Up-and-Comer: Hugo Orozco – Putting His Own Spin on Comfort Food

Editor’s Note: This interview with Hugo Orozco, the chef at Vida Verde, a Mexican bar/restaurant in Midtown Manhattan, is part of the el Restaurante Who’s Who series. Click here to go to the beginning of the series.

            I have worked with food since I can remember. When I was growing up in Mexico, my family owned a little store with a small butcher shop and fruits and vegetables, and I used to help them on the weekends and after school. That’s how I fell in love with hospitality and customer service. And since I can remember I have loved to eat!

            I learned how to cook from the people around me – I never went to culinary school. My mom was a big influence, and my father loved to shuck oysters and sometimes take care of the grill. I started waiting tables in a small café in Guadalajara when I was 16, and one day the owner asked me if I knew someone who could cook. I said I was interested. So he hired another waiter and I jumped into the kitchen.

            I learned a lot of basic cooking there. We made two kinds of bread every day, and three mother salsas. This is where I saw how ingredients are transformed into dishes for the customers.

            When I was 19 I moved on to the touristy locations in the Riveria Nayarit near Puerto Vallarta. That’s where I first came into contact with seafood straight off the boat. The fishermen would offer us whatever was the catch of the day. I eventually became the sous chef at a very respectable restaurant there, and I helped open four or five restaurants for other people, making the menus and training the staff.

            In 2008, when I was 27, I got tired of having 20 bosses and shaving my face every day, so I decided to open my own place in Tulum. It was called La Slowteria. It was an open space with just eight tables. On the way to work I stopped in the market to buy some vegetables and fruits, and the fishermen just delivered to the door of the restaurant. We didn’t have a refrigerator or electricity – it was just cooking barefoot on the Caribbean. It was a dream.

            Then one day I met a woman who was in Tulum on vacation with her family. When you fall in love, things change. We got married, and saw an opportunity to work in New York, so I sold what I had and we moved here in 2012. Nobody told me about the weather or the taxes!

            My wife, Stephanie Heinegg, and I opened La Slowteria in Brooklyn. It wasn’t the same as La Slowteria in Tulum. We had to tweak everything because of course in New York there are more regulations and standards.

            When we started, the menu included things like duck with black mole, seafood soup cooked on the table on a hot volcanic stone, and different kinds of oysters with five kinds of sauce. But the people coming in were looking for chicken tacos and guacamole. I just didn’t have this idea of Mexican food that pretty much all Americans are expecting.

            One Sunday about a year after opening we got slammed at brunch, and then we closed to get ready for dinner an hour later. But at that time I was having a hard time finding staff, and there I was without a dishwasher or any help, so I told my wife, ‘Tonight, everything is tacos. All the proteins we have will go into tacos.’ Well, the next week people were calling and asking, ‘Is Sunday going to be taco night again?’ So I said, ‘Of course!’ That’s how we were going to pay the bills. We are not going to go against what the people want.

            It was tough because I didn’t come to New York to make tacos. But we tried really hard to deliver a different kind of taco. The tortillas were made to order using the corn we got from Shauna Page (at Tortilleria Nixtamal), and we did special things like cook the steak in the steak taco to the temperature you wanted it. We started getting reputation for our tacos.

            We finally closed La Slowteria about two months ago. By then I had become partners with the people opening Vida Verde, which is in Midtown, Manhattan.

            At Vida Verde we offer comfort food with a Mexican twist. One of the most popular menu items is the Inside Out Mushroom Quesadilla. It’s super simple – I grill the cheese right on a flat grill, then cut a tortilla into thin strips and add it to the cheese. I roll it up, and add mushrooms and guajillo sauce. The flavor is different because the cheese is grilled.

            Another popular item is the Duck Tlayuda. I use blue corn to make the tlayuda, add refried beans that we make with the duck fat, then put on Oaxaca cheese and avocado, along with the duck.

            We serve some common American fast food items, like chicken wings, but I put my own spin on them. For example, one seasoning I use is papalo, a very well known herb from Puebla state. Here in New York 70 percent of the Mexicans are from Puebla, so I’m using a very important herb for them in a very traditional American dish.

            I really enjoy the culture here, and I feel like I’m learning more every day. I like to showcase what Mexico can offer. My commitment is to promote the talent of cooks from small communities who are now working in Italian, Turkish, or whatever type of restaurant, because a lot of their secrets are being wasted! So I’d like to have a place where we can showcase these people, and create a menu with regional Mexican food. That would be my dream.

Do you know an up-and-coming Latin chef, manager, or restaurant owner who should be profiled in el Restaurante? Contact Ed Avis, edavis@restmex.com