Kimmie Mcintosh Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe, and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond, coming to you from Las Vegas.
Today's guest is Kimmie Mcintosh, the talented baker behind Milkfish in Las Vegas. Last year, Kimmie was named a semi-finalist for a James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker. No one was more surprised than Kimmie herself. She could not imagine that her humble pop-up bakery would be considered for such a prestigious award. But no one who's tried Kimmie's baked goods was surprised. She's dazzled folks with her signature cashew cocoa jam sticky buns, pandan tres leches cake, and Karioka skewers, which are sweet rice flour and coconut fritters with cocoa jam, toffee sauce, caramelized coconut curds, and xroads Philippine Sea Salt. She brought some of the fritters to the studio, and they were delicious. Kimmie joins me in just a minute to talk about the tight-knit baker community in Las Vegas, how her husband and business partner Josh has encouraged and supported her over the years, how Bakers Against Racism impacted her life and career, and what she loves about the city she now calls home. Kimmie is an amazing example of someone whose life continues to unfold in beautiful ways. You'll be very inspired by her story. Stay tuned for Kimmie Mcintosh.
Team Cherry Bombe and I will be in Vegas for a special International Women's Day weekend. We're hosting three separate events, a kickoff party on Friday, March 7th at The Velveteen Rabbit, then a networking breakfast with talks, and panels on Saturday, March 8th, at The Wynn. Then we have a wonderful dinner at the brand new Gjelina in the Venetian later that night. Tickets are on sale right now at cherrybombe.com. You can purchase individual tickets, or hey, if you're a high roller, buy a weekend pass. If you're a Bombesquad member, be sure to check your inbox for special member discounts on all the pricing. I love Las Vegas, and can't wait to hang out with everybody.
Today's episode is presented by Las Vegas. The city is a culinary playground where innovation, global flavors, and unforgettable experiences collide. From its vibrant food halls featuring renowned coast to coast eats, to elevated fine dining concepts with world renowned chefs, Las Vegas redefines gastronomic excellence. In 2025, Las Vegas continues to prove itself as a must visit destination for food lovers, offering something extraordinary for every palette. There's Casa Playa at the Wynn, where Chef Sarah Thompson and her team create dishes inspired by coastal Mexico, Sarah was just named a James Beard Award semi-finalist for Best Chef Southwest. Congratulations, Sarah. Pinky's by Vanderpump is a new concept from the former star of the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and restaurateur Lisa Vanderpump that opened at Flamingo Las Vegas this past December. They offer distinctive dishes, and statement cocktails that translate into Instagrammable moments for guests. You know I love a little IG moment. And last but definitely not least, Cote, that's C-O-T-E, known for its dynamic fusion of Korean barbecue and American steakhouse is set to open its first West Coast location at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas this summer. You've heard from Cote beverage director Victoria James on past episodes of our show, and you know she is the Bombe. She and the team at Cote are crushing it, and I'm sure this location is going to be very special. The Las Vegas culinary scene is clearly on a roll. Plan your visit at visitlasvegas.com.
Now, let's check in with today's guest, Kimmie Mcintosh, welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Thank you so much for having me. I'm beyond excited to be here.
Kerry Diamond:
I am beyond excited to talk to you, and not only because you brought baked goods, but that is very kind of you. Look forward to digging into those in a little while.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yay.
Kerry Diamond:
You and I are talking just a few days after your successful bake sale in support of Los Angeles. 12 Las Vegas bakers got together, and you raised $4,010, to be exact, for the Black L.A. Relief and Recovery Fund. How did the sale come together?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Well, we often put on these collaborative bake sales to raise money for local nonprofits. A lot of times, we base it on what's happening in the world, or in the country today. Because of just the devastation left behind from the L.A. wildfires, I'm from Southern California, just north of L.A., a couple cousins got evacuated, and so, you can't imagine your home being in that sort of condition, so it seemed like the right time to bring a lot of bakers together, especially when morale seems so low, and to just bring Vegas together to help out our L.A. community is something that just seemed really pressing. I have a handful of bakers that I often contact for these collaborative bake sales. Also, just reached out to new bakers that I've noticed on Instagram, or just out in news on the town, and wanted to just kind of bring us together for this common purpose.
Kerry Diamond:
This is completely ignorant on my part, but I really hadn't thought about Las Vegas as a place with a tight-knit indie baker scene. How tight-knit are you?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I never thought of Vegas having a really tight-knit indie baker scene either. It all started because back when I was first wanting to open a bakery, even before it became Milkfish Bake Shop, or even a Filipino bakery... so my friend owns Fukuburger Restaurant here in Las Vegas, best burgers I've ever had, American burgers with a Japanese twist, and he has always been so giving to us, in terms of getting our name, and our start out there here in Vegas. When he heard that I wanted to open a bakery with my husband, Josh, he said, "I know a woman who owns one of the most successful bakeries here. It's called TSP Baking Company in North Vegas. She'll sit down with you, and answer any question you want."
I remember thinking, "This woman doesn't know me." I had heard she has a huge TikTok following. I'm not personally on TikTok, and so for me it's almost like, oh God, well she's taking the time to talk to me. I don't even know what exactly I want to do." And I was blown away at how selfless the both of them were, on just this passion of mine that I thought maybe I could do, but I needed a little more guidance. I think that was probably the start of realizing that I should really take advantage of other bakery owners here. Who better to know what it takes, especially here in Vegas? They can give me so much insight into things that I've never thought before.
I would say stemming from that, and stemming from other people that I've just built relationships with here in Vegas, I've been introduced to different indie bakers. I know what it's like to just want to get your name out there, and be remembered, and so I just try to make it a point to always keep them in mind when I'm doing these bake sales. I just feel really fortunate because, to be honest, I've never been the most social person. It was only really moving here, meeting my husband, building more confidence with this, and this has been a really fun way for me to step up my social game, but also just to get to know other people in town, get to know other people's thought process, and why not do it for something that's greater than what you could ever possibly think of?
Kerry Diamond:
We should give a shout-out to some of the folks. You said TSP, is it Teaspoon or TSP?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
So, it's TSP, and I often say Teaspoon, and say it out loud. I believe it's TSP Baking Company,
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Okay. So we'll give a shout-out to some of the folks. I had so much FOMO watching what you were doing, and Donna Yen from our team was out here for the bake sale, and for a few other things, and she seemed like she was having the best time.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Oh gosh, it was so much fun. This was the first collaborative bake sale that all of us bakers were actually all together. A couple were missing, because we all have businesses, and their businesses were running on Sunday, but most of us were there, first time were all assembling the boxes together, and so it was really great that Donna happened to be at this one, because we still had bakers there, and she got to meet everybody, all of us coming together for the first time, but then also just get the name out about other bakers in the area.
Kerry Diamond:
You had TSP, Glaze Doughnuts.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Pop N pies, another pop-up baker, like you. Alameda Baking Co., Whiskful Thinking Cakes.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
And of course pastry chef Drew was there.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
We have to give a shout-out to pastry chef Drew.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
You know, I am-
Kerry Diamond:
That dude's in good shape.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
He is in incredible shape, and I just started my fitness journey this year, but then he walks in, and you're like, "Oh, okay. I have a long way to go." But, I feel like I got really lucky with Drew being a part of the bake sale. He's in town for a Pastry Academy, and he had reached out because he had heard of-
Kerry Diamond:
Wait, what's Pastry Academy?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I believe it's an eight-week pastry program. I can't remember exactly where the location is, but he is out there just learning about all the most intricate French pastries, just pastries that I would love to think that I have the delicate hand to do, but I purposely make a little more rustic baked goods because I do not.
He's here for eight weeks doing that, and he reached out because he's been doing this really awesome bakery crawl since he'd been here, heard about me. He was wondering what events I have going on, because admittedly, I don't have them going on every single weekend, but I try to get them happening at least once every two weeks.
It happened to be that I had the collaborative bake sale happening. I was like, "I don't know if you're still in town when this is going on, but if you are, I mean, I would love for you to come out," and so quickly he volunteered to bake for it, which is... I mean, I love holiday baking championships, so who's not going to want a holiday baking champion there with you? And not to mention he's just a wonderful energy to be around. Really, really awesome. So, I couldn't be happier with how our paths happen to cross with this bake sale. It's really awesome.
Kerry Diamond:
We'll be right back with today's guest. We've got a lot going on at Cherry Bombe, and the best way to stay informed is to sign up for our free newsletter. You can sign up at cherrybombe.com, or at the link in our show notes. Learn about any podcast guests you might've missed, our upcoming events, early bird ticket info, pop-ups, and cool food news. We send our main email every Friday.
You are not from Las Vegas. Where did you grow up?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I grew up in Oxnard, California. I often say the home of Harry's Berries, and the best strawberries in the country.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, Harry's Berries, famous.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes. They actually are just down the street from my high school. Had no idea. A lot of people in Oxnard actually don't know they exist. It's just everybody else in the culinary world. But I was born and raised in Oxnard, California. I moved all up and down California, went to culinary school in Santa Barbara, actually.
Kerry Diamond:
Why did you move so many times?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I moved so many times because I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I guess. I mean, I was born and raised in Oxnard. When I first started college, I went to Long Beach. It was highly suggested I pursue a nursing career, which is quite common in the Filipino culture, and for me, it just seems like, "Okay, yeah, you need nurses everywhere, so let's go for it." Quickly learned that, "What am I doing?" I am so squeamish, I do not like to look at any bumps, bruises, none of that. So, I was like, "Okay, let's backtrack. I was a little too heavily influenced. Let's just go back to what I like to do." And when I had first started going to Long Beach was the first time I actually started cooking for myself.
Kerry Diamond:
Who was cooking at home?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
At my home, I felt very lucky, because I had both my parents, my grandparents, my dad's parents, all living with us. My grandparents lived with us half the time. The other time they lived in the Philippines, but I had all four of them cooking every single night. We weren't really restaurant going people, and it was fun, because then you have four different versions of Adobo, and even if it's my family who were all the same, they all cook very differently. So, I feel really lucky to have been able to experience that, but I wasn't necessarily stirring the pot with them, or anything.
I do have very early baking memories with my mom. She made banana bread, and chocolate chip cookies all the time, so I have very, very distinct memories of folding in the chocolate chips to the cookie dough, and mashing the bananas for the banana bread. But, in terms of actually really getting into cooking, it didn't start until I started college, and had to fend for myself.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell us about that, because all of a sudden you're on your own, you have to cook for yourself.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah, all of a sudden I'm on my own. I'm cooking for myself. I remember the first recipe that I made in my apartment was homemade chicken nuggets, and it was one of those chicken cookbooks, like “101 Ways to Make Chicken,” and I was like, "Yeah, of course I want to try to make chicken nuggets. Why not?" And it was just the process of a chicken nugget to be one thing, and you don't really think about making it on your own, or trying... And for me it was just like, "Whoa."
Kerry Diamond:
Sure. When you're first learning how to cook, you feel like a magician.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah. Exactly. And you're just like, "I made a chicken nugget." It's not the most miraculous thing, but it's not something you necessarily think you're going to do.
Kerry Diamond:
And on the seventh day you rested.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah, exactly. And so, it was just kind of really eye-opening, and my interest in it just started really peaking during that time.
Kerry Diamond:
But peaked enough that you decided to pursue it professionally.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
How did we go from making homemade chicken nuggets to wanting to pursue a career as a culinary professional?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Well, I was trying to figure out, okay, if nursing is not for me, what do I want to do? And to be totally honest, I did not know what I wanted to do. In the Filipino culture, you're so focused on your studies, and getting into a really good program, and things like that, that you don't necessarily always think, "What is my passion, though? What do I really want to do?" Not that there's anything wrong with what could possibly be expected of you, but is there something more?
And I've never really been one to do artistic things, or express myself in that way, and food to me was just such a unique way of being able to do that. I fell in love with it right away. I didn't start cooking until college, but I fell in love with the fact that, like you said, this magic was happening. These are things that you can make on your own, and you just have no idea. And so, I decided to pursue my culinary degree after that. I went to Santa Barbara City College, and got my culinary degree there, and actually all of my kitchen experience is in Santa Barbara.
Kerry Diamond:
Were your teachers very encouraging? Do you feel like you had a gift?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Oh, that's such a funny question. To be totally honest, and I'm not trying to sell myself short, not necessarily. I've always just been that kind of personality to just not really make my presence known. I just kind of want to hang back. I just want to do well. I just want to get through it. I think still even in those college years, my personality was maybe that way still, so I just wanted to graduate, just wanted to learn meat butchery. I just wanted to know the ins and outs, and then try to get my job. I would say it took me a really long time actually, to get to that point of thinking like, "Okay, do I have something here? Is this something that I can really put all my focus into, and make a difference with it?" And I mean, if you were to tell me back in my Santa Barbara days that this was happening right now, I would not believe it.
Kerry Diamond:
If you were to tell your culinary instructors that you are a future James Beard nominee, do you think they would've been shocked?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I don't think any of them would remember me. Again, not to sell myself short, I did fine in culinary school. I graduated, but I mean-
Kerry Diamond:
But you weren't giving off those vibes?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I wasn't giving off those vibes. I've always been really reserved. Again, not to sell myself short, but maybe not the most confident. I would say a big game changer for me was meeting my husband, and marrying him, and having him start to be that voice in my head of, "You do have something here. You should pursue this. This is not something you find every day." And so, admittedly, it took other people to get me there, but I mean, I could not be more grateful, because I feel like I'm a totally different person now.
Kerry Diamond:
Aww.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, sometimes that's what it takes. What kind of jobs did you have while you were in culinary school?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
While I was in culinary school, my first job was for a catering company. I always say one of the coolest jobs I've ever had, you might not think about it, but in Santa Barbara, it's amazing. We did-
Kerry Diamond:
It's fancy out there.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
When Arnold Schwarzenegger was running for governor, we catered his little event that he had at Wrigley Estate, which is just the biggest estate I've ever... There's just so many places. We did Jeff Bridges’ daughter's wedding. There's just so many different things that you're just like, "Wow, am I doing this right now?" And I'm doing it through food. Really cool.
Kerry Diamond:
Were you good at it?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I mean, I think I was. That first job was a lot of frying. So, frying is... It's, I'm not going to say easy, but it's one of those things that it's kind of standard. I cooked in restaurants there. I cooked at Wine Cask restaurant there.
Kerry Diamond:
Isn't that a famous-
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah, Doug Margerum, the famous winemaker.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
He owns it. At the time I worked there, he had actually briefly sold it, and so it was just different restaurant owners there. But-
Kerry Diamond:
Is it in “Sideways?”
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes. Yes, it was.
Kerry Diamond:
Yeah, yeah. Okay. That's what I'm thinking of.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Because they have the shop as well. Exactly. Yeah. I got my foot in the door there by becoming a hostess. I was in culinary school. I didn't think they would hire me in the kitchen, because I didn't have any restaurant experience. And so, I was like, "All right, I'll apply to be a hostess." Got my foot in the door, slowly started getting some food running shifts, where you're just right there with the chef, running the food. And so, standing next to the chef, it's like, "Well, I'm in culinary school. If you guys need anyone, just let me know. I would love to help you guys out." And I was very lucky that they gave me a chance. And so, that was my first restaurant job, my first pastry job.
Kerry Diamond:
How'd you meet Josh?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I met Josh in San Francisco.
Kerry Diamond:
Take us to San Francisco. How'd you wind up there?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Definitely. I graduated culinary school in Santa Barbara. I worked in restaurants, cooked in restaurants, but then I found myself in the front of the house only, and I moved to San Francisco to pursue my hospitality management degree in restaurant management. Moved to San Francisco, graduated from there, and worked in restaurants there. I actually worked at Nancy Oaks' sister restaurant to Boulevard. I worked at Prospect, and I was one of their managers. My husband Josh was a bartender there. And so, I wouldn't say the sparks flew right away. They did as friends, but I'm very much like, "This is my first management job in a big city."
Kerry Diamond:
You're not going to date the bartender.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I'm in a big city. This is just real deal right now.
Kerry Diamond:
Were you his boss?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah. It's funny, because when we were talking about coming in today, and we anticipated we would be talking about the story of how we met, he's like, "Well, are you going to talk about it?" I'm like, "I don't know. I don't know." But to be honest-
Kerry Diamond:
Sometimes you date at work, it happens.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I was going to say, to be honest, it's part of our story. We met at restaurants, we've been in love with restaurants. We wanted to open our own restaurant, turned into a bakery. But I mean, I couldn't be happier with meeting him. And like I said, he is the confidence that I needed. He was the one to start putting those really encouraging words in my head, so that I would not stop myself, and really grow in the way in which he saw that I could.
Kerry Diamond:
But the nice thing is that something in you believed what he was telling you.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes. He not only instilled that confidence in me, but it does get you to start thinking, when people tell you enough, you're like, "Okay, people are not going to lie to your face like that, about something like that. You should really listen." And yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you think it's just how you always were? Or was there something about how you grew up that you...
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I think there's a slight cultural thing to it. My parents, they immigrated to America. I don't know Tagalog. I wish I did. I wish I knew the language. It wasn't until I was an adult where I asked them, "Well, why didn't you teach me?" And they're like, "Well, we're here in America. We're Americans. We wanted you to assimilate." And I think it's just sort of all of that, and also just, I just want to assimilate. I don't want to cause a big thing. I just want to fly under the radar, and do my job, and do my best, and that's what I do. Not necessarily that you don't have big goals. I just think that the long-winded answer of it, Filipinos have just been colonized for so long, that we're always just trying to assimilate, just so we can make it through.
And I think that really carries on to so many aspects of our culture. It's not that my parents were bringing me down in any way, it's just that I stayed, and I studied, and I got good grades, and that was my focus. And so, you just never really have that like, "Oh, well, what if I shot for this? What if I really went for that?" For them it was like, "We worked really, really hard to get to America, so we just want to do what we got to do to be here, and not ruffle any feathers, or anything like that. We're happy to be here." I think it's tied into that. I think that I just really assimilated to that mindset.
Kerry Diamond:
I know there are a lot of people who can relate to that story.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah, I mean, I think so, too. I think that you see it a lot, and it's not that they're doing it in any wrong way, they're doing it in the way that they had to, that they grew up feeling. Now's my chance, and now that's almost what Milkfish Bake Shop became. I wanted to be more in touch with my culture. The best way I know how to do it is through food. So, what can we do?
Kerry Diamond:
So you're in San Francisco, you're a manager dating the bartender. So, you were done with back of house, you were fully focused on...
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah, I grew to really love the front of house. I wasn't expecting to transition to it, but I really liked that face-to-face guest interaction. I liked seeing that real time response to food. You don't always get that when you're in the kitchen. I really grew to love the serving aspect of it, the welcoming people into your little home of a restaurant, and having them feel comfortable with you. I really enjoyed doing that.
Kerry Diamond:
You weren't pursuing the chef life anymore?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah. I just felt very comfortable in it, and I felt like I did a really good job of it. Again, with the cultural aspect, Filipinos are very hospitable people as well, and it felt very natural to me. My husband says all the time, "Restaurants are not in your family, so it's almost unique that you're really into the restaurant industry." And I told him, "I just like the hosting aspect of it through food, connecting with people through food," and I became very comfortable in that position. So, I did not find the drive to get back into the professional kitchen, and also, to be totally honest, it's a little scary. The bear is very accurate. It's a very intimidating atmosphere.
Kerry Diamond:
And what year are we talking?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I was in Santa Barbara 2007 to 2009.
Kerry Diamond:
There were still restaurants at that point that wouldn't even hire women.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
San Francisco was a little different, though.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I was going to say, you had women like Dominique Crenn who were just breaking down all barriers that women had, I feel like. She was a tough woman, female chef who was just really blowing these guys out of the water. So, I would say that San Francisco did have a little bit of a different element.
Kerry Diamond:
But that's interesting that that kept you out of the kitchen partially. That's one of the reasons.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah. It really did. It really did, and like I said, I just kind of became comfortable with it. With the front of the house aspect, it was a little more my pace. You're on stage, as they say. The energy of it is just different in the back when you're not so much on stage, so, I maybe was a little hesitant to go back to something like that.
Kerry Diamond:
At what point do you and Josh start talking about Las Vegas?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
My husband and I started talking about Las Vegas because he's actually from here.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
He's born and raised here. His grandparents bought a house in the '50s on the East Side of Las Vegas, and worked at Nellis Air Force Base, so they're dug into Las Vegas, born and raised as families here. I was personally looking for a different scene. I felt like San Francisco, it was great. I experienced a lot, but I was wanting to step up my restaurant experience.
Before I went to Santa Barbara City College, I actually wanted to go to UNLV. I've always felt that Vegas was the place if you wanted to work in restaurants, simply because of the caliber, the volume. I was raised coming here all the time when I was a kid, so it's always been humongous buffets with endless tables, and then I remember as I grew up, Hubert Keller's restaurant is there. It's a humongous Fleur de Lys, and it's just the biggest restaurant I've ever seen.
And so, I've always just held onto those memories. I was like, "Wow, these must be really serious, amazing chefs, to come out, and have a restaurant in these huge resorts." For me, it was always the aspiration. That seems like the ultimate place to work in a restaurant, in my opinion. Because of course, you have the big name chefs in New York, and California, San Francisco, but they all do tend to try to step up their game by opening a restaurant in Vegas, because it's just a whole nother beast. He mentioned that, and I was sold almost immediately. I was like, "I mean, I would love to move to Vegas. I've always wanted to work in restaurants out there." So, just so happened he was from here, and it made the move a lot easier. He had family here that we can connect with.
Kerry Diamond:
Wow. Okay, so you pack up the car, you maybe drive here, or not.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes. Pack up the car. Pack up the cats.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you drive?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
And the cats, I love it.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I had one cat at the time, but he's moved with me to so many places.
Kerry Diamond:
What's the cat's name?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Bulleit, like the bourbon.
Kerry Diamond:
How funny. You pack up everything, you pack up Bulleit, you drive here. Where did you find your first job?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Well, my first job was actually TAO, not the nightclub, but the restaurant. My husband was actually part of the opening team for them. That's actually where he knows the owner of Fukuburger from. A lot of really successful people here in town actually started at TAO, because it's just this whole beast that people have learned a lot from.
Kerry Diamond:
TAO in Manhattan is huge.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Oh my gosh.
Kerry Diamond:
I can imagine how big the TAO here is.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I have never experienced anything like it, and I like to say it was the best and worst decision I made, because it was definitely like, if you want to know what it's like to work in a really high-paced Vegas restaurant, I would argue, at the time, this was 2013, TAO was pretty much the place to do it. It's just 1,000 covers a night, 16 sections. Just never experienced anything like it. I did not last there very long.
Kerry Diamond:
By choice?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
It was by choice. They were always really supportive. I think they just knew that this was a different restaurant climate than I was used to, and I think they could see the... In my eyes, like, "Oh my gosh, where am I?" Yeah, I was-
Kerry Diamond:
Right. You went from indie restaurant in San Francisco, to massive high volume.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Exactly, because before Nancy Oak's restaurant, I worked at a little 14 seat restaurant in Woodside, California. So, just the southern tip of the Bay. It was called Station 1. It's actually where I learned, I would say, everything that I know about just being hospitable to people in a restaurant setting.
Kerry Diamond:
What happened next for you?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah. Admittedly, because I had spent so much time working in restaurants, and working towards it, I didn't want to give up on working in restaurants, but TAO definitely shook me up a little bit, in a great way, only to show me that, "Okay, this is different out here." I definitely reevaluated. I did continue working on the Strip, and I had children along the way, so a lot of times I ended up staying at home with my kids.
Kerry Diamond:
You have two little ones, right?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I have two little ones. My daughter, Leah is eight. My son Cooper is five.
Kerry Diamond:
I love their names.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah, thank you. And I would mainly stay at home with them, but I did get a couple jobs in the meantime, so I worked at Milk Bar after I had my daughter,
Kerry Diamond:
Christina Tosi's?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes, I worked at Milk Bar. I was one of their hard bodies. I was there for a little over a year. I've always looked up to Christina Tosi, because she's the epitome of having fun with what you do. You can see through her bakes that she has fun coming up with it, and for me, that's one of my favorite parts as well, of just this whole process, and so it was a dream to be able to work there. Just see how many people are huge fans of her, see the kitchen, smell the cereal milk, so it was really, really awesome.
Kerry Diamond:
The early Vegas years, were you baking at home?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
In the Vegas years, honestly, I wasn't baking heavily. I've always enjoyed cooking, and always enjoyed baking, and I'll do it, but it wasn't what it is now. I would say that it really started pumping up, really when it started pumping up for everyone else, which is during the pandemic. Right before the pandemic, I was working at Majordomo Meat & Fish. So, David Chang had a steakhouse here at the Palazzo, and I was serving there. It had opened, I want to say December, 2019. Fast-forward, March, 2020, COVID hits, and everyone's home.
Everyone starts baking sourdough bread, everyone starts baking banana bread, and I found it to be like, "Oh, well, I remember doing these little baking things with my mom. We're just here at home. We have all the time in the world." So, I started teaching my four-year-old how to bake, and I wanted to make the same thing that I remember making with my mom. So, we made banana bread, but we put chocolate chips in it.
I think it had just been a long time since I was able to get that sort of emotion, and joy from it, because I was doing it with my daughter. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it before, but it just sparked something. It sparked like, "Oh gosh, she's so into it. She thinks this is awesome. What more can I do?" So, we just started baking more, and more things. Also, during that time, Bakers Against Racism started. It was Paola Velez, James Beard winning pastry chef, and I just looked up to her so much, because I've never been a protester. I've never, like I said, put myself out there in that sort of way, but I was still just very outraged. Like I said, I had a four-year-old, and for me, the only thing I could think of was like, "God, this place that she's born into, we got a lot of work to do to turn this around."
Kerry Diamond:
You're referring to George Floyd being murdered, and Paola Velez, and a few of her colleagues start this thing called Bakers Against Racism.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
And it coalesces into the world's largest bake sale, essentially.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah, largest virtual bake sale, bakers from around the world. I loved it, because they encouraged professional bakers whose bakeries are closed, but they also encouraged home bakers, anyone who just wants to make a difference, and it was really cool to me that they were proposing that we make a difference in a way of baking stuff for others. It's just a route that I couldn't think of taking. Like I said, I was processing as a new mom, with everything that was going on. I felt very helpless, but I didn't know if I could be on the front lines with everyone else, and just so grateful for people like Paola Velez to start things like this, because it awakened just this whole new chapter of my life, that I'm grateful they had this out there, to really encourage others to do the same.
Kerry Diamond:
I think they wound up raising over $20 million for causes related to Black Lives Matter.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes, yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Which is remarkable. So you start baking.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
And selling what you bake to raise money for different causes.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes. It was strictly raising money. I only started doing it just to raise money for nonprofits. That, for me, was kind of an easier way to start integrating the recipes I was coming up with on my own.
Kerry Diamond:
Right, which we're going to talk about, because you weren't just doing banana bread, no shame on banana bread. I love to make banana bread. But you weren't just doing banana bread, and chocolate chip cookies. You start to develop this vocabulary that now you've become known for.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
So, tell us what you were baking then.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I would say probably even just that second bake sale was when I started to be like, "Okay, let's put some Filipino stuff in the mix." You never know. And to be totally honest, it seemed like a safe way to introduce stuff, because it's for charity, so who's really going to be too critical of something like that? But it just for my own peace of mind, seemed like an easy way to get my recipes out to others, as long as we're raising money. I would say that second bake sale after the banana bread was when I started doing staples that are on my menu still. Pandan tres leches cake, Longganisa cheddar drop biscuits, black sesame coconut marble loaf.
Kerry Diamond:
You just said those things like they were nothing. Those are really unique baked goods that you developed.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I love to just sit down, and it's a blessing and a curse, but overthinking really can open up a lot of doors, and I found that just trying to think of different ways to introduce Filipino baked goods, that's not just a typical pandesal, pande ube, something you find strictly in a Filipino bakery. I kind of had all this time in the world during COVID to be like, "Okay, well let's get creative here."
Kerry Diamond:
Because this hadn't been something you were doing previously. Or was It?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
It was something that I had, very in the back of my mind, but it wasn't something that I was really jumping at, necessarily. When my husband and I had first moved here... We've always been really passionate about working in restaurants, and we've always aspired to own our own business, and the very first business we actually came up with was a Filipino just fast casual spot. I feel very lucky. My husband just embraces the Filipino culture so much, and is so in love with Filipino food, and so he's like, "I think we should do Filipino food." And I'm like, "Really?" He's like, "Yeah." I'm like, "Okay, that's great. I love Filipino food." This is back in 2011, so there's not that much Filipino food out there. You have Tom Cunanan, he's probably one of the pioneers who owns B Suite in L.A., but there really wasn't as many as there are now, so it was just something that we're like, "Oh, that would be really cool. Maybe one day we'll do that."
Kerry Diamond:
But you had started thinking about dishes maybe, and that's-
Kimmie Mcintosh:
We had started-
Kerry Diamond:
... Was already in your brain?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
So, we had started thinking about dishes in a bar food aspect, actually. Segue into it, we originally wanted to open a Filipino inspired bar. My husband was a bartender at Momofuku Las Vegas when it opened, and he was coming up with some really great cocktails for the list. He was really enjoying coming up with them. So, at that point we're like, "Let's do a Filipino inspired speakeasy, some bar food." So we started thinking about that, but we wanted a front for the speakeasy that was fully functional, and worked during the day. So, I was like, "Let's do a bakery. Let's do a bakery."
And so, as we're just shooting these ideas around, I have endless amounts of notebooks where I just jot down ideas. So, it started going from bar food, to baked goods. It started being a little more focused on, "Oh, this is really fun. The front is a bakery. There's a lot of opportunity here to still highlight Filipino cuisine." I love to just take one little nugget of an idea and run with it. And that's where a lot of these baked goods came from, just sort of wanting to come up with the bakery front for our original idea, and then it just sort of grew into, "Oh, this might be the outlet that we're really looking at here," and it's kind of just taken away since then.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you give up on the dream of having a brick and mortar?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I didn't give up on the dream. I like the way that we do it. I find that it's this sort of really fun renegade style, where people can't really keep tabs on you. You're just on the go. You're popping up here and there, and I like being able to be accessible in the way of popping up in different areas of Vegas, and different areas of town, so people in that side of town can come see us. So, the dream is always going to be a bakery. To be totally honest, I think why I'm not rushing into it is just because I have two kids, and I'm just like, "Okay, we got to time this perfectly." There's never a perfect time, but I've always enjoyed just enjoying the process of growing little by little, and then seeing where it goes from there. But, arguably, the last year, it has all grown much faster than I was anticipating.
Kerry Diamond:
But more or less it's working for you?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes, yes. It's definitely working for us.
Kerry Diamond:
Are you able to make money? Because a lot of people I know in New York, you know how many pop-ups we have in New York?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah.
Kerry Diamond:
People often say, "Yeah, they're great, but you can't make money from a pop-up."
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah, I mean, it's-
Kerry Diamond:
Have you cracked the code?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
They're all so different. We pop up in so many different places. Like we have these locations that we're used to, and people are used to seeing us, and then we'll venture out to a different location to make ourselves accessible. Sometimes it's really, really great. Sometimes it doesn't turn out exactly as you expect. So, the struggles are real in all aspects of the food business, and I would say that person is exactly right.
Kerry Diamond:
You have about 17 things on your menu.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Can you pick the five most popular, and walk us through them?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes, definitely. Well, today I brought my favorite, which is the Karioka, which is what I like to share with people if I can. Karioka is traditionally a Filipino street food. A lot of street food there is marinated meat on a skewer, and so they mimicked that by doing these coconut glutinous rice flour fritters, but putting five to a skewer, so it's served on a barbecue stick. I had my first one at a Filipino bakery here, in one of the Filipino supermarkets, and I had never had one. I was just blown away. I'm like, "Well, how can I do something with this?" It's usually just in a coconut milk glaze, and so I wanted to add different garnishes to it that really bumped up the coconut flavor, because my goal was, because so many people tell you they don't like coconut, is that I'm going to pack this with coconut-
Kerry Diamond:
Who are those people?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I know. "I'm going to pack this with coconut. I'm going to make you love it." And so, that for me, is one of those desserts I'm really proud of, because that has happened. It has a coconut jam toffee sauce, some toasted coconut curds for a little texture, a Philippine sea salt, so it's not too sweet. I think it's just one of the more fun desserts we came up with. And I do love when it starts with something so simple, like street food.
A second menu item is the pandan tres leches cake. This one means a lot to me, because I feel like I was able to step up how I think about food by really learning about history. I had never really dove deep into Filipino history until I started really getting into Milkfish Bake Shop, and just understanding how much of an effect it has on our cuisine. And because of that, people say that Filipino cuisine has a lot of Spanish influence. The tres leches cake for me was honoring the fact that Mexico and the Philippines were colonized by Spain at the same time, and because of that, we were able to get a lot of their ingredients.
I always thought, "Okay, but did they get a lot of our ingredients?" I don't know. I'd have to dive deeper into history. But, for me, this was connecting the two cultures. It was me wondering, "Okay, what if our coconuts were on the Spanish galleons, and then they went back to Mexico with our coconuts, with our pandan leaf?" And so, that for me is a special dessert, because I just wanted to incorporate the two cultures together in, hopefully, a seamless way, and gotten very good responses from that.
I really love our Longganisa cheddar drop biscuit. It's one of our savory items we have. That one started because my husband loves Longganisa. It's a Filipino pork breakfast sausage. In Filipino restaurants, you can only find it in the morning, and he was getting so frustrated that he could not find it at any other time of day. And so, he's like, "God, I wish someone could come up with something that you can eat anytime of day, but just have Longganisa in it." And so, I've always loved biscuits. I love the flaky, layered biscuits, but I also love drop biscuits where you can pack so many things in it. I thought that would be the perfect way to highlight a Filipino ingredient, but just do it in a different way than it's typically served.
The mango float, also really love. It's because it's based off of a really, really simple icebox cake in the Philippines. It's just layers of cool whip, condensed milk, mango, and graham crackers. I wanted to make it into just a different type of layering. So, we did a chilled dessert with Philippine mango curd, condensed milk cheesecake mousse, and brown butter graham cracker crumbs. So, you still get a little bit of those flavors, but they're definitely in our own way.
The sans rival, the sans rival is a cashew meringue layer cake traditionally, with French buttercream, so egg yolk based. It's tricky when you want to do a concept based on a culture, because it's like, "Okay, do I do fusion? Do I try to stick with traditional dishes, and then just change one or two things?" And I like Milkfish Bake Shop because it's a little bit of everything. I wanted to try to keep the sans rival traditional with the cashew meringue layer cake, and the filling, but instead of the French buttercream, I do a white chocolate cremeux, so white chocolate pastry cream. And then we just add some poached pineapple on the side, just we don't want things to be too sweet, just to add a little chewiness to it as well.
The last dish I would highlight would be our ube babka. That one is based off of a Filipino bakehouse staple called pan de ube. It's just a sweet roll with ube jam inside. When we first started Milkfish Bake Shop, I actually purposefully stayed away from ube for a while, because that's always the first question you get asked, if you like, "Oh, I have a Filipino bakery." "Oh, I love ube." Which I love ube too, but you want to stand out. You want to be able to offer something different.
And so, purposefully, I tried to stay away from it, and introduced other things like the longganisa, the pandan, just other random ingredients. But, you always have to have something ube. I, again, like to just have fun with crossing cultures, just what if situations. And so, for me, I've just always loved babka, love the chocolate swirls inside, but what Filipino ingredient can you put inside? So we make a purple yam jam, we fill it with that, and it's just this really beautiful, striking purple color, but also still our homage to where it all started, which is a Filipino bakehouse.
Kerry Diamond:
These are all so creative.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
Did you always have a creative streak?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
God, I mean, it's funny, because just with the last year I've had, I tend to reflect on, "God, what would 12-year-old me think?" And, no, I don't think that I've always had this in me, to be honest. I've always been a little more reserved, so I never even... I would study, but I wouldn't necessarily create. I wouldn't try to create my own thing. I would just want to learn what there is to learn out there. And it really wasn't until I started Milkfish Bake Shop, where these truly unique ideas started coming out, and it was just like, "Oh my God, it's happening. This is really fun. I should just go with this." And I would've never expect... I still reflect on the last year, and it's still just such a whirlwind to me.
Kerry Diamond:
The name Milkfish, where did that come from?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes. So, Milkfish came from when we first wanted to do the Filipino speakeasy, actually. We were really into this idea. My husband had great cocktails in mind. I had great food in mind, and so, we were coming up with the name. He had known that there was a fish that we cook a lot called bangos, and the English name is Milkfish. He just always thought it was such a unique name that this fish was called Milkfish, and he's like, "Huh, that'd be a really interesting name for a bar. You drink milk, drink like a fish."
But for him, he's like, "More importantly, if we have the bar, and there's a sign that says Milkfish, if you're Filipino, you're going to be so intrigued into what on earth is happening in there, and you're not going to know it's a bar. You're not going to really know what's going on." So, it seemed like a really fun Filipino-themed speakeasy name, and that's actually how it originated. So, when we developed it into having the bakery as a front, and then you know what? Maybe we should just focus on the bakery in general, we still really loved that name, and so we just added Bake Shop to the end of it.
Kerry Diamond:
Last year. You find out you're a James Beard Award semi-finalist for Best Pastry Chef. What was your first thought when you found out?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Honestly, I had found out about the semi-finalist nod on Instagram. There was a woman who I worked with, out of the first place we popped out of, the first incubator kitchen, and she just was like, "Here are the James Beard semi-finalists for Vegas." She tags Brian Howard at Sparrow + Wolf, makes total sense, Anima by EDO, totally. Milpa, they hand make their tortillas, of course. Milkfish Bake Shop. And I'm just staring at it, and I don't know what happened, but the picture was a little grainy on the post. So, my mind went directly to, "This is fake. This is not real." And I'm very protective of my phone, because all my kids' pictures are on it. So I'm like, "I'm not going to open it. This is fake. This might be spam or a virus." I deleted it. Not one ounce of me thought it was real at all.
And then she posted it to her story, and did the same thing, and I'm like, "That's weird." So really, a lot of steps that someone who's hacking somebody to take. Still did not even dream that it was real at all. Deleted it. And my husband was out driving the kids to school. I'm literally at home by myself, saw this really weird thing on Instagram, and I'm just processing it by myself. And I sit there for a good 10 minutes, and I'm like, "Well, what if? should I look?" And I still don't look. And then I'm just like, "Well, this just seems so crazy of a thing. Maybe I should just look."
I Google James Beard nominations, and Eater Vegas comes up first, and they have everything. And I see my name on there with my husband's, and I see Kimmie Mcintosh, which for some reason I just assumed since it was such a formal organization, it would say Kimberly. So again, thought it was fake. I'm just staring at, I'm like, "Well, no, this is Eater Vegas."
So, I call my husband in a panic. Imagine his perspective. I'm just calling him and being like, "I think we just got nominated for a James Beard semifinal." And he's like, "What?" "I don't know what I'm looking at. I just need you to come home, because I feel like I'm losing my mind." And he's like, "Well, did you see it online?" "I see it on Eater Vegas right now." "Have you been on the Beard website?" "No." So he's like, "Okay, I'm almost home. Just look on the Beard website. Let's just see what this is about."
Kerry Diamond:
Oh my God, this would've been TikTok gold, had you recorded that.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
And so, I have my phone, I go to the Beard, scroll, scroll, scroll. I see our names. He walks in the door, has his phone in front of him, sees our name, and we still, I think are just... Complete shock, and then calls, and texts start rolling in, and we're just like, "Holy crap. This is actually happening." And it's still just...
Kerry Diamond:
That's remarkable, Kimmie.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yeah, crazy.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, congratulations to both of you.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm curious, what do you think their recognition of you, a very untraditional chef, as you've told us, with an untraditional business, at least in terms of who they tend to honor, what does that say about the industry today?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I love what it says about the industry today, because I think it just shows that you don't have to know all the French techniques to be an amazing chef. You don't have to be trained under only big name chefs to be a really good chef. There's so many different food businesses out there, and there is no denying that to do something like that, you need to put all your blood, sweat, and tears into it. Of course, it makes sense that it's not only going to be these really fancy sit down restaurants that have that passion, and that drive behind that.
That whole year, a lot of the nominees were a lot of smaller places, and it was just inspiring, because it shows that, okay, that's not the only way to be considered a serious chef. It's not only going to be about how formal it is, the strict training that you've had. It's going to be about the passion you have behind it, the difference you make in your community. I just thought it was so wonderful to see so many of those names. Even in the outstanding pastry chef category alone, a lot of these places are a lot smaller than big places that you would think of first. It was really inspiring to see that, the culture shift in that way, because it's so important to highlight these smaller businesses who are putting in just as much work, if not more.
Kerry Diamond:
I'm curious, your take on the Las Vegas culinary scene, because you've been here long enough to have seen it change a lot.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes, definitely.
Kerry Diamond:
How has it changed since you and Josh got here?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Oh, gosh. When we first got here, there were plenty of off the strip restaurants, but since we've moved here, so many amazing ones have popped up, and it makes complete sense why they're so incredible, is because, I mean, going back to it, they have had great training, and they have had the experience, and then they finally have a place like Las Vegas to showcase everything that they've got.
I think Vegas is a really unique culinary scene because you can get a little bit of everything. You can get that really fancy fine dining, but you can get some really solid casual in Chinatown, in these little neighborhoods in Vegas. And a lot of them will be just phenomenal chefs, because they just have an extensive history that they're able to share with us in their own way. It's been really fun. Like I mentioned, Brian Howard of Sparrow + Wolf, he started working under Thomas Keller, I believe, and now he has his own restaurant off the strip. Just phenomenal. I love that it has just so many degrees of seriousness here, where you want to have just a really well-oiled machine, but then you also have these little mom-and-pop shops. It's just a really great variety of places here.
Kerry Diamond:
You mentioned Chinatown. You know this, but in a lot of cities across the country, the Chinatowns are really suffering.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
But you said not in Las Vegas.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I would say that it's beginning to really, really thrive. We had just been approved for a Filipino town around Chinatown, and so that's just going to bring so many different businesses into it.
Kerry Diamond:
There's also a Korea town.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Spring Mountain is the main road where you're going to find all these different areas, and the businesses that are popping up in Chinatown, whether they be really great established Asian businesses, or these newer businesses that want to bring more business to Chinatown, and help it thrive, I would say here in Vegas, we're really doing well with that, because we have a lot of amazing chefs, and a lot of amazing bakery owners opening up in Chinatown, bringing more people there.
Fukuburger, for example, they have a really great Chinatown location. It is really fun to be here in Las Vegas' Chinatown scene. What used to be in San Francisco, walking through Chinatown every day, very traditional Chinatown you're used to, and I feel like Vegas is a really unique one. It's just a lot of opportunity to bring people to a different part of Vegas besides the Strip, and Chinatown's definitely thriving in that sense.
Kerry Diamond:
If I want some great Filipino food, where should I go?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I think there's great options. Kusina Ni Lorraine is pretty much a historical landmark here, I would say, in Filipino food. There's a big Filipino community here, and they are very traditional turo-turo, so your point point, they have all this food in chafing dishes, and you point to the one you want, and they put it in your box, and close it up, and you leave. So, they are pretty much like the place you want to go for that. Very, very traditional food. Really delicious.
Kerry Diamond:
Does Josh like it? We have to ask.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
He does love it. It's funny, because he works in a restaurant, and a lot of times, people that he works with will be like, "He's more Filipino than I am," just because he loves the food. He is really embraced my family, and my culture, and I think also, him seeing what a big factor Filipino food is in culture is just a really fun element for him. So, yeah, he gets down with the adobo, and the machado, and the afritada. He loves all that.
Kerry Diamond:
What's next you?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Wow. Well, I mean, like I said, this is still feeling very much like a dream, but I don't want it to slow down in any sense. Last year, it was kind of soaking it all in, hosting monthly pop-ups, selling things in batches, and this year is just about getting it out to everybody. So, we're starting to host pickups out of our commissary kitchen, so people can have items a la carte, and try different items from us. And then we also have a lot of fun pop-ups that we have planned to get us around different areas of Vegas, to hopefully reach people that we haven't reached here yet.
Do I have a timeline as sort of... For what's next in terms of a food truck, or a location? I honestly don't. I feel like I'm not usually one to live in the moment, and really soak it all in. And this is probably the one thing in my life that I really want to soak in. I like the pace I'm doing it. I like that people are surprised to hear about us still, and then when they first learn about us. And so, I'm enjoying the process.
Kerry Diamond:
We usually ask guests if they're good at trusting their gut, and it sounds like you are.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I think with the development of Milkfish Bake Shop is when I started to trust my gut. And I will give a lot of credit, because I feel like I have to, to my husband as well. He's part of trusting my gut, because I needed someone like him with me, to just remind myself, "This is something really special." The mango float dessert, for example, I almost did not go through with it. I tested it once, and I told him I wanted to give up, because it was runny. The structure wasn't what I wanted. And he ate it, and he was quiet, and he was like, "I just think you should give it another shot. You've got something really special here."
And so, with the help of him, with the help of Milkfish Bake Shop, I'm now learning that, "Okay, my gut is strong. I have something here that I should trust, and I should just go for it." And I'm happy that I've had the support in my life to get me to this point now, because like I said, 12-year-old me, culinary school me, would've never believed this to have happened. Now that I see what I'm capable of, it's like, "Okay, we can probably make a lot more happen as well."
Kerry Diamond:
Do you have a motto, or a mantra?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I do. I mean, the James Beard semi-finalist thing is going to be one of the most monumental things to happen in my life. I already know it. And so, for me, when that happened, the impossible happened. Fully impossible. Funny, quick story. My husband, when I first made him an empanada, it was the first thing I cooked for him when we were dating. He was at work, and I just made empanadas that were ready when he came home. This is 12 years ago. He ate it, was quiet, and he's a Leo, so he's very big dreams, always big goals and aspirations. He's like, "You keep making food like this, I'll get you a James Beard nomination." I'm not going to believe him for a second. We're just started dating. And like I said, he says things a lot, big dreams, and so fast-forward to now. Of course, he reminded me what he said. To me, still, it just seems impossible.
Kerry Diamond:
It's like Chappell Roan, when she was a kid, announcing she was going to get a Grammy. Did you see that?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Oh my gosh. And she's just so inspiring as well. Doechii, as well, five years ago, she got fired from her job.
Kerry Diamond:
Doechii, I saw that.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Now she's a Grammy award-winning rap artist.
Kerry Diamond:
She was like, "Maybe somebody will hire me as an intern." I was like, "Oh."
Kimmie Mcintosh:
I know. But it really goes to show, don't sell yourself short. I, again, will stress a million times over, hopefully for someone listening who thinks that these things are impossible. Never once in my entire life did I think something like this was going to happen. I get a little emotional thinking about it. It is just truly an impossible thing. And it's like, "Okay, I achieved the impossible. It's possible." Never sell yourself short.
I mean, shortly after that all happened, I was like, "Oh my God. Well, what else did I say was impossible that I'm going to try to do now?" And I started my physical fitness journey, because I've never been a workout girly, and I'm like, "You know what? That's something I've been wanting to do since I had kids. Let's just go for it." And now, I just love working out. And it's so cheesy, nothing's impossible. I just still cannot believe it's happened to me. Even sitting here with you, it's just all very surreal to me. It's just all been such a dream, and yeah, nothing's impossible.
Kerry Diamond:
Last question. If you had to put together the perfect Las Vegas evening, what would it entail? Let's assume I'm coming over to babysit, so you don't have to worry about Leah and Cooper. Where would you go, and who would you want to bring along with you?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
It will of course involve my husband. He just works tirelessly all the time, and we don't get to spend a lot of time together, especially when you have kids, and all your focus goes on them. So, we don't get to make it out a lot, so it would definitely be with him. And I would truly love a mix of the Strip, and being off the Strip, just because it just reminds you of everything that Vegas has to offer. I came here dreaming about the Strip, and I stayed here because everything off the Strip is just so awesome.
My husband works at Momofuku. I love eating there. And so, we would probably go to Momofuku Las Vegas, sit at the bar, have a cocktail with one of our buddies. Of course, you're going to have a bun, have some bar snacks, but then I would want to intentionally not be too full, and then go off the Strip. A big thing that I learned since living here is just connections that you make, and relationships that you build. I feel very fortunate to know people who run different food businesses out here, of different degrees, to learn so much from. The number one thing is just supporting each other. So, we would probably go from the strip to Chinatown, hit up Fukuburgers, Chinatown spot, have best burgers of your life, and some jazz fries. And then also, our-
Kerry Diamond:
Wait, a jazz fry? What's a jazz fry?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Jazz fries. Fries.
Kerry Diamond:
I've had disco fries, but what's a jazz fry?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
It has sauce on top, and then this really yummy gravy that you find on a loco moco. So it's both sauces on the fries.
Kerry Diamond:
Wait, what's a loco moco?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Well, loco moco is a Hawaiian meal, that is white rice, with hamburger patties on top, sunny-side-up eggs, and then gravy. And so, they take that gravy, they serve it with the fries, with their sauce on the side. And I mean, who doesn't love just a really good dressed-up french fry. And then speaking of dressed-up french fries, because I personally am a person who never gets enough of just fried food, so we would probably go hit up a food truck called 303 In The Cut. They have amazing food there as well.
But yeah, basically the short of it would be, it would be a food crawl, and it would have to entail somebody's place that we know, so we can hang out, talk, just have a lot of fun, feel really integrated in the scene. Being a Scorpio, I often just kind of kept to myself, and didn't necessarily always put myself out there. My husband being the Leo, he's the one who helps bring it out of me, but the relationships that I've built have been so amazing, and they support Milkfish Bake Shop wholeheartedly. So, for me, an ideal night would be going to see them, going to see friends, and supporting at the same time.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, I know you're full, because you've had the stuff at Momofuku, you had the burger, you had the jazz fries, the other stuff, but you haven't told us about dessert.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Oh, man. So many amazing places to have dessert here. So many bakeries to aspire to. Suzuya Patisserie is one of them. It is a Japanese patisserie. They actually are located right next to Fukuburger, in the Southwest of Las Vegas, and just the most perfect cream puff I've ever had. The just best macaroons, but they all have these wonderful Asian flavors to it, like the adzuki red bean, the black sesame, shoyu caramel. So, I would absolutely hit up that place. Also, Gabi Bakery and Cafe in Chinatown. Again, just the perfect little layer cakes, crepe layer cakes. You have ube, you have matcha. That would be another place that I would have dessert at. And then there's another bakery that's open 24/7, and they'll have the savory stuff too. So they have onigiri, Pullman Bread is the name of this bakery.
Kerry Diamond:
Open 24 hours?
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Open, 24 hours, yeah. And they're actually... I'm very lucky, really close to my house. So, if you wanted to have a little bit of dessert, but they also have just traditional, of the stuffed breads, you can get that there as well.
Kerry Diamond:
Well, you gave us a lot of places to check out. Well, Kimmie, you are remarkable.
Kimmie Mcintosh:
Oh gosh. It's so wonderful to be here with you, and I've just had so much fun today. Thank you so much for this.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Be sure to check out the Milkfish offerings at milkfishbakeshop.com. Don't forget, we'll be in Vegas on March 7th and 8th for a special series of events. Snag your ticket or weekend pass at cherrybombe.com. I would love for you to subscribe to Radio Cherry Bombe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and leave a rating, and a review. Anyone you want to hear on an upcoming episode? Let me know. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Thank you so much to Noah Ross at Good Studio and to the team at Sticky Paws Studio in Las Vegas. Our producers are Catherine Baker and Jenna Sadhu, and our editorial coordinator is Sophie Kies. Thanks for listening, everybody. You are the Bombe.