Evelyn Garcia Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond, coming to you from Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center in New York City. I'm the founder and editor of Cherry Bombe Magazine, and each week, I talk to the most interesting women and culinary creatives in and around the world of food.
Today's guest is Chef Evelyn Garcia of Jūn, the Houston restaurant she owns and operates with her friend, Chef Henry Lu. Jūn is a bright spot on the Houston dining scene and specializes in what Evelyn and Henry call “new Asian American” cuisine. Think gulf shrimp aguachile with avocado, taro and shrimp oil, salmon with oolong tea, turnip, trumpet mushrooms, and gremolata, plus great cocktails, mocktails, and desserts. Some of you might even recognize Chef Evelyn from “Top Chef 19,” which took place in her native Houston. The Cherry Bombe team and I had the pleasure of eating at Jūn last week as part of our Sit With Us community dinner series with OpenTable. I can't wait to chat with Chef Evelyn and learn more about her time cooking in New York, her Houston roots, and what community means to her. Stay tuned.
Thank you to OpenTable for supporting this episode. As mentioned, we are in the middle of our Sit With Us Community Dinner series with OpenTable, which spotlights amazing female chefs and female-led restaurants. We will be in Brooklyn on Saturday, November 11th at Chef Camille Becerra's As You Are at Ace Hotel Brooklyn. I know there are a lot of Chef Camille fans out there. To snag a ticket, head to the As You Are page on OpenTable's app or website and tap the experiences tab. Come solo and you can sit with us at one of our community tables, or come with a friend or two and we'll make sure you sit together. Chef Camille has a great evening planned for us. Learn more at cherrybombe.com.
Now, let's check in with today's guest. Evelyn Garcia, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Evelyn Garcia:
Oh, well, thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's start at the very beginning. You grew up in Houston. What do you remember from your childhood?
Evelyn Garcia:
Yes. It was awesome. We all rep our cities, but I feel like Houston likes to rep really hard. I'm first generation Mexican Salvadorian, so it was a very flavorful childhood. I was very lucky to have very good ... Well, mom and dad are great cooks, but my grandparents were also very involved in bringing us up. It was very family orientated, which was great as a kid, and as you grow older it becomes more rare. It was nice that I was able to experience all of that in my family here in Houston.
But within the city itself, I think it definitely is rooted in a lot that I do now. Just growing up, not just Mexican Salvadorian, but in a community where going to school you had people from all over the world, you grew up with a lot of different cultures around you, which is really cool, and to this day, it influences not only myself, but my food for sure.
Kerry Diamond:
Is it a real melting pot of cultures and cuisines?
Evelyn Garcia:
Yeah. If you crave something, especially with social media, right? You get to see these crazy dishes being prepared. You're probably going to be able to find it here in Houston, some version of it or something, because there is so many people here. And I feel like it has to do a lot with our crazy weather. When people come to the States, a lot of people do come to definitely Latin American and Asian cultures because we have a lot of the similar weather, so it's comforting. I mean, now, it drives us crazy, but it has that familiarity to it.
And as well as we're right on the Gulf. We're where everything gets shipped to, and a lot of product comes through Texas first, and then, it gets dispersed into the states, which makes it really cool too because there's a lot of things, especially, I did live in New York for a while. In New York, it's very hard to get. A lot of products, everything is getting flown in.
Kerry Diamond:
I want to go back to your mom and your dad. They cooked. You said they were good cooks. What were they cooking?
Evelyn Garcia:
Yeah. My mom is from Mexico. My dad is from El Salvador. I grew up with just both cuisines. They're both amazing cooks. Even from growing up, and of course, it makes sense coming from a mixture of culture. Not only my family, but in the city, we grew up eating not only pozole, but that easy, we could go out on Sundays and have pho and then grandma would come over and make pupusas. It was just a lot of different cuisines.
And even my mom's cooking itself, she's known for her fried rice and like, "What? Wow." And her herself, she worked in a lot of different kitchens when she was younger. My dad worked in a little bit of cooking, not so much. He did different things before they ended up ... They actually did own a restaurant for a few years during high school, so that definitely encouraged me. I've always loved cooking, but I think that made it more ... I guess I just felt it. I was in it, I was in a restaurant with my family and stuff, so that definitely made it very comforting to be in this industry.
Kerry Diamond:
I love that it encouraged you as opposed to discouraged you to get into it.
Evelyn Garcia:
Oh, yeah. My parents were like, "But why? Do you not see our struggle?"
Kerry Diamond:
I can imagine. I want to go back to your mom's fried rice. Is that on your menu?
Evelyn Garcia:
No, it's not. It's not. But yeah, she worked at an Asian restaurant for a while. And then, she also worked at a cafeteria where it was one of those oil company cafeterias in the first floor of the building and there was an Asian food section and there was a Mediterranean section. You just learned a lot of different cuisines that she herself didn't grow up eating, and then, it influenced a lot of her food, for sure. And since I can remember, we always had some sort of chili oil before it became the hottest new thing at home, and she learned how to make it from this old Asian man that had this restaurant that she worked at for a bit. It was little bits and pieces here and there that just influenced her food. And then, for us, it just became so normal. It'd just be like, "Oh, yeah, mom makes the best fried rice."
Kerry Diamond:
Is there any secret to your mom's fried rice?
Evelyn Garcia:
She fries it, but then, when she puts water into it, she adds the soy and mushroom soy and all of that so it cooks in all of that, and then, it gets fried. It's not like coming from just white rice being fried and then added soy. It's cooked and steamed with soy and mushroom soy sauce.
Kerry Diamond:
When you were little or grammar school, high school, did you help out in the kitchen or were they shooing you out of the kitchen?
Evelyn Garcia:
Oh, no, I was very hands-on, for sure. Obviously, mom and dad worked, but they... I mean, not just because they wanted to, but also a necessity was, almost every meal was cooked at home. mom was making flour or corn tortillas in the morning and rolling breakfast tacos, and then, making sure there's some food for lunch, so there's some sort of stew going on that's going to be chilled and then packaged so we could have some when we come back from school. There was just always a lot of home-cooked meals, for sure. Again, like I said, they're both amazing cooks, so there was always really good food.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you say you worked in the family restaurant?
Evelyn Garcia:
Yeah. In high school, I did everything, whatever they needed help with. Once I went to culinary school, I realized, I was like, "Wow, I learned so much just by being there." I just helped dad in the morning come in and open up, turn on all the pilots and go and make sure the tables were wiped down. If there was a server missing, I would help serve or run food. I would get to do the fresh agua fresca that day if I felt adventurous, or help with the salsa, and then, help with the dishes and stuff like that. It was always hopping around helping with what I could, but my mom, my dad, my grandma, she used to roll out all the tortillas for the restaurants. We were all very involved. My cousins were in there too.
I think I always knew, because I always enjoyed cooking and helping my family, grandma or my mom cooking in the kitchen, but once it was in the restaurant, I was like, "Oh, wow, there's customers coming in. We're feeding all these people and it's really exhilarating."
Kerry Diamond:
So you got to culinary school and how a real headstart in terms of what it takes to run a restaurant?
Evelyn Garcia:
Yeah. I had no idea. I thought I was just helping my mom and dad out. It wasn't like, "I have a job." I was just like, "This is what we got to do." And my parents were both very entrepreneurial, so they always had different kinds of businesses, and then, they had that restaurant. They always had a lot of things going on, so for us, it was very normal to be just part of it, just being like, "I got to help out with whatever they need." I'm also the oldest, so I helped even if they didn't have a business. Helping with the siblings and everything, it was very just normal for me.
But yeah, going to culinary school, learning the importance of checking in orders to the restaurant and weighing things and all that, I didn't even know. I was just like, "Oh, yeah, we got to do it," but I didn't know how important that was. I'm over here 15 checking in orders. I was like, "Wow." And I didn't realize until after I went to culinary school. I was like, "Wow. I was inputting orders, I was doing checkouts, helping count the cash box and whatever transactions at the end of the night and stuff like that." Again, I didn't know how involved I really was.
Kerry Diamond:
When you told your parents you wanted to go to culinary school, what was the reaction?
Evelyn Garcia:
My mom was not very happy. She's like, "But why?" Again, to her, it was like, "Do you not see our struggles?" In school, I was academically really good. I always made sure I had good grades and all that, and very active in high school and all of that, so she was like, "But you could get a scholarship and you can go to do this and that." And I'm like, "I could, but I really want to cook." My dad was all for it. He was definitely like, "Hell, yeah. Let's go. Let's do this. That's so cool." My mom, I took a minute, and then, she was all for it.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, good. Was there something burning inside you or did you look at it as just something you thought could be an interesting career path?
Evelyn Garcia:
Honestly, even growing up, I was always very artistically inclined. I was in sculpting and sketching, and clay. I did all these things, and I did drama. It was always very artsy and I couldn't find my outlet, and learning more about, not only just being in the restaurant, but also, I feel like, when I was younger in high school, The Food Network was a thing. It was just starting off. It was watching all ... I remember there was one like The Melting Pot, and there's Batali's Table or something.
All of that, watching Emeril, of course, watching that, but it wasn't like, "Oh, I want to be a TV chef." It was like, "Oh, cooking is creative." That's how I saw it. It wasn't rockstar status or anything. It was like, "Oh, they're being creative and it's an outlet." And like I said, I think being in the restaurant when I was with my family, it really like, "Oh, this is what I want to do. I see this for myself. It fulfills me. It makes me so happy to be here, and I think it's so much fun and I'm like, "What? This could pay my bills. What?"
Kerry Diamond:
You get to CIA, the Culinary Institute of America. How was your experience?
Evelyn Garcia:
It was crazy. Well, I am the oldest. I was the first one that left home.
Kerry Diamond:
Oldest of how many, Evelyn?
Evelyn Garcia:
Of three. I was the first one going out. And I was excited, but I was also scared. I was just like, "Oh, my God. I'm going to live by myself." My parents too, it's their first kid leaving the house. And like I said, we were very family oriented, so it's like, "Oh." And I'm leaving far. It's not like it's just a two-hour drive from here. I'm literally going from Texas to New York. The weather, everything is about to change. It was scary and crazy, but also, I was just so excited to learn. I was just like, "I can't wait. I can't believe it." It was just really cool and exciting that it was even a possibility to go there.
Kerry Diamond:
You're in New York, not quite upstate New York, but outside the city. You decide you want to go to New York to cook after graduation. Why did you want to stay in New York?
Evelyn Garcia:
Yeah, I'm like, "If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere."
Kerry Diamond:
That's true. That is true.
Evelyn Garcia:
That was the mentality. And again, my parents were like, "But why? Don't you just want to come back?" And I was like, "I do, eventually." So even-
Kerry Diamond:
It's nice that your parents love you so much.
Evelyn Garcia:
I know. Yeah. They were like, "What?" And I love them so much too.
Kerry Diamond:
It wasn't like, "Goodbye. Go have fun. See you in a few years."
Evelyn Garcia:
For sure, no, they were just like, "What is going on?" I wanted to stay in New York, and then, we did the whole ... Even with a group of friends, it was really funny how we graduated, and then, we all printed resumes and we're like, "We're just going to start walking down New York and we're going to go to all the restaurants we like and enjoy or we haven't been able to experience yet, but it'd be so cool to work there for this chef or that chef."
And yeah, we were literally knocking on doors. We were like, "You guys looking for someone? Here's my resume. I just graduated from school." Straight up children just knocking on doors and just being like, "Can I set up a trail? What is happening?" We graduated in December, so it was a hard place because everybody already staffed up for the holidays, so everybody was like, "Not really, but sure, leave your resume and stuff."
It was funny that we did all of that and we were like, "Okay. Well, let's hope someone hits us back up and we can schedule something." I was able to do a few trails, and then, holiday season was coming anyway, so I was going to go fly back home. I had already graduated. We did all of that little thing. I was staying at a friend's home, so I was just like, "Man, I hope someone calls me back," and whatever. I think it was the first week of January that I get a call from Spice Market, Jean-Georges, in the Meatpacking District, and they're like, "Have you worked walk before?" And I'm like, "Yeah." I have not. They were like, "Well, this spot is available," and I'm like, "Okay." They're like, "Can you start next week?", and I'm like, "Sure." And I just run to my parents. I was like, "I need a ticket and I need to leave Monday."
And I just flew back and I was just like, "Okay, well, at least I have a job." And then, there was a little couch surfing for a minute, and then, figure my life out, finally, until I got some roommates and an apartment and everything. And then, I ended up staying six or seven years.
Kerry Diamond:
So they ask if you can work the walk station, you say yes, you're going to fake it until you make it.
Evelyn Garcia:
Uh-huh.
Kerry Diamond:
You arrive. How did you fake it?
Evelyn Garcia:
I had some experience in culinary school. I actually did the program where I was able to go to school in China. I was in China for a month's program and we were in the Chengdu culinary school, so I did a little walk, but never-
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, you left that part out. You're like, "Oh, I just did a month in China. That's all.
Evelyn Garcia:
Yeah, yeah, just a month in China. I knew something, but I've never worked. This was culinary school. I never worked a station or anything. I was like, "Yeah, I can figure it out. I've done it a few times." But I mean ... That was-
Kerry Diamond:
Spice Market was a big deal when it opened.
Evelyn Garcia:
Yeah, it was huge. I think it sat, I don't know, 300 people or something. It was massive.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah. Meatpacking District, right?
Evelyn Garcia:
Yeah. RIP.
Kerry Diamond:
Today, Jean-Georges has 60 restaurants as part of his organization, I think, in 14 different countries, maybe, something like that.
Evelyn Garcia:
Oh, 100%.
Kerry Diamond:
And runs those places with a great deal of precision. You mentioned, when you were at your parents, you would check in all the deliveries, weighing things, all of that. I was reading up on their organization. They measure everything to the gram so that every single restaurant, and it doesn't matter if Jean-Georges is there or not, he knows it's going to be made exactly the way he wants to make it. Was it like that when you were at Spice Market?
Evelyn Garcia:
Absolutely, yes. I was part of the PM crew, so I was on the line working vendor service. There's a whole team in the morning, and most of the part is that they do most of all the sauces and everything. And then, the PM crew comes in and executes all the dishes.
We're not so much sauce making, but we're firing all the food, anything that needs to get fresh, all the knife cuts and all of that. I did that, but I would come in the morning when I would have some chance and time and try to learn some of the sauces and stuff like that, but yeah, there was a master book, all the recipes were there. You got to go to the office to grab the book if you're going to make a sauce.
But everything is so precise, and that is definitely something that I took from that place. It was just making sure everything ... Again, it was just that consistency of flavor, and then, you can go multiple times. You always have the same experience, and that is what you strive for.
And it was a beast of a restaurant, my first actual line cook job and just being lightly overwhelmed, for sure. It was crazy. And we used to do hundreds of covers a night and you're a cook. I think the line, the dinner line, I think it was like 15 cooks. We were an army of people.
Kerry Diamond:
It doesn't sound like the kind of place where you could snack on the mise en place all night.
Evelyn Garcia:
No, you're not hanging out. Absolutely not.
Kerry Diamond:
When they're measuring it all to the gram, I guess you're not, "Let me have a little piece of that." Where did you go next?
Evelyn Garcia:
After that, I went to Masak. It was a Singaporean restaurant. So I took a break and I went to India, actually, with my mom, which was really fun. I think that was my first culinary trip. Now, I feel like I do him all the time, thankfully.
But that was the first trip that ... Before that, it's just, you're with your family, you go on vacation, you do some things, but this was, one, it was just was super special because I was traveling with my mom, which I love her and we travel very well together, which is great. And it was really fun for me because I was just like "Holy." The spice markets and just seeing everything get done and just see it ...
In America, you get to try some of these flavors, but you don't see all the pieces. You just go to the restaurant, sit down and have the food. Going over there, seeing the markets. And a lot of kitchens were very much open kitchens, and then, you could see in there. At some restaurants, I don't know, my mom, of course, "Did you know she's a cook?" Of course not, mom, they don't know. She was like, "Yeah, she cooks in New York," and all this stuff. And I'm this green little line cook.
And one of the owners of the restaurant was like, "Oh, do you want to come see how they make the bread on the ovens and stuff?" And I'm like, "Yeah, absolutely." So he took me back there. It was really cool just to experience all that, and again, not only with just with my mom, but just being able to see all of that culture and how things are being done and why it's done. It was really, really cool. Also, I was clearly leaning towards those flavors when I was just in Spice Market. I was working with a lot of Southeast Asian flavors, and there was a station just assigned to curries, so it was really cool to just experience that firsthand and not just in America where I'm just going in and eating the food.
Kerry Diamond:
We'll be right back with today's guest. As mentioned, our next sit with us dinner with OpenTable will take place at As You Are Brooklyn on Saturday, November 11th, but also, that day is the Cherry Bombe Cooks & Books Festival, the third annual. We'll have great talks and demos and panels all day long, amazing folks like Sohla El-Waylly, Dr. Jessica B. Harris, chef Karen Akunowicz, chef Angie Rito, Hetty McKinnon, Zoe Bakes, and Clancy Miller will be joining us, plus lots of other folks. All tickets are $20. We wanted to keep ticket prices low so lots of you could join us. Let's celebrate these amazing authors and books and bring our community together in real life. That's more important than ever. Head over to cherrybombe.com to learn more. If you'd like to make a weekend of it and stay at Ace Hotel Brooklyn, use code CHERRYB for 15% off when booking on acehotel.com. Back to today's guest.
Let's jump to Houston. So you return to Houston. Do you return with the goal of opening your own restaurant one day?
Evelyn Garcia:
Yeah. I think my whole career has been like, "Well, one day I'm going to open a restaurant." I know this was an outlet for me and it's just creatively fulfills me, but also, I always knew I wanted a restaurant. That's why through the restaurants I worked in New York, I kept going smaller, smaller, smaller. I wanted to be right next to the chef and owner and I wanted to see why the things are being done, they are ... Not so much, obviously, how do you run the restaurant? It's a lot. Now, doing it myself, it's a lot of things you can't see at all as a cook, but just being closer to chef and owner concepts because I knew that's what I wanted for myself.
Even moving back home, it was just like, "Okay, I have a better idea of ... " Not so much what the restaurant's going to look like, I didn't have it all figured out, but I knew that, I was like, "I feel like I am getting closer to what I feel the identity of my food will be. I feel like I could start putting those stepping stones and putting that in play, but I want to do that in Houston," so I was like ...
And then, New York, I love New York, but I was just like, "Okay, I'm ready." And it took me a minute. I was there for a few years. Because I was just like, "There's just so many opportunities. There's still so much," and I obviously, I'm not stopping learning now, I don't know it all, but I was just like, "Okay, I want to put things into play now because I want to start this business or restaurant or whatever. It's going to happen. I want to do it home, so I should start doing that." That's why I ended up moving back in 2006.
Kerry Diamond:
When did you open Jūn?
Evelyn Garcia:
Jūn, we opened this year, in February. It's a little baby.
Kerry Diamond:
A little baby still. You took a little detour with "Top Chef,” you appeared on season 19, which was filmed in Houston, so you're part of the home team. Why did you decide to pursue that opportunity?
Evelyn Garcia:
They reached out, thankfully. I was like, "Whoa, they want to talk to me? Cool." But I sat on it. I really did sit on it for a week and I was like, "Do I want to do this to myself? Am I ready for this?" I had dabbled a little bit on cooking competition. I had done “Chopped” in 2004. That competition itself was very validating, like, "Okay, you're in the right path, you're in the right place," but I was still just a Jūnior sous at the time. And then, when they reached out with "Top Chef," I was already in process of this building that is now Jūn, so I was just like, "I'm in the middle of a negotiation right now. That's a little stressful."
And then, "Top Chef’s" like, "Well, stop your life for maybe two months, if you go that far." I was just like, "Okay." And I had my business partner Henry as well, so I was just like, "Okay, well, let me have this conversation with him and see what he thinks, and is this something that ... " Because it's a whole, it's not just myself at this point. We are working on a restaurant and he's part of that too, so I was just like, "Okay, let's talk about this. What do you think?" He was just like, "You know, if you go on there, you can't do bad." And I was like, "Well, that's not an answer." I was like, "Well, that's more stressful. No pressure."
We just had a very bold conversation. It was just like, "Okay, well, it's coming at a pretty good time. We are currently working on this concept. Okay, you go and film it, we still have our things in line. We're doing popups and catering, all of that," and Henry's like, "Well, I can take care of that while you're gone. And we have a little team, but we can still function." I was like, "What more press than national TV, let alone ... Obviously, I had no idea it was going to be in Houston."
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, you didn't?
Evelyn Garcia:
I had no idea.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, I thought they approached you because ...
Evelyn Garcia:
Oh, no.
Kerry Diamond:
Because of the Houston connection. You had no idea. Okay.
Evelyn Garcia:
Probably why they reached out to me, but I had no idea until a week before we were supposed to, quote unquote, "fly out."
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, wow. So for all you knew, you could have been in Canada or Alaska.
Evelyn Garcia:
In a different state, yeah. I was just like, "Well, let's see where they're sending me." And then, I made the mental choice of, "Okay, I'm going to talk to them. Let's see." And the process is long. It's not, "Hey, yeah, you're in." There's a lot of interviews and talking to all the executives and everything. It was probably a few months, so I was like, "Okay, you're in." I even remember getting that call. I was driving around in not so good COVID times and running around from my commissary to dropping off product to our local shops and getting that call and I'm like, "Yeah, who is this?" This strange number, but I was like, "Okay, it might be them." And then, just being like, "Yeah, welcome to the fam," and I'm like, "Holy crap. I need to pull over. I cannot drive right now."
Kerry Diamond:
That's a lot. You've got your Kin business, and then, you get that call, you're trying to prepare to open this new place, then, you've got to come up with your strategy for winning "Top Chef." That was a lot on your plate.
Evelyn Garcia:
I was just like, "Just win." I don't know. I'm like, "Just don't mess up."
Kerry Diamond:
That was your strategy, just win?
Evelyn Garcia:
Yeah, win. Don't mess up. Okay.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you go there with some recipes that you knew you were going to bust out to impress Padma and Tom and Gail?
Evelyn Garcia:
Now, obviously, after I have done it, there's really not much you can do to prepare, other than you need to have a lot of experience. You need to be able to pivot and you need to be able to just not come up ... Because I feel like I was creating food that I wasn't even cooking at the time, so I was just like, "Where is this coming from?" But because they're asking you all these questions, all the challenges, they weren't just like, "Cook me food." It was like, "What is the connection of you to this dish and why are you making this? Why do you want me to try this? Why does this reflect you?" And it was just like, "Holy."
It's slightly scary, obviously, because you're not only competing, but also, it's, "This is the dish that represents me the most," every single time." This is it. This is one I'll go with." And for me, I think, overall, that scary feeling of just competing was turning into, "Okay, just stay true to yourself. Showcase that, obviously, you have skills, because we all do here. There's a reason why we're all here. But also, make sure that I am showcasing myself through my food. That was my biggest thing.
And I feel like I kept evolving, evolving, evolving, obviously, as the competition goes through. And Tom, the first thing he tells you, he's like, "It's not just a competition, but this will change you," and it really did, really fast. And I feel like, as an adult and as a chef, in the industry, as you get older, you start being like, "Oh, it's good," or people are like, "Nah, it's not good," But you don't get any actual feedback. It's not very constructive.
I think being in that bubble of "Top Chef," one, it's just you and your thoughts competing because you're just in that bubble, but also, it's like, "Okay, one, I got to stay true to myself, but two, listen to everything they're saying, because they want for you to do good." They're not trying to ... There's no angle to things. They're really just being genuine and being like, "Okay, this could assist you. You could think about it this way," and stuff like that. And even when I was being critiqued or when others were being critiqued, I'm listening. I'm just listening to everything they're saying, good and bad, because I was like, "Okay, well, they messed up. Let me not do that."
Kerry Diamond:
It sounds to me like a lot of this was great timing for Jūn, because Jūn is so personal to you, and I feel like, very dialed in, very personal, very collaborative.
Evelyn Garcia:
Yeah. I think things happen when they need to happen, or they'll happen at the right time, but it was crazy how, all of a sudden, all these things were just falling into place. I was like, "Okay, cool." I wasn't expecting to be called into "Top Chef." I wasn't expecting for "Top Chef" to film in Houston, out of all the cities. I was trying really hard to do really well, and thankfully, I went as far as I did. And then, it all just went from me thinking I was starting to open this concept to having all this buildup, and then, being able to open the restaurant. I couldn't have paid for that.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's talk about Jūn. Tell us first who Henry is.
Evelyn Garcia:
Yeah. Henry's my business partner. We've been friends for a very long time. We actually met cooking in New York. We were both cooks. And he's born and raised in New York, and we're both chef owners of Jūn. One, we're really good friends. Two, we're very blunt with each other, we're very straightforward, which is perfect.
I feel like that's exactly what you need when you're starting a business with someone because, one, it's not only just the restaurant that is so personal to us, just dealing with all that it is owning a restaurant, and it is very stressful. It's not the easiest thing. And just being able to have someone next to you that, one, believes in what you're doing, two, is willing to put in the work in as much as I am, because I know I'm the type of person that's like, "You give 100%. I'm going to give 2000%, or I don't do it." 200% or I'm not doing it. He's very much the same way, so I'm like, "Okay, great." We understand each other in that. But also, we have amazing plans and I feel like, sometimes, it may be even bigger than ourselves, but we're like, "Why not?" And I'm going to get emotional, because I am.
Kerry Diamond:
I understand. You two seem to have a beautiful friendship. The community loves you too. And you can tell that when you eat the food, and I was so grateful that I had the opportunity to do that. You and Henry call it new Asian American cuisine. Why that?
Evelyn Garcia:
It took us a minute, for sure.
Kerry Diamond:
Because that is not your heritage.
Evelyn Garcia:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
The American part, yes, but not Asian part.
Evelyn Garcia:
The American part. Yeah. I was born in a Mexican Salvadorian household. The food I was cooking professionally was always Asian. I've just always enjoyed those flavors. Like I said, growing up in Houston, it's just very easy and accessible as well to have Southeast Asian food because we have such a big community here. And then, once I started cooking professionally, I was just like, "I really love these flavors. I want to learn more." And I was just focused on that, Spice Market, Masak, a Singaporean restaurant Kin Shop, which was a Thai, and I was just really beelined into that cuisine and I was like, "I want to know everything about it."
And then, the more I was cooking it, obviously, it starts blending into what my food is now, and it's just really cooking with flavors and techniques that I enjoy, and it has to do a lot with a lot of Asian flavors. The more I was learning about Asian cuisine and the techniques and everything, the more it felt very familiar to me, because it does have a lot of similarities with Mexican and Latin cuisine. I feel like I was so focused on learning so much about this cuisine, but at the same time, I was like, "Oh, it feels so homey here. All these flavors really remind me of home." And I was obviously in a different city and I was working with different chefs and different flavors because I did Indian, Malay and I did Singaporean and Thai, so it was just a lot of different flavors, but all of it really felt very homey, and I think that's what made it comforting and I wanted to learn more about it.
Growing up in a Mexican Salvadorian with great cooks, I got really good food, but I hadn't really, I guess, thought about it. I was just taking it for granted that it was just there, and I was learning so much about Asian food. And then, now, it's like, "I learned so much about Asian food and this is my culture and all the similarities." Now, I really try to showcase the similarities between it, and not so much mashing two things together, but bringing food that just tastes good together and just happens to be from completely different sides of the world. For me, just going through New York City, that's huge, and it's a crazy melting pot as well, from a city that is huge melting pot as well. That is what I grew up in. This food makes sense to me because that's what I'm surrounded by. And yeah, new Asian American. It took us a minute. We were like, "What are we?"
Kerry Diamond:
You definitely get personal touches in there. I'm thinking of the Gulf shrimp aguachile that you started the sit with us dinner with. Want to tell folks about that dish and what's in it?
Evelyn Garcia:
Yeah. It's our gulf shrimp and it's an aguachile, so it's very traditional Mexican dish. The broth itself is made out of cucumber, chili, cilantro, lime. And then, our flair, what makes it different at Jūn is that it has ginger, it has lemongrass, it has fish sauce, green apple for some sweetness, more rounded balances. To my palette, because I am cooking for myself, that aguachile where it's not just very sour and spicy, but it has more of a, not complexity, because I feel like the dish itself, the traditional one is very complex, but it just gives it a little bit of this rounded off, oh, there's a little sweetness there.
And it has some avocado crispy taro because, for me, aguachile is always serves with tortilla chips or some kind of vessel crunchy bit, but I really liked incorporating the crispy bits of the tarot because they crisp up really good and they hold up to that liquid. They don't sog, they don't get wet and flimsy. It really holds up to it. So then, when you eat it together in the bowl, you really do get that, not only the pop of flavor, because the broth itself is very bold, but then, you get the crunchy bits of the taro, and then, you get the softness of the shrimp, which is sous vide. It could be a raw dish, but we're also American palate. Not everybody wants to just eat some raw shrimp, so we do sous vide it so it still keeps that really nice, tender, juicy shrimp. And yeah, I think it's just layer of texture. I think, once I was thinking of what kind of menu dishes to put on not only our menu, but for our dinner, it was just like, "Okay, let me pick the ones that really showcase what we're doing in here at Jūn," and that's complexity of flavor, textures that really melts together Latin, Mexican, Asian cuisine.
Kerry Diamond:
Before we get to the speed round, I want to talk to you about community, because community is obviously so important to you, as anybody who's listened to this interview so far could pick up. What does community mean to you today?
Evelyn Garcia:
Like you said, I feel like it's always been part of my life, growing up in a household where I was able to have everybody around me, my grandparents, my parents, my siblings, and how that evolves and translates as we get older. And what is really cool about Houston is that, yeah, it's a foodie town, right? It's an up and coming foodie town because we have a lot of good food. But what's really cool is too that Houston is very supportive. They want to come out, they want to be part of your story, they want to see you succeed, and that's what's really cool, and why I enjoy working in Houston and why I wanted to open everything here is just that everybody's super welcoming. Even for myself, although I was born and raised in Houston, I left for a long time and I came back ... I left as a kid and came back, still a kid, but I came back, I became an adult in New York and came back, so I was still kind of estranged to Houston.
And then, just coming in and being like, "Hey, I'm Evelyn, and I want to cook I Asian Latin American food," and everybody was just like, "Hell yeah, come in." Talking to all different owners and bar owners that let me start with popups and farmer's markets and all the things that are part of my process and us getting to opening Jūn, but it's all because of community. Everybody's been so welcoming, and again, wanted to be part of not only my story, but Jūn's story, and see it succeed. It's really cool that you're surrounded by that, because you feel it, and then, an idea can come to fruition, but it could only be done with community, for sure.
Kerry Diamond:
That's beautiful. Let's do a little speed round. How do you start your day? Coffee, tea, some other beverage?
Evelyn Garcia:
Right now, I'm on the roasted matcha kick. It's really tasty. Yeah, that's-
Kerry Diamond:
How do you take it?
Evelyn Garcia:
Iced, even in this chilly week, always iced, with some almond milk.
Kerry Diamond:
A cookbook you treasure?
Evelyn Garcia:
Currently, I would have to say “Peru” by Gaston Acurio. It's an amazing cookbook. He's essentially the godfather of Peruvian food. It's a really good one, and it's a gorgeous book.
Kerry Diamond:
Footwear of choice in the kitchen?
Evelyn Garcia:
Got to rep my Texas. I wear San Antonio Shoemakers' non-skip booties. They're so comfortable, and it makes me like an inch taller.
Kerry Diamond:
What's the name of the company?
Evelyn Garcia:
San Antonio Shoemakers.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, that's the name of them? Oh, cool.
Evelyn Garcia:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
I've never heard of them, so, cool.
Evelyn Garcia:
Oh, they're so good. And they're all leather, so they last.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Protect those little toes. Favorite snack food?
Evelyn Garcia:
Popcorn. I love popcorn, and lightly burnt.
Kerry Diamond:
Lightly burnt, really?
Evelyn Garcia:
Yeah. You know how it says two minutes? I always do two minutes and 15, a little charred.
Kerry Diamond:
That's pretty funny. What's a food that's always in your fridge?
Evelyn Garcia:
Pickles and olives, some sort of pickle thing.
Kerry Diamond:
All right. And if you had to be trapped on a desert island with one food celebrity, who would it be and why?
Evelyn Garcia:
That's hard. Wow. One food celebrity. I think, you know what? Just because, and I haven't met him, but growing up watching Emeril, I saw him as my dad. That's literally how I would see him on TV. And I went to his restaurants in New Orleans once I was able to go to New Orleans, but I've never met the man and I still ... Anytime I see him, he just reminds me of my dad. I think that'd be really cool to spend some time with him. And his food's so good. It can't be bad.
Kerry Diamond:
Evelyn, you are so special. I'm so glad everybody got to know a little bit more about you. Thank you for your time today.
Evelyn Garcia:
No, thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Don't forget our third annual Cooks & Books Festival and Sit With Us Dinner are taking place Saturday, November 11th at Ace Hotel Brooklyn. Tickets are on sale right now. Visit cherrybombe.com for more, and I would love to see you there. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Joseph Hazen is the studio engineer for Newsstand Studios. Our producer is Catherine Baker. Our associate producer is Jenna Sadhu, and our editorial assistant is Londyn Crenshaw. Thanks for listening, everybody. You are the Bombe.