Chef Hugo Ortega is a James Beard Award Winning Chef, and the chef-owner of four highly rated restaurants in Houston : Hugo's, Backstreet Cafe, Xochi and Caracol. In Hawaii, he has collaborated with Michael Mina on The Street, where his authentic Mexican food is adapted to feature local Hawaii ingredients in Mi Almita Cantina. He chatted with Jo about his background in Mexico, his journey from dishwasher to celebrated chef... and of course, his grandmother's cooking and her ability to make something spectacular out of nothing.
For more information on Mi Almita in Waikiki : https://www.michaelmina.net/restaurants/hawaii/almita_cantina/
and check out his celebrated cookbook here : Hugo Ortega's Street Food of Mexico :
https://www.amazon.com/Hugo-Ortegas-Street-Food-Mexico/dp/1936474735
Chef Hugo Ortega is a James Beard Award Winning Chef, and the chef-owner of four highly rated restaurants in Houston : Hugo's, Backstreet Cafe, Xochi and Caracol. In Hawaii, he has collaborated with Michael Mina on The Street, where his authentic Mexican food is adapted to feature local Hawaii ingredients in Mi Almita Cantina. He chatted with Jo about his background in Mexico, his journey from dishwasher to celebrated chef... and of course, his grandmother's cooking and her ability to make something spectacular out of nothing.
For more information on Mi Almita in Waikiki : https://www.michaelmina.net/restaurants/hawaii/almita_cantina/
and check out his celebrated cookbook here : Hugo Ortega's Street Food of Mexico :
https://www.amazon.com/Hugo-Ortegas-Street-Food-Mexico/dp/1936474735
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Speaker 2:there. This is Tillman Garry. Welcome to our podcast, a little different from Radio Mojo, the radio show, the podcasts to meant to be a more private, more intimate, more in depth, look behind the scenes with our guests and continuing to bring you the best of eating, drinking and living in Hawaii. If you want to know more about what we do and our work specifically with restaurants and foods clients, then you can go to our website Mojo, mcgarry.com and this podcast can be downloaded through iTunes or any of the other places where you like to get your podcasts and jai and thanks for being with us. Chef Hugo[inaudible] is the executive chef of four of Houston's top restaurants, banks sheet, cafe, Hugo's kind of call and you shook, cheat and he's the winner of the best chef southwest at the very prestigious James Beard Foundation awards. He won in 2017 having been a finalist for six consecutive years. He's been recognized globally for his really inspirational story and when he stopped by to chat with us in Waikiki, his passion and his enthusiasm for everything, it's really evident. He's a delightful story talent and he has an impressive story to tell. His American dream is one that certainly came true starting his career at that street cafe, which was a small neighborhood bistro and by choice see fault, um, who eventually went on to become his wife. They continue to work and cook together and he maintains a very strong link with his groups in Mexico. We hoped that he would chat with us about his grandma, about growing up in Mexico and about what it means to have work to way up from literally the dishwasher station in a kitchen to being a James Beard award winning chef. He's a delightful interview. He's very fun to speak with and we're going to highly recommend that you rush out and buy his cook book, Street Foods of Mexico. It is a delight for look into the food that he talks about, the food that's inspired him and the colorful food that really is representative of Mexican street life, which in itself inspires the culinary traditions of Mexico. The book is full of color and almost flavor. You can really almost taste some of the dishes and it really gives you a sense of chef Hugo and his love of life, his love of people, family and food. You can find it at all the usual places, especially easy to find on amazon.com Hugo or take a street food of Mexico. Highly recommended. And here's our interview with the chef Hugo. I mean Waikiki is kind of early morning, which is a for me the nicest time to be in. Why he keep before, I guess so busy. You're going to hear a little bit of the background noise as Waikiki weeks up, which we think is kind of Nice. The reason I'm here this morning is we have a very celebrated chef who's come into town for a short visit, far as special dinner and to work on one of his new restaurants. The chef is a chef, Google or Tayga. Hello Chef. How are you? Hello. Yo, how you doing? I'm doing great. It's so nice to see you. You are of course a award winning chef. All four of Houston's best restaurants and recently last year you collaborated with chef Michael. Mina to bring your own restaurant here to Waikiki, to the marketplace, to Michael's market. Please tell us a little bit about that first and how is that going? How is your, you're the introduction of your cuisine to Waikiki?
Speaker 3:Well, I gotta take, Eh, thank Michael Mina for that. My community is a pioneer when it comes to him being a flavors and food, you know, to a different parts of the country as we know an m. So I found that fascinating, you know, where he invited me to come over here and, and, and be able to bring my knowledge, my heritage and a little bit the, I know about Mexican food in and they combined that with few papers. You know, you can do so many things here. So that was wonderful. That was wonderful.
Speaker 2:Were there any things that you found right away in Hawaii in terms of the local projects that maybe you hadn't seen before or had, is there a food pretty much global now?
Speaker 3:Oh No, that is very, um, unique ingredients to the island. The light, for example, coconuts, you know, nam, the local pork is fantastic. And, um, uh, different types of nuts, honey. So there is many, many ingredients. The tea, um, I forgot now the M my previous BC, there was kind of hard with it, getting hard time to find a banana leaves. So I saw this beautiful tea leaves. I say, well, let's wrap the, the tamales on a tea leaf and it, that was wonderful. You know, the[inaudible] is kind of long and, and not to m y. So the Tamale, this big, beautiful tamale stretches on the plate. So anyway, it's just a lot of fun. And, and I can not think, Michael, I'm not for the opportunity.
Speaker 2:And I think for people in Hawaii is such a slight issue to have a more authentic Mexican food because while we're at kind of melting pot of a lot of different switch cultures, it seems, everyone always says the one gap that we have in Hawaii is true Mexican food. I imagine that people are really responding positively to your rescue.
Speaker 3:Okay. So is there is a curiosity? Definitely Nam, Eh, you know, Mexican food is so celebrated, like, you know, Eh, in, in my country we have different regions, different micro climates in different types of peppers and herbs. And a is a wonderful to be able to bring a little bit of that here and to be celebrating in a way of em, eh, also the spirits, you know, the, the, the great, the line now mezcal, the everybody is, Eh, Eh, one to know what he's like. And I'm so in any way, it's just a fantastic, ehm, eh, culinary experience.
Speaker 2:No, you, everyone knows, you know, as a salivated chef, you're a James Beard award winning chef. Congratulations. Have you been nominated for many years in a row? You are. Um, and very well deserved. But you have, I think one of the most inspiring stories of how you came. A lot of people say, oh, I started at the ground up, I started, you know, doing all the work. But you really did, I mean, you came from Mexico, you started working literally as a dishwasher in the kitchen to help improve your English and to learn about food. Did too. You have a dream one day I'd like to have a restaurant. Did you think that far ahead or were you always just thinking, okay, I'm going to do this and see where it takes me?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean Yo, you, you learn to your life right and all you always one when I got to have a break and then you always wandered. So, um, Eh, when the break comes you way to give you all, you know, to that opportunity and, and to me the very wears her dad and[inaudible] and leave food fully m about where you are in that moment. So I think for me it's just I taken one day at a time when it comes to that end, em, eh, give you my old to a, to the opportunity in it. That's how I've been. I've been, I've been thinking, you know, from time to time I think the, I used steel 18 and you know, the, I have not lived fully and then I cannot waste an opportunity or Dolores, auntie or energy, how that goes for me. Can you share with us the list, but your early childhood, your background that your food influences living? Definitely is. So I born in Mexico City and then when I was eight I went and lived with my grandmother until I was 14 or 15 around that h and. M. So I went to live in the top of the mountains with Eh, with my grandmother and him. And he was so primitive. And when I mean by that is we create a life higher every day. We went to get water into the water. Well and then him Ab Kineke goat herder, Eh, my grandmother exquisitely Eh, Eh, exclusivity is, excuse me, Cook a little bit of West provided by our hard work and his, he is six drag every single ounce of flavor for what she was cooking is. Sometimes we have breakfast NAM, eh, but sometimes we're not. And then I figured it out. I was on the eggs. She said, well we don't have asked today because they the hand if not produce Hays. So he was that kind of thing. So you know what, when you leave like that, you get to appreciate so much and they love the compassion. That is a wonderful human being and an adventure. The unit get my inspiration, you know, to be able to navigate two times. And Lauren here, listen to hear em, Eh, where she have to say at my life and celebrate with their leader. We did this, she was able to do, provide for them.
Speaker 2:Awesome. When you think about her, like squeezing everything out of an ingredient or getting the very best of everything, what are some of the dishes that come to mind that you immediately associate with her and with happiness? Okay.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean one of those was the pork shoulder that we serve last night. And then with a few papers that we have, eh, eh, we went back and forward in a try. The, the[inaudible] the Morley, they don't have too many ingredients as she called it like that, but she will produce the, one of the most fabulous him, Eh, Eh, Mollis Sarah with the pork m. And what I mean by that is she got like the cheapest cut of the pork, Eh, there's be Nasa, which is the spine of the poor. Where is so much flavor. And then she would make these same Ebay, Lima Alito and em, Eh, cook everything in gang in any one Casula you know, that was the other thing. Today, the way we cook is the week could couple eggs and you end up with five, you know, five pots. But it's not the case. Really say, oh I don't want to cook cause it's too much Smith's into one pot. So anyhow, you, it, it, it was just very wonderful routine with a few things. She made this in a spectacular meal when you first started to cook, when you went from dishwasher and sorry to move through the restaurants where the fish dishes you cook American food and just what you were cooking in the restaurant or immediately you were given the reins to cook, did you start to cook the food of your home and the food that you really love? Like every one of us, you guys, you gotta, you gotta pay your dues. So you mentioned earlier in the kitchen by washing dishes and then, eh, one day the owner of the cafe as me, I went to enroll my seven a cooking school and I said sure. So I did that for around 16 years later. So that was a early 91 when I got there from a culinary school. And then 16 years later, 70 now I have the great opportunity to open a Hugo's. And um, so we were staying in the parking lot facing the restaurant and race asked me at that point, she say, so what do you think we should do here? Another bass. We, we should do a, the concept. And I were just thinking and thinking and I obviously, she surprised me. She say, what do you cook the foods are you homeland, you know, the food that made you happy. That's was the first time, Tracy, of course, it's your wife waking in the restaurant. Did she never said who are you cooking at home or just too busy? Well, yeah, no, I was looking at home, but when we went out to eat Mexican food or you know, take semester, what we call it in Texas, it was not the same food and my grandmother produce. So I will always, you know, tell her I, this is not the food my grandma Bruce or cook, excuse me. And she will always, you know, like chat about that, the same complaint I guess it wasn't making. So as, as we got the opportunity to do something, then she saw her primary, she say, what about the, you do this and you call your home cooking. Eh, and of course I was excited, but at the same time it got me by so present I say, oh Tracy, that is a lot of work. And she didn't understood how much water that was until the day we open a Hugo's and eh, eh, we have one table the entire day and then we have about 20 cooks. And my guys, you know, we were feeling so overwhelmed, you know, on the sense of how we want to pay all these people. You know, we had one table. So, but you know, it was, it was a process, you know, 17 years later we still celebrating one of open or Hugo's and always working, Eh, Eh, you know what we need to do to run their business. Correct. And, um, an Lbo cooking to another level and, you know, anyway, a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:It's, it's fun and it's, it's when, when you first started, did you slightly adapt those recipes to what you knew the MRI can hell it would eat? Or did you just say, this is it, he goes, this is going to be our authentic Mexican because Mexican food in America, Oh, there's so many different, it's like Indian food, you know, and Indian people say to me, we don't need like that. You don't need that kind of food in India.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean, I respect very much heh migrants mammal, a mega man teaching. I, you know, her cooking and eh, like I mentioned before, have a boy. She was tomato hunting, Gray Arrow, nothing in em. I think when it comes to cooking, is that an m? So I approach every day like that. I say, you know, w w we just need to go back to basics and we need to understand what, why are we doing over here, you know, and respect the ingredient and then put all your effort and knowledge into what you want to do. And a n n a that does it the way I approach it. So I think we all up, they are sales at some point. We own our dishes. Yes. Because we did the case so much sign. Right. And then what was was there you'd take a little bit today and elevated, sometimes worse. Sometimes Dan doesn't, but um, eh, that is, that is part of their fund to be a cook.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's the evolving of it and knowing where it came from, I think knowing where it came from, it's always the important thing. I think. So no matter how it evolves, you have to know where it came from and where you came from. Um, let's, we're going to put on our website and link to the restaurant in Waikiki so people can go in, look at the menu and see all of the whole of the street that a Michael Mina has done. But can you tell us for people who haven't been yet, um, you know, local people, they're a little bit, you know, don't like coming into like the key. So we have to encourage them come into light. You need the markings. Okay. Don't worry. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, they have like, I think 500 parking spaces,
Speaker 2:so many points and validate, come over and tell them. I'm a couple of things that, that you think a first time visitor would order to give them a real sense of what you're doing here in Wayne.
Speaker 3:So with the analogy about Mexican food, we tried to extract the flavor or the ingredients are local over here, which is wonderful. Um, when I mentioned the couple that we were the last night, so we have a local point of pork that we, eh, that with this son, eh, herbs and in papers that we find here. And then we have the savage Kokonas heavy chair, which was a wonderful cook on other UC everywhere. And we make a coconut cream with a cake line called Kgk, which is how supportive, wonderful fish. And then we assist on it lightly in a survey, in a fresh coconut shell. Um, eh, the coconut shell, literally, you know, we just went down the street and got them. So that is what, why could you have to offer, you know, a rich island with incredible heritage and a wonderful, wonderful people. Always still glad that you're here. Do you think, can we ever see a healers in Hawaii? Absolutely. You know, I will love to do that. Eh, Eh, you know, it's a lot of work but, but, but Tracy could make you do it. We can make you do it. Absolutely. Tracy, you need to understand first what is the stake exactly. At least you can do it in the beautiful and comfort of Hawaii. And you go is such a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you so much for being with us today and we'll look forward to, and next time you come to Hawaii, Joe, thank you so much for us. Be able to say a few words with you. A is unbelievable. The opportunity to be here and cook for these wonderful people. So Viva Honolulu chef, you'll go or take, is the award winning chef or four of his sense, most popular restaurants, and you can now find him at the seat in Waikiki. Wait, can I take a break? We'll be right back. You're listening to radio module.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:Hey, thanks for being with us. We hope you enjoyed this podcast. From where information, remember, go check out or website Mojo mcgarry.com we'll see you next.[inaudible]
Speaker 1:[inaudible].