August 14, 2024 • 50 mins
Chef Melissa Araujo grew up in a large family in La Ceiba, Honduras, where her Sicilian mother and Latina grandmother were important culinary influences. At Alma Café in New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood, Araujo prepares in her words "elevated Honduran cooking." Alma means “soul” in Spanish. And cooking is where Araujo found what stirs her soul, offering farm to table menus reflecting her heritage with a creative touch. Alma's kitchen staff are all immigrant women whom Araujo personally trains.
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The Connected Table is broadcast live Wednesdays at 2PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
The Connected Table Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-connected-table-live--1277037/support.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
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make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
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(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Welcome to the Connected Table Live. We're your hosts, Melanie
Young and David Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple. We
enjoy traveling the world and our own backyard to discover
the amazing people who were front and center and behind
the scenes in wine, food, spirits, and hospitality. And we
love sharing their stories with you and hope it inspires
(01:02):
you to try their wines, taste their spirits, visit their restaurants,
and travel and explore, because that really is what this
is all about, and exploring the world. We are taking
you to our backyard of New Orleans, Louisiana, to a
delightful restaurant in one of the most charming neighborhoods the
(01:22):
city has. The city is just filled with these incredible
little neighborhoods all over and a lot of people who
come to New Orleans never really venture out of like
mid City and the Central Business district in the French Quarter,
and we encourage everybody to come and explore. We are
taking you to the bywater to Alma Restaurant. It's Alma Cafe.
(01:46):
It's a fabulous place. We just had dinner there. They're
just starting dinner service and the owner and chef is
Melissa Araujo, who is from Honduras and really brings what
they have said in the reviews. Elen Duran cooking to
the United States. She has been a James Beard Foundation
(02:06):
semi finalist for this year twenty twenty four and has
achieved a lot of acclaim and we had a delightful
conversation with her when we went to visit recently and
we are just thrilled to have her with us now, right, David.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
We also had a delightful dinner.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Oh yeah, it was great. We're going to talk about
that and it's really one of the happening Brunch spots
in the city as well. So Melissa, welcome to the
Connected table.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Guys, thank you for inviting me. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
You know, we learned a lot talking to you briefly.
In fact, we learned that you have a very diverse background.
Tell us about your family. We mentioned, you know you
have a hon Duran roots, but it goes much more
than that.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Yes, well, my mother's Basilian Italian. Her family immigrated to
the United States in the nineteen nineteen twenties. Nineteen nineteen
I think, and the whole family immigrated to New York,
and then my grandfather moved to New Orleans to invest
(03:10):
in the Food Standard Company at that time, then decided
to move half our half the family to Honduras to
be one of the working partners in that industry and
the Standard Food Company. And my father is also my
father's mixed. My father is mine Hondurance with Portuguese, Spanier
(03:36):
and Jewish.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Wow, so that's fascinating. So how were you raised? I'm
curious the Jewish part. I'm Southern Jewish. What were you raised?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
I was raised. Actually, it's kind of weird because I
was raised Catholic.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
My mother religion. My father didn't practice at all Judism
or any other religion.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
So it was interesting because even though he didn't practice,
he still kept some traditions in the family like Locke
and you know, things that you be in Spanish you
don't eat.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
But for us was a customer of our table.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
You know, give us an example of that table, because
it is such a rich and diverse heritage. You know
who did the cooking first of all, and what were
some of the family dishes that you remember most.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
So the cooking, my first memories was my grandmother and
my mother.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
My mother cooked heavily Italian and my and also cooked Honduran.
So growing up for me was no difference in eating
Italian food and eating Hondurance food. I mean, my breakfast
food in the world and my mom used to buy
me with was plata no maduro with refried bees, Grandma
and cassel. So uh, he was like, if you'd be
(05:02):
a good girl, I would cook this for you for
a treat later on, you know, and that that was
that was it, that was the bribe, and that was amazing.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
But also do a goldness.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Pasta was one of my things that I loved to
to eat a lot to.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
Term suit anything that it was Italian.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
It wasn't our table one point another like everything that
it was undering also was an our table from aros
compoo torre has uh you know the Alma breakfast uh,
which is traditional Hundering breakfast to uh Bolio with reefry, beans, cremine,
(05:48):
cassel and eggs.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
So you made a sandwich with it.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
So it wasn't you know, it wasn't out of the
norm for me to growing up in eating those things.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Like also locks.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
I love bagels and locks and that's one of the
things that I my mother used to do for us,
you know, fresh bagels with cure salmon that she used
to cure red onions, capers and tomatoes on top of it.
For me was a natural thing like eating tomatoes with
olive oil, salt and pepper.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
That's quite a combo.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That really is a company.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
You're making us hungry.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
I still like just talking about it.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
We haven't had bagels and lox recently. We'll be fascinating.
So talk to us about your grandmother. What was her name?
And because a lot of you were very much inspired
by we've read about it and it's reflected on the menu.
Give us a sense of her personality. And her what
did you call her?
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Oh, her name Gurmercindaana. Her name was a little bit difficult.
Her name is Gourmetcinda. She was I think every of
every woman that grew up in the you know, in
the mid century, in the beginning of the century.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
I think she was born nineteen.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Nineteen fifteen, nineteen eighteen, something like that. She came from
being a very family of very Native Mayan descenders, and
she's from the mountains from Santa Rosa, Capane, very strong,
(07:33):
opinated women. Actually, her first marriage didn't work out, which
was just strange in the time that she actually left
her husband and got divorced. She was very strong minded
woman and who knew how to cook.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
I mean, that woman was an amazing chef, you know.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
And then her second marriage also fail and she had
no problem the worse than that guy either and raised
her four children by feeding people, cooking, you know. She
had a huge house, and she used to rent rooms
(08:16):
for college students, university students and feed them three times
a day, and they used to pay her.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
And that's how she she made her.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Living by feeding and boring people, you know, and she
made an honest living out of it. She wasn't rich
or anything, but she owned a lot of land. That
that was one of the things of my grandmother. She
was a hard working person and she wasn't the most
(08:47):
loving person, but she was very attached to her roots
and she would teach us those roots. You know, Like
I remember getting up early in the morning. Uh, why
do I have to feed the pigs? Why do I
have to feed the chickens or the dogs or anything
like that. It's just like, because that's our duty. We
(09:07):
have to do it. Like you like the pig right
when you're eating it, I'm like, yes, so you need
to treat that pig, feed it. So when it's time
for that pig to sacrifice his life, you have to
honor that life.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
So you have to put the work in.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
And when you kill a pig and you on, you know,
you give thanks to the Goddess that that animal gift
gave his life.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
You better use every.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Ingredient of that animal because we're not wasting anything. So
I was raised to understand the cycle of life. You
have to respect the animal. There's giving your life, that
life for feeding you, and you also have to use
every ingredient of that animal is giving you.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
You know, your grandmother sounds like she was a no
nonsense woman who liked to have control of her life.
And I think that's lot of admiration in that.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
So you.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Grew up in you were born in Honduras, but you
also spent time in Providence, Rhodes Island. What's the connection there.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
The connection is when my parents settled in New Orleans,
but my dad worked for the railroad. In the late eighties,
the railroad business was dying in New Orleans, you know,
there was less jobs, less opportunities. So Providence in Boston,
(10:33):
New England was the hub of the railroad business. There
was a lot of factory working there too. My parents'
older children were all out of the house. Me and
my sister was the only ones left. So they were like, okay,
time to move.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
To New England. And we had family there.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
My mother's sister Mary lived there all her life. Cousins,
you know, nieces. My mother's side of the family, the
one who stayed in the United States, did put roots.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
Down in New England and New York.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
And Providence, especially in Providence in Boston. So it was like, okay,
time to immigrate again. And we emigrated to Providence and
Providence was home until I hit teenager gears. Then my
parents was like, I'm tired of the coal. It's time
to retire. Let's go back to New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
How big was your family. It sounds like you had
several siblings.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
My parents had eight girls and two boys. Wow, so
that's ten children.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
That's a big family to feed and big family to support.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
That is true.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I mean, you know, listening for my older brothers, I
have a brother who is sixty eight now I think, yeah,
around sixty eight. So you know, both of my parents
worked very hard, especially my father.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
My father was most of it the provider. You know.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
They made they made a life, and they were able
to go up to upper middle class. And then you know,
when I came alone, that were well established. After my sister,
my mother decided to work and both of my parents
were working, you know, and it was all of it
(12:37):
at the time of the nineties and that I grew up.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
It was a different time.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
Where my older siblings grew up, you know, but I
had all that influence from my siblings, which actually you
can see it a lot in the way that I am,
especially in my music taste. It jumps a lot between blues, jazz, funk,
rock and roll, you know, all kind of music. And
(13:06):
then you go straight to my generation, which is Tupac
uh cool uh la cool, Madonna, a lot of other
It's like, oh, okay, so I think it worked out
to my advantage having older siblings.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
That's that's a great story. And and and you're in
touch with all of them.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
Still, yes, wow.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I think that's neat. So at one point you decided
you wanted to get more involved in cooking and make
cooking a career for yourself. How did that come about? Melissa?
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Well, that actually I always say this profession I didn't
pick it. This profession picked me when I was younger,
especially a teenager. Melissa was a nightmare.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Teenager.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Melissa was more American than anything. Answer back, I don't
give a damn about anything. I'm going to tell you
straight the way it is. And my father was a
person who was it's my way of the highway. So
we got into an argument and he kicked me out
of the house and I was like, okay, I'm gone,
let's do this, and I started working in a restaurant.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
My first job was at fifteen.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Actually, it was in a restaurant it was Swaman's Supermarket
here in New Auleans that is a supermarket chain that
doesn't exist anymore. And I remember working as a cashier.
And then after that I started working in a friends
restaurant because I needed extra money in the summer. And
(14:49):
once I was back to the school, I switched to
another job.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
There was Maurice's French Bakery. At night.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
I was learning to be a pay street chef and
you know, in going to my last year about high
school during the daytime. So it was a very interesting
time on my my life working as an adult and
then go to high school. And then I figured out
that year that I was not a good pastry ship.
I wanted a life, So graduated high school. Uh, and
(15:23):
I started working more in restaurants and I was like,
you know what, I can take a year or two
off from school and why not give it a try
to begin a cook, you know, And I liked it.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
I fell in love.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
I was like, Okay, awesome, that works. Decided to go
to culinary school. And a few weeks into culinary school,
I was like, why am I paying all this money?
This is ridiculous. I can learn all this in a restaurant.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
You know.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
So I got in an internship to Italy and the
internship was for six months. As supposed to come back,
I didn't. I stayed. So the person who hired me
basically told me, look, you have a talent, you can
develop it here the old fashioned way, because in Europe
(16:19):
you don't pay for culinary school.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
It's free. The people who go to trade schools is
because they can.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
They're considered not smart enough, so they it's a trade
school profession and they teach it for free.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
So I was like, okay, I'm in. I all a bite,
and I stayed.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
And you know, I went from being an interim to
every six months, I was changing positions because I became
massessed with the profession. If I'm going to be the
best diswatcher, you know, I'm going to be a washer,
I'm gonna be the bestest washer. So I'm gonna be
a pro cook. I'm gonna be the best prop cook.
(17:05):
I used to I still am the first person in
and the last person out of the restaurant, you know.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
And from that point in my.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Life, food became an asception. And you know, being in
my twenties, I had a ship in the shoulder that
I wanted to prove that I was really good. And
I did the top of my career for many years
until my mother got Diana's with Alzheimer's and that's when
(17:41):
I came back home. And during that time, it was
my late twenties, close to my thirties, and Katrina happened, actually, and.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
It was tough.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
And then after Katrina happened, it was rebuilt workout. While
a lot of the I wasn't working in the kitchen,
I was working in the person of rebuilding the city.
I got to work with my hands. I'm good at
it and I always liked it. Then it went back
to cooking and it wasn't the same. I didn't I
(18:20):
fell into a deep depression. I wasn't loving it anymore.
So I decided to get out of cooking for another year.
And during that year, we're able to fix a lot
of mental things that I needed to fix. And after that,
(18:42):
when I came back to the kitchen, I was a
different person. I understood that cooking it's not who I am,
It's part of me, you know. I started giving a
balance to my life and I wasn't cooking and one
else food anymore.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
I wanted to cook my own food.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
And you know, the process, slowly study of opening my
first business, my catering company, and finding the things that
I wanted to cook, the way that I wanted to cook, which.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Catering allow me to do that create.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Manus that reflects who I was as a chef, as
a cook and girl. From there, you know, my catering
company is my first baby. I will always see it
that way.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
And then.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
The next step was the journey of reconnecting with my roots,
reconnecting with Alma is born, you know, out of frustration
that I wanted the food that I grew up eating
as a child, but I couldn't find it here. The
small mamas and papas didn't cook that style of food,
(19:57):
so it was up to me to cook.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
It at my house.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
And out of that frustration, Alma was born. And now
a couple of years later, I am very happy, you know,
I came full circle.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
As a person and as a stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
That's a very powerful story, Melissa, because it is, first
of all, it's a tough industry. You were young, you
you know, live through you and your family live through
a terrifically horrible time in New Orleans during and post Katrina,
when there was a lot of rebuilding, not only of
the city but also of people's souls and their mentality
(20:38):
because it was very difficult. You did work for a
number of people throughout this period post Katrina, and then,
as you said, you started with your catering company, and
then I believe in you opened Alma, which means soul,
in twenty fifteen, correct.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
I open well. Alma was started twoenty fifteen.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Almost started as a pop up in two thousand and seventeen,
you know, in twooy thirteen, I opened some er catering.
In two thousan fifteen, I was cooking at home for
my chef friends.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
You know this food that I'm cooking now.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
I was trying now and see, okay, if I changed this,
if I do this, what is going to be the
result of it? Technically, yes, she was born in twenty fifteen,
but she started having her first bread in twenty seventeen
as a pop up, you know, and twenty sixteen actually sorry,
(21:43):
And then in twenty seventeen we tried in a concept
that was.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Roote Kret.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
We did a good about six months. I grew that
space and then it was time to make a decision.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
You know which business is paying the bills.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
So the catering company was paying the bills and Alma was.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
Eating my money. So I was like, all right.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Let me put it to sleep and concentrate on what
I have right now, because in that time was not
the right time for her for Alma.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
So she went.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
To sleep for about almost two years and a half,
you know. And during those two years and a half,
I always get a phone call once a week, Hey
are you doing a pop up?
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Hey?
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Can we get some food? I was like, Hey, she's sleeping,
she's not, she's not. We're not doing anything right now.
With that concept, I'm concentrating in my catering company.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
And then two thousand and.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Twenty, like everybody knows, the world knows, the pandemic hit. Personally,
I was also going into a nasty divorce. And the
location that I have now that location a year earlier,
I have walked in with friends and my ex wife
into this location, which was a different coffee shop that time,
(23:12):
and I walked in and I was like, this is Alma.
This will be Alma, you know, and my ex wife
told me, well, you're crazy.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
I was like, yeah, that's fine.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
And then you know, when the pat that my hit
that three months of being at home was robbing me crazy.
So we started negotiating this location. And once we started
negotiating this location, we haven't even had an agreement yet.
When I started promoting this location and a friend of
(23:48):
mine is like, you're crazy, I was like, look, I
need to do something, and we started promoting it. Once
we had a deal with the landlord and papers were
signed August twenty second, actually twenty twenty we signed the paperwork.
I gave myself a month to open it back up
(24:11):
and be ready to be selling to selling the product
to the public and everything and cooking. Let me tell
you that the month and a half not even a
month and a half, It was a month and a
week that we gave ourselves. I worked nineteen hours a
day and we did.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
We opened a month later. October the first was our
first day.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
I remember opening the doors and I was so nervous and.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
The response to the community.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
We opened and by twelve o'clock we were sold out
and we still have people waiting out side to be served,
and I was like, I'm sorry, we're sold out. Every
day for the first six months, we were cooking.
Speaker 5 (24:59):
More more and more and more.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
And you know, did they have a saying, when your
professional life is going amazingly well, your personal life is
becoming in little pieces, And that saying was true for me.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
At that time of my life.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
You know, I had to throw myself into this business
and making this business successful and pouring everything who I
am into this business because I didn't have a personal life.
My personal life with a time of opening with Alma
was going two hours to talk to my lawyer or
(25:39):
two hours to the courthouse because my ex wife was
being impossible.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
So the divorce was consuming my personal life.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
But my professional life was going amazingly well. I was
growing as a chef, I was growing as a business person.
I could not imagine the success of this restaurant, would
have you know. It's a very pleasant surprise and beautiful
(26:07):
because all I did was open up my culture to
everyone and expressed the passion that I have for that
food and say, hey, we do deserve us seat on
the table. This food can be, you know, as good
as French food, as Italian food, as Mexican food, any
food if you do it correctly and you do it
(26:31):
with love and passion.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Let's talk about the food first. Of all, just for
our listeners. Alma is located, as we said, in the
Bywater neighborhood on eight hundred Louisa Streets. It's a lovely
location and we were we were pet sitting in the
buy Water for quite some time and enjoyed many lunches
at Alma. You started with breakfast and lunch and continue
(26:54):
and like we said, and you've recently added dinner. Talk
about and it is us fill a niche in a
city where you know, you just are done with brunches
of eggs and bread, puddage and traditional creole. You have
some a very diverse menu. Why don't you talk to
(27:15):
us about some of the dishes that sing to your
soul Alma as well as that are just popular, red
hot popular, because there's a lot to choose from.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
So when I took I made the decision to open Almah,
and I was creating the menu, you know, I was
in the phone when one of my sisters Anna, and
I was like, Okay, let's figure out how we're going
to open this because it's in the middle of the pandemic.
This is the restrictions that we have in the city,
you know. And the smart thing was to open with
(27:50):
lunch and dinner and then slowly opened for I'm sorry
breakfast and lunch, and then slowly opening for dinner. When
I was creating the menum, I wanted to put traditional
stuff that would define who we were, like the alma breakfast,
the refried beans with any style of eggs, the sweet plantains,
(28:14):
the grandma, the casso and the avocado.
Speaker 5 (28:16):
That is the traditional Honduran breakfast, you know.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
But then I also wanted to put other things that
I grew up eating, that my mother used to cook
for us, like you know, the homemade yogurt with the
granola and the berries with memorilay in it and a
little bit of honey.
Speaker 5 (28:35):
So that is universal.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Things like that are universal, that doesn't need any you know,
it's defined it like, hey, American or Italian or Honduran.
It's something universal that you know, even in Honduran when
I was over there, my grandmother was making yogurt, you know.
So that's something that I wanted to put in there.
(28:59):
So I named Charlotte after my lab Then the names
that I pick for my food are personal too.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
There was definitely putting the traditional part of baliada. We
went back and forth. How do we want to persent it?
Do we want to persent to close? Like everybody does.
I was like, why, you know, I wanted the food
to be reflect who I am, my cooking you know naturally, uh,
(29:32):
the way that I cook. So when we came up
with the logo and everything, the mind goddess is sell
is because we're twenty five percent miyand so that's a
good reflection of us. And you know, and just the
presentation of the food. There was like, Okay, I don't
(29:53):
want to be traditional.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
I want to be.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Able to be able to change in my vision of
what Durham's food is. So that's when I decided to
put it modern from Durance Eatery. So that opened a
table a door for me that I can be creative.
I can take something that's perfectly fine the way it
(30:16):
is traditional, but I want to make it more my own,
my version, more, a little bit more elevated in what
I see Hon Durant food pushing into the future.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
You know that the good example of that is the.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Poyochuko, which in the English turns late dirty chicken and
Hon Durance the it's the quarter leg of the chicken
with the bone, everything tied together, defry with the nails, cabbage,
red sauce, hondurant, croc sauce, you know, and lots of pickles.
(30:49):
So my sister cooked it for me for a couple
of days the traditional way. And I'm the kind of
person I don't like to eat one of my hands.
I like to eat with a fork and a knife.
And so, you know, also.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Related how to Mike Clentel, how.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Is going to this be more relatable to eat with
a fork and a knife. And you know, I told
my sister one time, let's take the bones out. And
she looked at me and she's like, but that's not traditional.
I was like, that's why it's called modern endurance. Let's
take the bones out. Let's do exactly the same thing
(31:30):
that you're doing, but without any bones. So we went
with a chicken tie without any bones, and she did
fried it, did the whole process, and that's that's when
our dish was born. You know, the boyachuco and the
version that you see now, and you're able to eat
(31:51):
it with a fork and knife and not be so messy.
So just changing that little piece taking the bone out
completely changed the plate and the presentation came more together,
much easier, and it gave life to that dish particularly,
(32:15):
So I was very happy after that. And we haven't
changed the recipe at all. The other part was how
can we elevate every ingredient. So most of my cooking
is from memories of my childhood.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
The flavors.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
So I remember my grandmother cooking a lot with large
so our reefry beings have lard in it.
Speaker 5 (32:40):
That's very traditional, Hunters.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Lard was used mostly in every household until the early
two thousands, you know, that was the main source of
frying oil and Honduras.
Speaker 5 (32:54):
And then on two thousands it changed to our oil.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
You know oil, It got a little bit more americanized,
until today is still getting more americanized. So the idea
was cooking this food traditionally but presented in an the
more modern way.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
And that's where I come in.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
I do the transition of the traditional to the modern
by just changing some of the stuff, still respecting the
original recipe.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
A good example of this is also.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
The the chicken with the loroco flour that you had
for dinner the other day. That particularly loroca can be
very sour when you eat it, and it doesn't have
a really good taste if you're not used to it.
So what we do is when we started dish, we
(33:59):
caramelize leaks, so the sweetness of the leaks, and then
we throw a little bit of white wine in there
and with butter, and then we start throwing all the
ingredients and we and we throw the loroco, so the
loroco gets soaked in that in those ingredients, especially in
the sofrito with the leaks and the ye wine. And
(34:20):
then the last process is thrown in the the heavy
cream to make the sauce with it, and we reduce
it so it kills this sourness of the of the
flour and when you eat it, you barely can taste it,
you know, and it gives a beautiful combination of flavors.
(34:41):
And trust me to get from that, from from point
A to point b uh, it took a couple of tries.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
It took, you know, a couple of dishes.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Like, how about if we take this out we add this,
Like every recipe is just trial and error until you're
happy with it. But the idea with this is not
changing the changing your real recipe, but not changing it
at the same time, just adding one or two ingredients,
(35:11):
so you still have the same in flavor, but a
little bit more elevated.
Speaker 5 (35:17):
Does that make sense? It does.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
We We really enjoyed this dish, which our server said
it was one close to reminded you very much of
cooking your grandmother. We were not I was not familiar
with the local flour. Is that a local flower here?
Do you have to bring that from elsewhere?
Speaker 5 (35:35):
We have to import it from there.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
So from the part of the Jucotan Mexico peninsula all
the way to sal you are able to find that flower.
You know, the Mayans and the Linka initially used it
a lot for their diet.
Speaker 5 (35:53):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
Still today in Guatemala they used a lot, a lot,
and and condurance Mexico some parts are still use it
a lot. In the peninsula Sia of Yucatan, in Wahaka
they still do. So it's kind of funny because I
was talking to someone today about this the ingredients that
(36:16):
you know, the peninsula and Mexico of the part more
closest to Central America. Uh, it's the part they had
the most concentrated Mayan descents into that area.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
Then you got into Guatemala, which they still have a
very much population of Mayan descents, Belize has a little bit,
Hondurance has a little bit, and Denis Balor still has some.
Which all the ingredients ingredients are the same, it's just
the techniques that changes.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
With the names of something.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
Like I had that night that you were here eating,
I had a table. They asked me, why do I
call my costadas in chiladas?
Speaker 5 (37:00):
And he's Mexican.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
He was Mexican and he was like, this is an
amazing tostada of tuna.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
I was like, but why do you call it inchilada?
Speaker 4 (37:07):
I was like, because that's the name that Hondurans knows
it about.
Speaker 5 (37:12):
For them, they're for them, they're tostadas.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
For us are in chiladas, and they're in their flout
us for us are tacos.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
So it's a.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Little backwards, but it's just culture. But it's in the
end of it. It's just different names, same ingredients, same techniques,
a little bit different in.
Speaker 5 (37:34):
Some things, but it's the same product, you know. Uh.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
And that's what I like a lot, because when I
can't reference something in Honduras that I can't find information
because it's been lost, I can go and research Gatemala.
I can go and research Mexico on the part of Wahawka. Actually,
I'm very excited about my vacation because I'm going to
Yugatan for a week, so I'll be researching recipes that
(38:01):
I can't find why in Hondura. So I already make
some contacts they're there with my own descendants and they're like, yeah,
we can explain it, and I was like, okay, great.
So it gives me an idea of you know, why
they chose these ingredients and the techniques they use, and
(38:23):
then I can relate it more to the way that
I cook it, you know. So the whole process is
an investigation that you have to do and figure and
then you know some of the parts are missing, so
you have to figure out by yourself.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
So you do a lot of research. How much time
do you spend researching and how often do you change
the menu.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
So my idea, I would love to cook more often
with the seasons. That's that's the main idea that this
concept was created with. To be honest, I do it
every six months now because we are so established with
the menu that we are.
Speaker 5 (39:07):
Then let me put it this way. When I first
changed took.
Speaker 4 (39:11):
The lemon recorder pancakes out of the menu to put
heritage pancakes, which there were more a little bit more
lighter for the summer, which they were made out of palenta,
which my mom used to make to me, and I
call it heritage because of my mother.
Speaker 5 (39:28):
I got text.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
Messages and phone calls like, hey, you better put those pancakes.
Speaker 5 (39:33):
Back on or we're gonna start flipping tables.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Are you talking about the which poundcake? Because you have
a lemon on your on your breakfast, a lemon ricotta pancake.
Speaker 5 (39:42):
Yeah, those are the ones that I took out.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Oh my god, I just think my mother would, if
she was alive, would be like she loved lemon rocotta pancakes.
And what does who do liqueur syrup that it's served with.
Speaker 4 (39:55):
And so it's a chickery chickery infused coffee licor uh
that we get from cat Head, from Mississippi. So they
came to me when I opened and they look, we
have this coffee le core. We call it hudu and
it has chicory in it. So I have found out
(40:15):
to my last ten years of cooking that I actually
my style of cooking is combining a lot of my
mother's style of cooking with my grandmother, because my grandmother
was the kind of person that like a lot of frmentation,
a lot of mixed you know, infused honey, do pickleings,
do all those their rmitation things, which is.
Speaker 5 (40:39):
The only way of cooking, you know.
Speaker 4 (40:42):
And my mother was almost exactly the same, but more
Italian or European way of cooking. So I have a
combination of that. I love doing infusions, like you know,
uh Aaron Alma, we do a honey and lemon and
lavender infusion that we put and everything that we can't
(41:03):
and the hudu li core that we put in those pancakes,
we infuse it with cane syrup.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Wow, you know what we love about this menu. There's
so many things. You know, you really need to go
like daily to try all the food. I love the
fact that you have you do have a wild locks,
wild salmon locks and bagels not too your Jewish heritage.
I also love the fact that there are some for
(41:31):
people who just want to eat eggs, you know, want
to have their breakfast with eggs. You've got a blue crab,
You've got Louisiana omelet, you have. You know, there's something
for everybody. I think is what I'm getting at and
it it really is a terrific menu breakfast and lunch.
Now we went for Genner. Actually we're so hungry now
(41:53):
talking to you, we have to come back. I loved
a dish you did called Hongos and Klema, which were
these gigantic minds in a cashew cream that you also
do as an enchilada.
Speaker 5 (42:05):
I see.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Talk to us about that and where you source a
lot of your vegetables, because we're finding Melissa that particularly
in this particular time of year, which is August and
it's hot, it's harder to get really great vegetables.
Speaker 5 (42:18):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
I have a provider, their name is Davy Food here
in Louisiana that he works with all the local farmers.
He works with farmers from Louisiana, from Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas,
and sometimes he imports some things from California.
Speaker 5 (42:38):
From the farmers over there too, So it cuts out
the time.
Speaker 4 (42:44):
Because I was going the first year of Alma, I
was going straight to the farmers, and some farmers can deliver,
others cannot. So I was finding myself more out of
the kitchen than in the kitchen because I wanted to
make an impact on my community, you know, cook the
way that I want and that is farmed to table
(43:06):
and be affordable to it.
Speaker 5 (43:07):
And a lot of people.
Speaker 4 (43:09):
That comes here, they're like, the food is fresh, you
can taste it and everything.
Speaker 5 (43:14):
And there was one guy was like, where do you
get all this?
Speaker 4 (43:19):
I was like, you're actually eating ninety percent of our
food is farmed table. Through JB's Food, we are able
to get all those products, especially the mushrooms that you
were eating that time, which was hand of the woods,
king trumpets, oysters, chantrails, all of them are sort of
(43:42):
locally here in Louisiana, and some of them. When I
get morial mushrooms, they come from California the day they
picked them. The next day they're in the plane to
here to Louisiana, and the same day they're distributed to
us to the restaurant.
Speaker 5 (43:59):
So you know, it's a little bit more expensive.
Speaker 4 (44:03):
You're talking about that the pound of mushrooms hands of
the Woods are you're talking about fourteen dollars a pound,
which you can get blacking mushrooms from restaurant people.
Speaker 5 (44:14):
Or one of the local distributors. You know, they're mass produced.
Speaker 4 (44:18):
But I I like quality food. I am not the
kind of chef that's going to hide the ingredients with
a lot of food with a lot of seasoning. Sorry,
And my job as a chef is to bring those
flavors out, and that's what we do. Our mushrooms are
(44:39):
roasted just with salt, pepper and garlic and thyme and
pure olive oil.
Speaker 5 (44:45):
You know, we don't do too much to it.
Speaker 4 (44:47):
We roast them two hundred and seventy five and we
do it for about twenty five minutes. And after that
we take them out and they're nice and beautiful. We
put them in containers, let them cool off. Then we
put it in the refrigerator and then when the cook
comes in and reheit, the reheat the product, finishing cooking
(45:11):
it for another uh five five percent. So when it
hits your table, there the flavors all packed in and
it's beautiful and it's natural flavor of the mushroom.
Speaker 5 (45:23):
That particular dish that you like.
Speaker 4 (45:26):
I love it actually because I like I like the
almond paste that we did. I like things like that.
So I love sour cream. I love nuts and everything,
and it's part a lot of the diet that indigenous communities.
Speaker 5 (45:47):
Have in this land, and I wanted to honor it.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
You know.
Speaker 4 (45:52):
I did a little bit of research different styles, I
cooked different them and and then you know, I was like, okay,
I like this from this one, I like this from
that one, and then I unite.
Speaker 5 (46:07):
I made it my own and that.
Speaker 4 (46:09):
Was the result that that cream that we did, and
it came out pretty well. You know, as a chef,
I'm always creaking myself. Can I do something better with it?
Do I need to change something? But I have learned
with time that sometimes I just better follow my gut,
(46:31):
not be so much critical of my food and just
let it go in and see what the client says,
you know, and so far has worked well.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
It was.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
It was terrific. And right now dinner is served on
Friday nights only, or was it going to expand?
Speaker 4 (46:48):
Right now for the summer is only going to be
for Fridays only. By the end of September, we are
going to three days a week. We're going to go
for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. So we're going to keep
it that way until the demands shows that we can
spend to five for seven days. The idea is to
(47:11):
spend to seven to have seven days a service. But
you know, we're a small neighborhood restaurant, so if we
only can do five, that will be amazing. I am
happy with five days. Is the demands there. We will
do five days, you know, and you know, then if
(47:32):
someone wants to buy out the restaurant for a private dinner,
that's also available. We at this point in my life,
I'm trying to do what I love, have fun with it.
Speaker 5 (47:46):
You know, and not have too much headaches.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Well, speaking of in about the sixty seconds that we
have left, do give a shout out to your team,
which is a women dominated team. I read that in
a Latina magazine that you support and you train a
lot of the people who come in who are also immigrants.
Speaker 4 (48:06):
Yes, uh, I never expected in my life to be
in that position, but I guess, like I always say,
Alma has.
Speaker 5 (48:14):
Her life for her own and she makes the decisions.
Speaker 4 (48:16):
I'm just trying to keep up with her, you know,
and ended up that that particularly need, you know, as
an immigrant myself and training other immigrant women, I think
that's the most horrifying part of my life.
Speaker 5 (48:36):
You know, we help them.
Speaker 4 (48:38):
Get their legal status situated. Once they have all that,
we train them, we give them a job, and you
can see the transformation of a person, especially a woman.
They come in with fear, they come in with doubts,
and once they have all the all the dugs in order,
and you can see them. They they're proud, you know,
(49:01):
they they've worked there, they work. We're now a very
well trained oil machine.
Speaker 5 (49:07):
And those women.
Speaker 4 (49:09):
I take my hat off because I personally as a person,
as a woman in this industry, I always told myself
there will be no one who will outwork me. And
you know, and dedication and everything, that's how I was
able to survive in this business.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
And that's fantastic. That's fantastic. I mean you you really
have taken what you learn from your mother and your
grandmother and you're bringing it to the people who work
with you. We really, you know, first of all, hats
off to you, and I think you have sound your
soul in Alma. We you know, we want to make
(49:46):
sure we put in again that it's Alma Cafe uh
and it is located in New Orleans bywater. You can
follow uh eat at Alma on Instagram and congratulations and
again we had a wonderful experience and we can't wait
to go back.
Speaker 5 (50:03):
Thank you, Melissa, no, thank you, and let me know
when you come back.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
We will or we certainly will, and for all of you,
we hope you're inspired. New Orleans is really such a
great city and offer so much diversity and it's eating
and dining. So as always when we sign off, thank
you for joining us, follow us at the Connected table,
and always stay insatiably curious. Thank you.
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(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Welcome to the Connected Table Live. We're your hosts, Melanie
Young and David Ransom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple. We
enjoy traveling the world and our own backyard to discover
the amazing people who were front and center and behind
the scenes in wine, food, spirits, and hospitality. And we
love sharing their stories with you and hope it inspires
(01:02):
you to try their wines, taste their spirits, visit their restaurants,
and travel and explore, because that really is what this
is all about, and exploring the world. We are taking
you to our backyard of New Orleans, Louisiana, to a
delightful restaurant in one of the most charming neighborhoods the
(01:22):
city has. The city is just filled with these incredible
little neighborhoods all over and a lot of people who
come to New Orleans never really venture out of like
mid City and the Central Business district in the French Quarter,
and we encourage everybody to come and explore. We are
taking you to the bywater to Alma Restaurant. It's Alma Cafe.
(01:46):
It's a fabulous place. We just had dinner there. They're
just starting dinner service and the owner and chef is
Melissa Araujo, who is from Honduras and really brings what
they have said in the reviews. Elen Duran cooking to
the United States. She has been a James Beard Foundation
(02:06):
semi finalist for this year twenty twenty four and has
achieved a lot of acclaim and we had a delightful
conversation with her when we went to visit recently and
we are just thrilled to have her with us now, right, David.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
We also had a delightful dinner.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Oh yeah, it was great. We're going to talk about
that and it's really one of the happening Brunch spots
in the city as well. So Melissa, welcome to the
Connected table.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Guys, thank you for inviting me. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
You know, we learned a lot talking to you briefly.
In fact, we learned that you have a very diverse background.
Tell us about your family. We mentioned, you know you
have a hon Duran roots, but it goes much more
than that.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Yes, well, my mother's Basilian Italian. Her family immigrated to
the United States in the nineteen nineteen twenties. Nineteen nineteen
I think, and the whole family immigrated to New York,
and then my grandfather moved to New Orleans to invest
(03:10):
in the Food Standard Company at that time, then decided
to move half our half the family to Honduras to
be one of the working partners in that industry and
the Standard Food Company. And my father is also my
father's mixed. My father is mine Hondurance with Portuguese, Spanier
(03:36):
and Jewish.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Wow, so that's fascinating. So how were you raised? I'm
curious the Jewish part. I'm Southern Jewish. What were you raised?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
I was raised. Actually, it's kind of weird because I
was raised Catholic.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
My mother religion. My father didn't practice at all Judism
or any other religion.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
So it was interesting because even though he didn't practice,
he still kept some traditions in the family like Locke
and you know, things that you be in Spanish you
don't eat.
Speaker 5 (04:12):
But for us was a customer of our table.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
You know, give us an example of that table, because
it is such a rich and diverse heritage. You know
who did the cooking first of all, and what were
some of the family dishes that you remember most.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
So the cooking, my first memories was my grandmother and
my mother.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
My mother cooked heavily Italian and my and also cooked Honduran.
So growing up for me was no difference in eating
Italian food and eating Hondurance food. I mean, my breakfast
food in the world and my mom used to buy
me with was plata no maduro with refried bees, Grandma
and cassel. So uh, he was like, if you'd be
(05:02):
a good girl, I would cook this for you for
a treat later on, you know, and that that was
that was it, that was the bribe, and that was amazing.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
But also do a goldness.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Pasta was one of my things that I loved to
to eat a lot to.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
Term suit anything that it was Italian.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
It wasn't our table one point another like everything that
it was undering also was an our table from aros
compoo torre has uh you know the Alma breakfast uh,
which is traditional Hundering breakfast to uh Bolio with reefry, beans, cremine,
(05:48):
cassel and eggs.
Speaker 5 (05:49):
So you made a sandwich with it.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
So it wasn't you know, it wasn't out of the
norm for me to growing up in eating those things.
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Like also locks.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
I love bagels and locks and that's one of the
things that I my mother used to do for us,
you know, fresh bagels with cure salmon that she used
to cure red onions, capers and tomatoes on top of it.
For me was a natural thing like eating tomatoes with
olive oil, salt and pepper.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
That's quite a combo.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
That really is a company.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
You're making us hungry.
Speaker 5 (06:27):
I still like just talking about it.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
We haven't had bagels and lox recently. We'll be fascinating.
So talk to us about your grandmother. What was her name?
And because a lot of you were very much inspired
by we've read about it and it's reflected on the menu.
Give us a sense of her personality. And her what
did you call her?
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Oh, her name Gurmercindaana. Her name was a little bit difficult.
Her name is Gourmetcinda. She was I think every of
every woman that grew up in the you know, in
the mid century, in the beginning of the century.
Speaker 5 (07:07):
I think she was born nineteen.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Nineteen fifteen, nineteen eighteen, something like that. She came from
being a very family of very Native Mayan descenders, and
she's from the mountains from Santa Rosa, Capane, very strong,
(07:33):
opinated women. Actually, her first marriage didn't work out, which
was just strange in the time that she actually left
her husband and got divorced. She was very strong minded
woman and who knew how to cook.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
I mean, that woman was an amazing chef, you know.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
And then her second marriage also fail and she had
no problem the worse than that guy either and raised
her four children by feeding people, cooking, you know. She
had a huge house, and she used to rent rooms
(08:16):
for college students, university students and feed them three times
a day, and they used to pay her.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
And that's how she she made her.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
Living by feeding and boring people, you know, and she
made an honest living out of it. She wasn't rich
or anything, but she owned a lot of land. That
that was one of the things of my grandmother. She
was a hard working person and she wasn't the most
(08:47):
loving person, but she was very attached to her roots
and she would teach us those roots. You know, Like
I remember getting up early in the morning. Uh, why
do I have to feed the pigs? Why do I
have to feed the chickens or the dogs or anything
like that. It's just like, because that's our duty. We
(09:07):
have to do it. Like you like the pig right
when you're eating it, I'm like, yes, so you need
to treat that pig, feed it. So when it's time
for that pig to sacrifice his life, you have to
honor that life.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
So you have to put the work in.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
And when you kill a pig and you on, you know,
you give thanks to the Goddess that that animal gift
gave his life.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
You better use every.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Ingredient of that animal because we're not wasting anything. So
I was raised to understand the cycle of life. You
have to respect the animal. There's giving your life, that
life for feeding you, and you also have to use
every ingredient of that animal is giving you.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
You know, your grandmother sounds like she was a no
nonsense woman who liked to have control of her life.
And I think that's lot of admiration in that.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
So you.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Grew up in you were born in Honduras, but you
also spent time in Providence, Rhodes Island. What's the connection there.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
The connection is when my parents settled in New Orleans,
but my dad worked for the railroad. In the late eighties,
the railroad business was dying in New Orleans, you know,
there was less jobs, less opportunities. So Providence in Boston,
(10:33):
New England was the hub of the railroad business. There
was a lot of factory working there too. My parents'
older children were all out of the house. Me and
my sister was the only ones left. So they were like, okay,
time to move.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
To New England. And we had family there.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
My mother's sister Mary lived there all her life. Cousins,
you know, nieces. My mother's side of the family, the
one who stayed in the United States, did put roots.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
Down in New England and New York.
Speaker 4 (11:12):
And Providence, especially in Providence in Boston. So it was like, okay,
time to immigrate again. And we emigrated to Providence and
Providence was home until I hit teenager gears. Then my
parents was like, I'm tired of the coal. It's time
to retire. Let's go back to New Orleans.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
How big was your family. It sounds like you had
several siblings.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
My parents had eight girls and two boys. Wow, so
that's ten children.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
That's a big family to feed and big family to support.
Speaker 5 (11:50):
That is true.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
I mean, you know, listening for my older brothers, I
have a brother who is sixty eight now I think, yeah,
around sixty eight. So you know, both of my parents
worked very hard, especially my father.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
My father was most of it the provider. You know.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
They made they made a life, and they were able
to go up to upper middle class. And then you know,
when I came alone, that were well established. After my sister,
my mother decided to work and both of my parents
were working, you know, and it was all of it
(12:37):
at the time of the nineties and that I grew up.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
It was a different time.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
Where my older siblings grew up, you know, but I
had all that influence from my siblings, which actually you
can see it a lot in the way that I am,
especially in my music taste. It jumps a lot between blues, jazz, funk,
rock and roll, you know, all kind of music. And
(13:06):
then you go straight to my generation, which is Tupac
uh cool uh la cool, Madonna, a lot of other
It's like, oh, okay, so I think it worked out
to my advantage having older siblings.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
That's that's a great story. And and and you're in
touch with all of them.
Speaker 5 (13:29):
Still, yes, wow.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
I think that's neat. So at one point you decided
you wanted to get more involved in cooking and make
cooking a career for yourself. How did that come about? Melissa?
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Well, that actually I always say this profession I didn't
pick it. This profession picked me when I was younger,
especially a teenager. Melissa was a nightmare.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
Teenager.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Melissa was more American than anything. Answer back, I don't
give a damn about anything. I'm going to tell you
straight the way it is. And my father was a
person who was it's my way of the highway. So
we got into an argument and he kicked me out
of the house and I was like, okay, I'm gone,
let's do this, and I started working in a restaurant.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
My first job was at fifteen.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Actually, it was in a restaurant it was Swaman's Supermarket
here in New Auleans that is a supermarket chain that
doesn't exist anymore. And I remember working as a cashier.
And then after that I started working in a friends
restaurant because I needed extra money in the summer. And
(14:49):
once I was back to the school, I switched to
another job.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
There was Maurice's French Bakery. At night.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
I was learning to be a pay street chef and
you know, in going to my last year about high
school during the daytime. So it was a very interesting
time on my my life working as an adult and
then go to high school. And then I figured out
that year that I was not a good pastry ship.
I wanted a life, So graduated high school. Uh, and
(15:23):
I started working more in restaurants and I was like,
you know what, I can take a year or two
off from school and why not give it a try
to begin a cook, you know, And I liked it.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
I fell in love.
Speaker 4 (15:38):
I was like, Okay, awesome, that works. Decided to go
to culinary school. And a few weeks into culinary school,
I was like, why am I paying all this money?
This is ridiculous. I can learn all this in a restaurant.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
You know.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
So I got in an internship to Italy and the
internship was for six months. As supposed to come back,
I didn't. I stayed. So the person who hired me
basically told me, look, you have a talent, you can
develop it here the old fashioned way, because in Europe
(16:19):
you don't pay for culinary school.
Speaker 5 (16:23):
It's free. The people who go to trade schools is
because they can.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
They're considered not smart enough, so they it's a trade
school profession and they teach it for free.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
So I was like, okay, I'm in. I all a bite,
and I stayed.
Speaker 4 (16:44):
And you know, I went from being an interim to
every six months, I was changing positions because I became
massessed with the profession. If I'm going to be the
best diswatcher, you know, I'm going to be a washer,
I'm gonna be the bestest washer. So I'm gonna be
a pro cook. I'm gonna be the best prop cook.
(17:05):
I used to I still am the first person in
and the last person out of the restaurant, you know.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
And from that point in my.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
Life, food became an asception. And you know, being in
my twenties, I had a ship in the shoulder that
I wanted to prove that I was really good. And
I did the top of my career for many years
until my mother got Diana's with Alzheimer's and that's when
(17:41):
I came back home. And during that time, it was
my late twenties, close to my thirties, and Katrina happened, actually, and.
Speaker 5 (17:52):
It was tough.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
And then after Katrina happened, it was rebuilt workout. While
a lot of the I wasn't working in the kitchen,
I was working in the person of rebuilding the city.
I got to work with my hands. I'm good at
it and I always liked it. Then it went back
to cooking and it wasn't the same. I didn't I
(18:20):
fell into a deep depression. I wasn't loving it anymore.
So I decided to get out of cooking for another year.
And during that year, we're able to fix a lot
of mental things that I needed to fix. And after that,
(18:42):
when I came back to the kitchen, I was a
different person. I understood that cooking it's not who I am,
It's part of me, you know. I started giving a
balance to my life and I wasn't cooking and one
else food anymore.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
I wanted to cook my own food.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
And you know, the process, slowly study of opening my
first business, my catering company, and finding the things that
I wanted to cook, the way that I wanted to cook, which.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Catering allow me to do that create.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
Manus that reflects who I was as a chef, as
a cook and girl. From there, you know, my catering
company is my first baby. I will always see it
that way.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
And then.
Speaker 4 (19:37):
The next step was the journey of reconnecting with my roots,
reconnecting with Alma is born, you know, out of frustration
that I wanted the food that I grew up eating
as a child, but I couldn't find it here. The
small mamas and papas didn't cook that style of food,
(19:57):
so it was up to me to cook.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
It at my house.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
And out of that frustration, Alma was born. And now
a couple of years later, I am very happy, you know,
I came full circle.
Speaker 5 (20:12):
As a person and as a stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
That's a very powerful story, Melissa, because it is, first
of all, it's a tough industry. You were young, you
you know, live through you and your family live through
a terrifically horrible time in New Orleans during and post Katrina,
when there was a lot of rebuilding, not only of
the city but also of people's souls and their mentality
(20:38):
because it was very difficult. You did work for a
number of people throughout this period post Katrina, and then,
as you said, you started with your catering company, and
then I believe in you opened Alma, which means soul,
in twenty fifteen, correct.
Speaker 5 (20:58):
I open well. Alma was started twoenty fifteen.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
Almost started as a pop up in two thousand and seventeen,
you know, in twooy thirteen, I opened some er catering.
In two thousan fifteen, I was cooking at home for
my chef friends.
Speaker 5 (21:19):
You know this food that I'm cooking now.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
I was trying now and see, okay, if I changed this,
if I do this, what is going to be the
result of it? Technically, yes, she was born in twenty fifteen,
but she started having her first bread in twenty seventeen
as a pop up, you know, and twenty sixteen actually sorry,
(21:43):
And then in twenty seventeen we tried in a concept
that was.
Speaker 5 (21:50):
Roote Kret.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
We did a good about six months. I grew that
space and then it was time to make a decision.
Speaker 5 (22:02):
You know which business is paying the bills.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
So the catering company was paying the bills and Alma was.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
Eating my money. So I was like, all right.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
Let me put it to sleep and concentrate on what
I have right now, because in that time was not
the right time for her for Alma.
Speaker 5 (22:21):
So she went.
Speaker 4 (22:22):
To sleep for about almost two years and a half,
you know. And during those two years and a half,
I always get a phone call once a week, Hey
are you doing a pop up?
Speaker 5 (22:34):
Hey?
Speaker 4 (22:35):
Can we get some food? I was like, Hey, she's sleeping,
she's not, she's not. We're not doing anything right now.
With that concept, I'm concentrating in my catering company.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
And then two thousand and.
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Twenty, like everybody knows, the world knows, the pandemic hit. Personally,
I was also going into a nasty divorce. And the
location that I have now that location a year earlier,
I have walked in with friends and my ex wife
into this location, which was a different coffee shop that time,
(23:12):
and I walked in and I was like, this is Alma.
This will be Alma, you know, and my ex wife
told me, well, you're crazy.
Speaker 5 (23:22):
I was like, yeah, that's fine.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
And then you know, when the pat that my hit
that three months of being at home was robbing me crazy.
So we started negotiating this location. And once we started
negotiating this location, we haven't even had an agreement yet.
When I started promoting this location and a friend of
(23:48):
mine is like, you're crazy, I was like, look, I
need to do something, and we started promoting it. Once
we had a deal with the landlord and papers were
signed August twenty second, actually twenty twenty we signed the paperwork.
I gave myself a month to open it back up
(24:11):
and be ready to be selling to selling the product
to the public and everything and cooking. Let me tell
you that the month and a half not even a
month and a half, It was a month and a
week that we gave ourselves. I worked nineteen hours a
day and we did.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
We opened a month later. October the first was our
first day.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
I remember opening the doors and I was so nervous and.
Speaker 5 (24:44):
The response to the community.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
We opened and by twelve o'clock we were sold out
and we still have people waiting out side to be served,
and I was like, I'm sorry, we're sold out. Every
day for the first six months, we were cooking.
Speaker 5 (24:59):
More more and more and more.
Speaker 4 (25:01):
And you know, did they have a saying, when your
professional life is going amazingly well, your personal life is
becoming in little pieces, And that saying was true for me.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
At that time of my life.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
You know, I had to throw myself into this business
and making this business successful and pouring everything who I
am into this business because I didn't have a personal life.
My personal life with a time of opening with Alma
was going two hours to talk to my lawyer or
(25:39):
two hours to the courthouse because my ex wife was
being impossible.
Speaker 5 (25:43):
So the divorce was consuming my personal life.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
But my professional life was going amazingly well. I was
growing as a chef, I was growing as a business person.
I could not imagine the success of this restaurant, would
have you know. It's a very pleasant surprise and beautiful
(26:07):
because all I did was open up my culture to
everyone and expressed the passion that I have for that
food and say, hey, we do deserve us seat on
the table. This food can be, you know, as good
as French food, as Italian food, as Mexican food, any
food if you do it correctly and you do it
(26:31):
with love and passion.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Let's talk about the food first. Of all, just for
our listeners. Alma is located, as we said, in the
Bywater neighborhood on eight hundred Louisa Streets. It's a lovely
location and we were we were pet sitting in the
buy Water for quite some time and enjoyed many lunches
at Alma. You started with breakfast and lunch and continue
(26:54):
and like we said, and you've recently added dinner. Talk
about and it is us fill a niche in a
city where you know, you just are done with brunches
of eggs and bread, puddage and traditional creole. You have
some a very diverse menu. Why don't you talk to
(27:15):
us about some of the dishes that sing to your
soul Alma as well as that are just popular, red
hot popular, because there's a lot to choose from.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
So when I took I made the decision to open Almah,
and I was creating the menu, you know, I was
in the phone when one of my sisters Anna, and
I was like, Okay, let's figure out how we're going
to open this because it's in the middle of the pandemic.
This is the restrictions that we have in the city,
you know. And the smart thing was to open with
(27:50):
lunch and dinner and then slowly opened for I'm sorry
breakfast and lunch, and then slowly opening for dinner. When
I was creating the menum, I wanted to put traditional
stuff that would define who we were, like the alma breakfast,
the refried beans with any style of eggs, the sweet plantains,
(28:14):
the grandma, the casso and the avocado.
Speaker 5 (28:16):
That is the traditional Honduran breakfast, you know.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
But then I also wanted to put other things that
I grew up eating, that my mother used to cook
for us, like you know, the homemade yogurt with the
granola and the berries with memorilay in it and a
little bit of honey.
Speaker 5 (28:35):
So that is universal.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Things like that are universal, that doesn't need any you know,
it's defined it like, hey, American or Italian or Honduran.
It's something universal that you know, even in Honduran when
I was over there, my grandmother was making yogurt, you know.
So that's something that I wanted to put in there.
(28:59):
So I named Charlotte after my lab Then the names
that I pick for my food are personal too.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
There was definitely putting the traditional part of baliada. We
went back and forth. How do we want to persent it?
Do we want to persent to close? Like everybody does.
I was like, why, you know, I wanted the food
to be reflect who I am, my cooking you know naturally, uh,
(29:32):
the way that I cook. So when we came up
with the logo and everything, the mind goddess is sell
is because we're twenty five percent miyand so that's a
good reflection of us. And you know, and just the
presentation of the food. There was like, Okay, I don't
(29:53):
want to be traditional.
Speaker 5 (29:54):
I want to be.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
Able to be able to change in my vision of
what Durham's food is. So that's when I decided to
put it modern from Durance Eatery. So that opened a
table a door for me that I can be creative.
I can take something that's perfectly fine the way it
(30:16):
is traditional, but I want to make it more my own,
my version, more, a little bit more elevated in what
I see Hon Durant food pushing into the future.
Speaker 5 (30:26):
You know that the good example of that is the.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Poyochuko, which in the English turns late dirty chicken and
Hon Durance the it's the quarter leg of the chicken
with the bone, everything tied together, defry with the nails, cabbage,
red sauce, hondurant, croc sauce, you know, and lots of pickles.
(30:49):
So my sister cooked it for me for a couple
of days the traditional way. And I'm the kind of
person I don't like to eat one of my hands.
I like to eat with a fork and a knife.
And so, you know, also.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Related how to Mike Clentel, how.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Is going to this be more relatable to eat with
a fork and a knife. And you know, I told
my sister one time, let's take the bones out. And
she looked at me and she's like, but that's not traditional.
I was like, that's why it's called modern endurance. Let's
take the bones out. Let's do exactly the same thing
(31:30):
that you're doing, but without any bones. So we went
with a chicken tie without any bones, and she did
fried it, did the whole process, and that's that's when
our dish was born. You know, the boyachuco and the
version that you see now, and you're able to eat
(31:51):
it with a fork and knife and not be so messy.
So just changing that little piece taking the bone out
completely changed the plate and the presentation came more together,
much easier, and it gave life to that dish particularly,
(32:15):
So I was very happy after that. And we haven't
changed the recipe at all. The other part was how
can we elevate every ingredient. So most of my cooking
is from memories of my childhood.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
The flavors.
Speaker 4 (32:32):
So I remember my grandmother cooking a lot with large
so our reefry beings have lard in it.
Speaker 5 (32:40):
That's very traditional, Hunters.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Lard was used mostly in every household until the early
two thousands, you know, that was the main source of
frying oil and Honduras.
Speaker 5 (32:54):
And then on two thousands it changed to our oil.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
You know oil, It got a little bit more americanized,
until today is still getting more americanized. So the idea
was cooking this food traditionally but presented in an the
more modern way.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
And that's where I come in.
Speaker 4 (33:23):
I do the transition of the traditional to the modern
by just changing some of the stuff, still respecting the
original recipe.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
A good example of this is also.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
The the chicken with the loroco flour that you had
for dinner the other day. That particularly loroca can be
very sour when you eat it, and it doesn't have
a really good taste if you're not used to it.
So what we do is when we started dish, we
(33:59):
caramelize leaks, so the sweetness of the leaks, and then
we throw a little bit of white wine in there
and with butter, and then we start throwing all the
ingredients and we and we throw the loroco, so the
loroco gets soaked in that in those ingredients, especially in
the sofrito with the leaks and the ye wine. And
(34:20):
then the last process is thrown in the the heavy
cream to make the sauce with it, and we reduce
it so it kills this sourness of the of the
flour and when you eat it, you barely can taste it,
you know, and it gives a beautiful combination of flavors.
(34:41):
And trust me to get from that, from from point
A to point b uh, it took a couple of tries.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
It took, you know, a couple of dishes.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
Like, how about if we take this out we add this,
Like every recipe is just trial and error until you're
happy with it. But the idea with this is not
changing the changing your real recipe, but not changing it
at the same time, just adding one or two ingredients,
(35:11):
so you still have the same in flavor, but a
little bit more elevated.
Speaker 5 (35:17):
Does that make sense? It does.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
We We really enjoyed this dish, which our server said
it was one close to reminded you very much of
cooking your grandmother. We were not I was not familiar
with the local flour. Is that a local flower here?
Do you have to bring that from elsewhere?
Speaker 5 (35:35):
We have to import it from there.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
So from the part of the Jucotan Mexico peninsula all
the way to sal you are able to find that flower.
You know, the Mayans and the Linka initially used it
a lot for their diet.
Speaker 5 (35:53):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (35:54):
Still today in Guatemala they used a lot, a lot,
and and condurance Mexico some parts are still use it
a lot. In the peninsula Sia of Yucatan, in Wahaka
they still do. So it's kind of funny because I
was talking to someone today about this the ingredients that
(36:16):
you know, the peninsula and Mexico of the part more
closest to Central America. Uh, it's the part they had
the most concentrated Mayan descents into that area.
Speaker 5 (36:27):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
Then you got into Guatemala, which they still have a
very much population of Mayan descents, Belize has a little bit,
Hondurance has a little bit, and Denis Balor still has some.
Which all the ingredients ingredients are the same, it's just
the techniques that changes.
Speaker 5 (36:48):
With the names of something.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
Like I had that night that you were here eating,
I had a table. They asked me, why do I
call my costadas in chiladas?
Speaker 5 (37:00):
And he's Mexican.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
He was Mexican and he was like, this is an
amazing tostada of tuna.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
I was like, but why do you call it inchilada?
Speaker 4 (37:07):
I was like, because that's the name that Hondurans knows
it about.
Speaker 5 (37:12):
For them, they're for them, they're tostadas.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
For us are in chiladas, and they're in their flout
us for us are tacos.
Speaker 5 (37:21):
So it's a.
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Little backwards, but it's just culture. But it's in the
end of it. It's just different names, same ingredients, same techniques,
a little bit different in.
Speaker 5 (37:34):
Some things, but it's the same product, you know. Uh.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
And that's what I like a lot, because when I
can't reference something in Honduras that I can't find information
because it's been lost, I can go and research Gatemala.
I can go and research Mexico on the part of Wahawka. Actually,
I'm very excited about my vacation because I'm going to
Yugatan for a week, so I'll be researching recipes that
(38:01):
I can't find why in Hondura. So I already make
some contacts they're there with my own descendants and they're like, yeah,
we can explain it, and I was like, okay, great.
So it gives me an idea of you know, why
they chose these ingredients and the techniques they use, and
(38:23):
then I can relate it more to the way that
I cook it, you know. So the whole process is
an investigation that you have to do and figure and
then you know some of the parts are missing, so
you have to figure out by yourself.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
So you do a lot of research. How much time
do you spend researching and how often do you change
the menu.
Speaker 4 (38:48):
So my idea, I would love to cook more often
with the seasons. That's that's the main idea that this
concept was created with. To be honest, I do it
every six months now because we are so established with
the menu that we are.
Speaker 5 (39:07):
Then let me put it this way. When I first
changed took.
Speaker 4 (39:11):
The lemon recorder pancakes out of the menu to put
heritage pancakes, which there were more a little bit more
lighter for the summer, which they were made out of palenta,
which my mom used to make to me, and I
call it heritage because of my mother.
Speaker 5 (39:28):
I got text.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
Messages and phone calls like, hey, you better put those pancakes.
Speaker 5 (39:33):
Back on or we're gonna start flipping tables.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Are you talking about the which poundcake? Because you have
a lemon on your on your breakfast, a lemon ricotta pancake.
Speaker 5 (39:42):
Yeah, those are the ones that I took out.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Oh my god, I just think my mother would, if
she was alive, would be like she loved lemon rocotta pancakes.
And what does who do liqueur syrup that it's served with.
Speaker 4 (39:55):
And so it's a chickery chickery infused coffee licor uh
that we get from cat Head, from Mississippi. So they
came to me when I opened and they look, we
have this coffee le core. We call it hudu and
it has chicory in it. So I have found out
(40:15):
to my last ten years of cooking that I actually
my style of cooking is combining a lot of my
mother's style of cooking with my grandmother, because my grandmother
was the kind of person that like a lot of frmentation,
a lot of mixed you know, infused honey, do pickleings,
do all those their rmitation things, which is.
Speaker 5 (40:39):
The only way of cooking, you know.
Speaker 4 (40:42):
And my mother was almost exactly the same, but more
Italian or European way of cooking. So I have a
combination of that. I love doing infusions, like you know,
uh Aaron Alma, we do a honey and lemon and
lavender infusion that we put and everything that we can't
(41:03):
and the hudu li core that we put in those pancakes,
we infuse it with cane syrup.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
Wow, you know what we love about this menu. There's
so many things. You know, you really need to go
like daily to try all the food. I love the
fact that you have you do have a wild locks,
wild salmon locks and bagels not too your Jewish heritage.
I also love the fact that there are some for
(41:31):
people who just want to eat eggs, you know, want
to have their breakfast with eggs. You've got a blue crab,
You've got Louisiana omelet, you have. You know, there's something
for everybody. I think is what I'm getting at and
it it really is a terrific menu breakfast and lunch.
Now we went for Genner. Actually we're so hungry now
(41:53):
talking to you, we have to come back. I loved
a dish you did called Hongos and Klema, which were
these gigantic minds in a cashew cream that you also
do as an enchilada.
Speaker 5 (42:05):
I see.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Talk to us about that and where you source a
lot of your vegetables, because we're finding Melissa that particularly
in this particular time of year, which is August and
it's hot, it's harder to get really great vegetables.
Speaker 5 (42:18):
Yes, it is.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
I have a provider, their name is Davy Food here
in Louisiana that he works with all the local farmers.
He works with farmers from Louisiana, from Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas,
and sometimes he imports some things from California.
Speaker 5 (42:38):
From the farmers over there too, So it cuts out
the time.
Speaker 4 (42:44):
Because I was going the first year of Alma, I
was going straight to the farmers, and some farmers can deliver,
others cannot. So I was finding myself more out of
the kitchen than in the kitchen because I wanted to
make an impact on my community, you know, cook the
way that I want and that is farmed to table
(43:06):
and be affordable to it.
Speaker 5 (43:07):
And a lot of people.
Speaker 4 (43:09):
That comes here, they're like, the food is fresh, you
can taste it and everything.
Speaker 5 (43:14):
And there was one guy was like, where do you
get all this?
Speaker 4 (43:19):
I was like, you're actually eating ninety percent of our
food is farmed table. Through JB's Food, we are able
to get all those products, especially the mushrooms that you
were eating that time, which was hand of the woods,
king trumpets, oysters, chantrails, all of them are sort of
(43:42):
locally here in Louisiana, and some of them. When I
get morial mushrooms, they come from California the day they
picked them. The next day they're in the plane to
here to Louisiana, and the same day they're distributed to
us to the restaurant.
Speaker 5 (43:59):
So you know, it's a little bit more expensive.
Speaker 4 (44:03):
You're talking about that the pound of mushrooms hands of
the Woods are you're talking about fourteen dollars a pound,
which you can get blacking mushrooms from restaurant people.
Speaker 5 (44:14):
Or one of the local distributors. You know, they're mass produced.
Speaker 4 (44:18):
But I I like quality food. I am not the
kind of chef that's going to hide the ingredients with
a lot of food with a lot of seasoning. Sorry,
And my job as a chef is to bring those
flavors out, and that's what we do. Our mushrooms are
(44:39):
roasted just with salt, pepper and garlic and thyme and
pure olive oil.
Speaker 5 (44:45):
You know, we don't do too much to it.
Speaker 4 (44:47):
We roast them two hundred and seventy five and we
do it for about twenty five minutes. And after that
we take them out and they're nice and beautiful. We
put them in containers, let them cool off. Then we
put it in the refrigerator and then when the cook
comes in and reheit, the reheat the product, finishing cooking
(45:11):
it for another uh five five percent. So when it
hits your table, there the flavors all packed in and
it's beautiful and it's natural flavor of the mushroom.
Speaker 5 (45:23):
That particular dish that you like.
Speaker 4 (45:26):
I love it actually because I like I like the
almond paste that we did. I like things like that.
So I love sour cream. I love nuts and everything,
and it's part a lot of the diet that indigenous communities.
Speaker 5 (45:47):
Have in this land, and I wanted to honor it.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
You know.
Speaker 4 (45:52):
I did a little bit of research different styles, I
cooked different them and and then you know, I was like, okay,
I like this from this one, I like this from
that one, and then I unite.
Speaker 5 (46:07):
I made it my own and that.
Speaker 4 (46:09):
Was the result that that cream that we did, and
it came out pretty well. You know, as a chef,
I'm always creaking myself. Can I do something better with it?
Do I need to change something? But I have learned
with time that sometimes I just better follow my gut,
(46:31):
not be so much critical of my food and just
let it go in and see what the client says,
you know, and so far has worked well.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
It was.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
It was terrific. And right now dinner is served on
Friday nights only, or was it going to expand?
Speaker 4 (46:48):
Right now for the summer is only going to be
for Fridays only. By the end of September, we are
going to three days a week. We're going to go
for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. So we're going to keep
it that way until the demands shows that we can
spend to five for seven days. The idea is to
(47:11):
spend to seven to have seven days a service. But
you know, we're a small neighborhood restaurant, so if we
only can do five, that will be amazing. I am
happy with five days. Is the demands there. We will
do five days, you know, and you know, then if
(47:32):
someone wants to buy out the restaurant for a private dinner,
that's also available. We at this point in my life,
I'm trying to do what I love, have fun with it.
Speaker 5 (47:46):
You know, and not have too much headaches.
Speaker 2 (47:50):
Well, speaking of in about the sixty seconds that we
have left, do give a shout out to your team,
which is a women dominated team. I read that in
a Latina magazine that you support and you train a
lot of the people who come in who are also immigrants.
Speaker 4 (48:06):
Yes, uh, I never expected in my life to be
in that position, but I guess, like I always say,
Alma has.
Speaker 5 (48:14):
Her life for her own and she makes the decisions.
Speaker 4 (48:16):
I'm just trying to keep up with her, you know,
and ended up that that particularly need, you know, as
an immigrant myself and training other immigrant women, I think
that's the most horrifying part of my life.
Speaker 5 (48:36):
You know, we help them.
Speaker 4 (48:38):
Get their legal status situated. Once they have all that,
we train them, we give them a job, and you
can see the transformation of a person, especially a woman.
They come in with fear, they come in with doubts,
and once they have all the all the dugs in order,
and you can see them. They they're proud, you know,
(49:01):
they they've worked there, they work. We're now a very
well trained oil machine.
Speaker 5 (49:07):
And those women.
Speaker 4 (49:09):
I take my hat off because I personally as a person,
as a woman in this industry, I always told myself
there will be no one who will outwork me. And
you know, and dedication and everything, that's how I was
able to survive in this business.
Speaker 2 (49:25):
And that's fantastic. That's fantastic. I mean you you really
have taken what you learn from your mother and your
grandmother and you're bringing it to the people who work
with you. We really, you know, first of all, hats
off to you, and I think you have sound your
soul in Alma. We you know, we want to make
(49:46):
sure we put in again that it's Alma Cafe uh
and it is located in New Orleans bywater. You can
follow uh eat at Alma on Instagram and congratulations and
again we had a wonderful experience and we can't wait
to go back.
Speaker 5 (50:03):
Thank you, Melissa, no, thank you, and let me know
when you come back.
Speaker 2 (50:07):
We will or we certainly will, and for all of you,
we hope you're inspired. New Orleans is really such a
great city and offer so much diversity and it's eating
and dining. So as always when we sign off, thank
you for joining us, follow us at the Connected table,
and always stay insatiably curious. Thank you.
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