Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza
Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a series about female chefs making their mark in the world of Mexican/Latin cuisine.
By Kathleen Furore
She made her mark with Barrio Café, the Phoenix restaurant she opened with her business partner Wendy Gruber in 2002—a time when Mexican cuisine was more or less in its infancy in much of the U.S.
“I had wanted to open a high-end restaurant after my extensive year of traveling and studying in Mexico, but I quickly realized that Phoenix would not be the place to do that in 2002,” says Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza. “So, I modified my menu to feature more of a chef’s take on regional Mexican cuisine. I set out to change those erroneous perceptions that North Americans have of Mexican food, and of its culture. We are not yellow cheese for Christ’s [sake], por Dios!”
Today, Chef Silvana has established herself as a top chef—one who’s been a James Beard Award nominee; profiled in publications including Phoenix Magazine, Esquire and American Way; featured not once but twice on the Food Network with Guy Fieri; and even named one of “15 Badass Female Chefs and Restaurateurs You Need to Know Around the U.S.” by Zagat.
But at heart, Chef Silvana—a baker’s daughter from Central Valley California who today is the proud owner of Barrio Café, the white tablecloth Barrio Café ~Gran Reserva, and Barrio Avion and Barrio Café, quick service locations in Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport— sees herself in quite humble terms. And that’s evident when she’s asked what she’s most proud of.
“The accomplishment that I am most proud of, on a personal note, is that after 17 years of accolades and recognitions, my father, Agustin Salcido Mendez, got to know that I opened a Mexican restaurant, one week before his passing,” Chef Silvana says. “He never made it to his scheduled visit to my restaurant, Barrio Café. But he was very aware of my extensive travels for the greater part of a year, through most of Mexico, while studying the cuisine regionally. He got to know that I followed his footsteps. I got to tell him to his face that I, too, was going to honor the same 800-year-old family gastronomic legacy he did. Just like he emulated his father, I did the same.
“Second on that list,” she continues, “is that, although I have no children, I have passed on the torch to the next generation of Salcidos. My nieces and nephews have all trained at Barrio Café. Currently there are six of them working in the industry in many capacities. The legacy continues—and that is Mission Accomplished for me!”
PERFECTING “THE ORIGINAL COMIDA CHINGONA OF PHOENIX”
The dishes that have come to define Chef Silvana’s approach to Mexican cuisine are described in two simple yet telling words: Comida Chingona (which, roughly translated, means bad-ass or really, really great food).
Her Cochinita Pibil, Chiles en Nogada, Tableside Guacamole and Churro Rellenos are among the “iconic menu items” that highlight Barrio Café’s menu. At Barrio Café~Gran Reserva, a selection of those iconic dishes joins a tasting menu that has included delights such as Chicharron de Pancita con Queso Asadero and Blue Corn Cake with Blueberry Mole. And at Barrio Café’s airport location in Terminal 4, fliers can enjoy those iconic menu items and even relax in the restaurant’s “intimate tequila tasting room” before or after a long flight.
HITTING GENDER-BASED CHALLENGES HEAD-ON
It’s no secret that female chefs have met significant obstacles on their culinary journeys in what has traditionally been a male-dominated profession (at least as far as owning a restaurant and heading the kitchen are concerned). And while that is changing, Chef Silvana acknowledges she’s had to overcome challenges due to her gender.
“As a woman in a traditionally male-dominated industry it has been hard. But I found the solution: I only work where I am the boss. End of story,” she says. “I have climbed that culinary ladder before and it was hard. In my first job as the person in charge, two cooks walked on me when I told them to clean their filthy hood. I made sure they clocked out, went over to the hood and cleaned it by myself as the rest of the staff got cleaning on their stations. I have always led by example and built a culinary familia while at it. This is my 24th year in Arizona and my 24th year as a chef, and I still have staff from my in early days working with me. That is the key to my success: building a family.”
Having met so many challenges head-on, Chef Silvana draws on her success to offer advice for female chefs “starting out in this boys-club industry” and hoping to make their mark in the culinary world.
“Go kick ‘em in the huevos! Don’t care about anything and just go kick some butt,” she says. “There are always bad eggs out there. Sexual harassment would be [the] number one [problem]. Conversations in kitchens are borderline pornographic and have no place in the industry…and, in my opinion, they are a form of harassment, especially where things should be made with love. I personally would rather hear music than a useless conversation while working in the kitchen. Don’t put up with it! The more we change the culture in the kitchen to be more inclusive, the better our industry will become. It already has changed leaps and bounds in the 24 years I have been involved.”
BEYOND THE KITCHEN
As busy as this now-famous chef has become, she isn’t content to rest on her laurels—or to relegate her influence solely to the kitchen. Chef Silvana advises and mentors young chefs-in-training and has been an outspoken civil rights advocate.
In 2010, she was instrumental in founding Calle Diez y Seis Arte, Cultura & Gastronomia, an organization of concerned citizens who joined her in an effort to elevate perceptions of Mexican American culture. Calle 16 was established in response to SB1070, at the time the broadest and strictest anti-illegal immigration measure passed in the United States.
As Chef Silvana told the Phoenix New Times just after the bill passed, “With Calle 16, I’m not looking to make a little Mexico. I want a center of pride and culture that reflects who we are as Mexicans living in Arizona.”
And as this issue went to press, Chef Silvana was feeding federal workers for free because, as Café~Gran Reserva’s Facebook post said, “…the Government Shutdown is still going on...”
Do you know a female chef making a mark in the industry? Send her name and contact information to Editor Kathleen Furore at kfurore@restmex.com.