice sandwiches. I opened it with my excellent partner Roberto Liendo. We invested in the food truck and started the business, which was good. We started doing a lot of events. I met a lot of chefs and made a lot of contacts. And then, because of the food truck, we found other investors to open up our first restaurant EDO.’
Chef Oscar offered, ‘Working in the food truck was probably the hardest job of my life.The great takeaway, however, shared Oscar, was the satisfaction of standing for what you want, moving forward at any cost, and having doors of opportunity open. Edo shared, ‘I feel like I had to take that big step back to move forward.’
With Edo and business partner Liendo having recently opened their second venue Anima (also in L.V. and offering a charcuterie, seafood counter, and cocktail bar), Chef Oscar is in the ‘sweet-spot’ of his career. Chef Oscar is at long last back in the ‘sweet spot,’ of his career. With two successful venues as the talk of the (off-the-strip) town, Oscar can focus on what he loves most, offering
his guests the most exceptional and diverse tapas and Catalonian cuisine, layered with Japanese, Moroccan, French, Italian, and South American techniques and influences. Chefs Oscar shared, ‘We want to offer something modern with our food and not be so attached to anything. Located on Chinatown’s edge in Las Vegas, people are more open to experiencing this kind of food.’
EDO, having survived the immense challenges of the pandemic due to what Chef Oscar credits as having a small venue, having not been in debt before, and having assistance from the government to help them get through, now makes 80% of its revenue from its popular tasting menu.
With the recent financial stress hitting especially smaller venues due to ever-squeezing inflation, Chef Oscar highlighted the great help his CW Sales Rep. Anthony Angotta has been to support his business, ‘Anthony is doing such a great job. He really takes care of us in terms of pricing. Everything is super expensive right now. Our percentages are very low, so we always need to find the best prices to keep going, or we could go down fast. So his help has been really important and appreciated.’
Chef Edo comments on how good it feels to have overcome so many obstacles and be where he is now,’ I always talk with my partner Robert about when we first got the venue location in Chinatown. It was so small. It was like a hole in the wall. I remember us looking at each other and saying, ‘Do you really think this is going to work?’ And then I say, ‘I’m going to make it work.’ Robert looked around the empty space at the time, and he said, this is going to be a really nice place. He pointed around, saying, ‘One day people are going to wait in line to eat here.’
I’m very proud of what we have created. Now the big hotels are sending tourists over here because of our reputation, and Robert was right. People are happy to wait to eat at our little location, which is one of the reasons we opened our second place, Anima. From all of this hard work, things are growing very nicely.’
The Fancy Food Show this past January in Las Vegas overflowed with a bounty of enthusiasm, attendance, and rows and rows of extra participating vendors is superseding that of ’22’s F.F.S. (also held in L.V.) Replete with the exciting Tesla Tunnel, the food industry’s biggest annual show was a rippling success building upon last year’s break-out show following two dormant years due to the pandemic.
A highlight of the F.F.S. week was the opportunity for the CW Leadership (West) team to come together for several festive occasions, walk the show floor and connect with all of our treasured vendors and attending chef-customers.
From the mind of François Mellet, comes this uniquely complex and refreshing dessert application marrying spicy with sweet.
Francois Mellet was born in Lyon, France, and holds a culinary degree in pastry and chocolate. He brings more than 30 years of experience to The Chefs’ Warehouse pastry category, serving as Qzina’s Corporate Pastry Chef since 2010. In 2012, Chef Francois earned a Guinness world record for building the world’s largest chocolate structure: a chocolate replica of an ancient Mayan temple to celebrate the roots of cocoa that weighed 18,239 pounds. In 2017, Mellet was named one of the ‘Top 10 Pastry Chefs in USA’ by Dessert Magazine.
Vitalize your Easter, Passover, or Mother’s Day dessert menu, with CW Executive Pastry Chef Francois Mellet’s refreshing and distinctive Margot Meringue.
The exotic nuance of gochugaru Korean spice in the meringue intermingles perfectly with Sosa Gelcrem (Hot) with Matisse by Sicoly Coconut Puree and is well-paired with Sosa Hot Inulin with Matisse by Sicoly Mango Puree. Mellet’s vibrant Margot Meringue is finished with fresh mango and a flourish of edible flowers.
‘The sweetness of the meringue is broken up nicely with the bit of spice incorporated from the gochugaru. We are also very proud to launch our exclusive line of items from Matisse by Sicoly fruit purées which inspire endless imagination in terms of possible applications!’
François Mellet -CW Executive Pastry Chef
Taylor and Siobhan discovered their simple dream: a simple eatery, with simple food from locally sourced, seasonal ingredients...was not so simple. This is their story.
Siobhan and I met in New York 8 years ago. We worked at the Wythe Hotel at what used to be called Reynard. Siobhan was in pastry. I was on the savory side. It was my first restaurant job in New York City. I grew up in Florida and was born in Tennessee, and then just bounced around. My uncle owns a couple of restaurants in Durham, NC and I worked with him for 4 years. I fell in love with the camaraderie and the family aspect of the kitchen. I decided to go to culinary school in New York and did an intense 6-month program, which included 4 months in Emilia-Romagna. I got set up with an internship at this little restaurant on the beach of Tuscany. I worked there for a little over 2 1/2 months then moved to New York. And that’s where we met. Siobhan and I are business partners, but also she’s my fiancé. This last year’s been about opening a restaurant and trying to plan a wedding.
SIOBHAN My path is different from Taylor’s. I didn’t have a culinary upbringing of watching my mom and my grandma cook. I grew up in Austin and got to my junior year of high school, and I needed a PE credit. For some reason, culinary arts counted as PE at my high school. And I was like, I like food. That sounds fun. You had to interview to get into the class, and it was the real deal: the teacher had been a chef for 20 years; we had a professional kitchen in a Texas public high school; we ordered food from Sysco. It was a complete immersion in food. And I remember one class I made this focaccia bread and the chef was like, ‘This is the best focaccia I’ve ever had.’ And it was like a little light bulb went on in my head. And I was like, wow. I’m gonna go to culinary school.
From culinary school I had the opportunity to go to Scotland, where my family is originally from, and had an incredible few months. I returned to Austin where I worked for a number of years, then I got the itch to move to NYC where my sister was living. I met Taylor pretty soon after and it just changed my whole life, really.
TAYLOR What led us to do the cafe? Covid was brutal for the restaurant industry.
SIOBHAN I’d started my own little baking business out of the house, not really thinking it would go anywhere, yet it grew and grew. But seeing so many people we loved with restaurants that just go under, we both really questioned if we even wanted to keep doing this. But neither one of us is trained in any other skill whatsoever.
TAYLOR In a way it was like, we don’t really have a choice. But we talked for a long time about what if we were gonna do it. How would we do it? How would we make it different? How could we affect change in a meaningful way? And feeling like Covid would never go away, is now the time for change?
Cafe Olli has brought us closer together because we realized how much this place means to us, and how much of it is us.
TAYLOR Covid taught us to pivot and “make it work”, no matter how you had to.
SIOBHAN And we got lucky when we found this space, like, yes, it already has this wood-fired oven. We also have a really cool landlord who didn’t charge us rent until the restaurant opened. We feel very fortunate for that.
TAYLOR One of the biggest things we wanted was a restaurant that had a better, more democratic balance of the environment. We wanted to create a place where people actually liked coming to work, where they didn’t wake up every day thinking, ‘Oh God, it’s time for me to go to work again.’ We opened with five owners – right now it’s just Siobhan and me – and one of the original owners helped us build a different model that gives our employees a bit more say. We opened an employeeowned trust (EOT) that owns 50% of the company. Siobhan and I are never going to pull a profit unless every single person in the restaurant does. We want people who want to stay and grow with us and help push this business forward. We hope that this
SIOBHAN Our rep Sarah is literally an angel from heaven. She’s a former pastry chef and brings a unique perspective to her work. Every week we literally get a palette and a half’s worth of flour from CW – local Oregon made flours from Cairnprings and Camas Country Mill. They keep our bakery going.
TAYLOR Olive oil is a big thing for me, and all of the different types of EVOO that we get – especially Frantoia. It’s kind of like our staple. And we make all of our own sausage in-house and all of the spices we get, we get from you guys. Also the Alta Cucina canned tomatoes; it’s a huge part of all of our pizzas, which really speak to what we’re about: Simplicity. You can taste every ingredient on it.
model helps with that. We feel strongly about wanting to create a different culture while still supporting all of our local farms and purveyors.
SIOBHAN The way we both think about food is very simple. It’s the farmers who do the really hard work. We get to have fun with the produce.
TAYLOR There’s also nothing to hide behind. Everything has to be seasoned perfectly. The acidity has to be there, as does the lamination on the pastries. There’s no frills. We’re not fancy people. We are who we are. We don’t try and hide behind anything.
SIOBHAN And Cafe Olli came about very quickly – way quicker than we anticipated, and probably way quicker than we were ready for. Cafe Olli has brought us closer together because we realized how much this place means to us, and how much of it is us, and what we put into it being reflected back. I’ve also learned that Taylor is an infinitely more patient person than I am, but I think I already knew that.
TAYLOR We had our one year anniversary on
December 9th. And I feel like I’ve aged 10 years in that one year.
SIOBHAN I think the thing that I loved the most about Taylor from the time that we met is Taylor has no ego whatsoever. He treats every single person in the restaurant the same, from the sous chef to the dishwasher. We’ll never ask somebody to do something that we would not do ourselves. Taylor and I will work shifts in the dish pit. We’ll cover a front of house shift. We’ll get down and scrub the floor. And Taylor really takes the time to build everyone around him up. It’s just who he is.
TAYLOR One of the things that I love about Siobhan? She forms relationships with people that truly transcend those four walls of the restaurant. Like a lot of our employees, you know, yes, we write their paychecks, but I truly consider them our friends. And we would do anything that we could for them. It’s important to us to create a place that everybody feels comfortable in coming to work and supported. Hopefully, we’re doing it.
“ Cafe Olli on The Chefs’ Warehouse:
Bel Aria, The Chefs’ Warehouse’s private label of distinction, offers a wide selection of olives, pickled delicacies, vinegars, EVOOS, rices, porcini, fire-roasted red peppers, and the finest Mediterranean essentials from Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and beyond.
