vwin德赢ac米兰食品和美酒vwin德赢ac米兰Best New Chefs 2021: Paola Velez
La Bodega的PiñaColada甜甜圈是糕点工程的壮举。它在婴儿的头部大约很大，但是奶油蛋卷仍然不可能轻轻一点，因为它在一桶热油中炸了。它的建筑师糕点厨师Paola Velez想要创建一种甜点，使她感觉自己就像是“在夏威夷的Dole工厂”，因此甜甜圈被用强烈的菠萝釉覆盖石灰汁和柠檬酸的含量。甜甜圈本身很甜蜜，但并非太过分了，每咬一口都徘徊，温和的香草豆级联瀑布。为了将所有内容融合在一起，Velez将每个人都塞满了枕头的郁郁葱葱椰子和烤糕点奶油。
Velez's pastry creations—which include thick sticky buns rippled with pureed sweet plantain, hefty cookies she calls "thick'ems" packed with matcha powder and white chocolate chunks, and strawberry knafeh, bright pink with fruit and piled high with phyllo shards—are unapologetic in their size and flavor. They refuse to be background notes or secondary to a meal. They are not subtle. They are not fragile. They are celebratory expressions of technique and culture. They are like Velez.
她说：“我只希望人们从可能的甜点中获得最大的价值和喜悦。”她在厨房里的远见的光彩和大胆与她致力于帮助他人的承诺相匹配。在过去的两年中，韦利兹同时获得了多种荣誉，但他成为了烹饪行业中最具声望和值得信赖的厨师之一，但反对有毒的厨房文化，种族主义，工资差异以及缺乏差异，以及烹饪界的公平性，尤其是对于边缘化群体。Velez在访谈和她的社交媒体平台上坦率地谈论了这些主题。她设法通过各种积极的角度来做到这一点，不断地大喊业内的同龄人，以嬉戏的幽默来工作，以提供利益（只需查看她的Tiktok帐户），并专注于喜悦的时刻。
Velez grew up in the Bronx, where her mother worked as an accountant and a host for her cousin's Manhattan-based Tex-Mex restaurant, Mary-Ann's. "She would work at night, and I would come and sit in the back booth," says Velez. "I chose that seat because it looked directly into the kitchen." She was hooked on the idea of being a chef at a young age and eventually attended Le Cordon Bleu in Orlando. Velez wanted to be a savory chef but was told that because she had such "tiny hands," she should consider becoming a pastry cook.
烹饪学校后，韦尔兹搬回纽约，在那里她努力寻找稳定和喜欢的工作。她回忆说：“我当时在一个没有地板的公寓里。”“没有水槽，没有厨房，几乎没有浴室。”在她说服传奇的巧克力雅克·托雷斯（Jacques Torres）雇用她之后，这种情况开始发生了变化，在四个月内朝着糕点般的位置工作。但是，她很快就发现自己的立足点比丈夫的工作搬到了华盛顿特区，在那里她不得不从头开始。Velez回忆说：“我采访了15个工作。”但是她会一遍又一遍地听到她对“不合适的合适”的反应。在沮丧的情况下，她在Iron Gate的采访中，要求所有者查看她的Instagram，她在哪里建立了甜点组合，然后做出决定，然后说：“在您根据我的样子来判断我之前，我听起来的样子，让我向你展示我能做的。”她得到了工作。
Velez首次在Iron Gate上有机会经营糕点厨房。她制作了不到200种不同的甜点，从巴克拉瓦到几种类型的蛋糕，每周旋转它们。她在夸姆·乌瓦奇（Kwame onuwachi）离开（2019 F&W Best New Chef）邀请她在Kith＆Kin上经营糕点计划，在那里她通过Tamarind Pecan Pie，上面放着烤香蕉冰淇淋，在那里通过甜点来展示多米尼加遗产的风味。然后是大流行的袭击，韦尔兹发现自己休假了。
She turned to activism. Velez launched a doughnut pop-up under the name of Doña Dona, to help raise funds for undocumented restaurant workers. Shortly after the murder of George Floyd, she cofoundedBakers Against Racismand put together a global bake sale that went viral, which has since drawn 24,000 participants from over 15 countries and supported hundreds of local charities. Velez then worked as the pastry chef at Compass Rose and Maydan, two of D.C.'s most celebrated restaurants, while also running La Bodega, a (now on hiatus) desserts pop-up that she started with the goal of paying her two pastry cooks, Nikkie Rodriguez and DeAndra Bailey, and keeping them employed.
It was during the pandemic that Velez truly found her voice. "I just started sharing everything I was frustrated with because I was like, 'I think this is it,'" says Velez. At a certain point, enough was enough, she thought. "The foundation of our industry is broken. The pandemic shattered it. And I was like, 'They can't keep treating people like this.'"
维决心离开这个行业更好的than she found it. "I hope that other people feel this kindred spirit," she says. "That they can be vocal, they can speak up and be exactly who they are and not have to cower to the expectations of what someone else thinks." She wants more people to feel like they don't have to "pay their dues," that they feel they can break the cycle. "I hope that others are inspired to do what I'm doing and do it unapologetically, so I'm not the only one," says Velez. "I don't want to become a monolith."
Photos by Alex Lau