亚搏电竞食品和葡萄酒亚搏电竞Best New Chefs 2021: Paola Velez
来自La Bodega的PiñaColada甜甜圈是糕点工程的壮举。它在婴儿的头部大致大，但是奶油蛋卷仍然不可能为在热油桶里油炸的东西而感到轻微。它的建筑师，糕点厨师Paola Velez，想创造一个甜点，让她的觉得她是“在夏威夷的Dole Factory”，所以甜甜圈在一个强烈的菠萝釉中覆盖，这是捏咸的咸味和浅酸性的加入石灰汁和柠檬酸。甜甜圈本身是甜蜜的，但没有过于如此，用温柔的香草豆级联，每一咬后徘徊。为了把它带到一起，Velez将每个人带着枕头的郁郁葱葱的椰子和朗姆酒糕点奶油。
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.
“我只想让人们在他们可能可以的甜点中获得最大的价值和快乐，”她说。她在厨房里的愿景的辉煌和大胆符合她对利用她的成功帮助他人的承诺。在过去的两年里，虽然同时为她的灵魂和丰富多彩的糕点赚了几个赞同，但Velez已经成为烹饪行业中最大的声乐和信赖的厨师之一，谈到有毒的厨房文化，种族主义，工资差距和缺乏烹饪世界的股权 - 特别是对于边缘化群体。Velez在访谈和社交媒体平台上坦率地讲述这些科目。她通过积极的镜头设法，不断喊出行业的同龄人，在嬉戏幽默的时刻，提供利维（只需检查她的Tiktok账户），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.
在烹饪学校之后，Velez搬回了纽约，在那里她努力寻找稳定的工作，她所爱的工作。“我在一个没有甚至楼层的公寓里，”她回忆说。“没有下沉，没有厨房，几乎没有卫生间。”在她说服传奇的巧克力雅克·塔雷斯雇用她后，开始改变，在四个月内工作到达糕点位置。但是，她发现她的脚踏实于她的丈夫的工作就会搬到华盛顿，D.C.，在那里她不得不从头开始。“我采访了15个就业机会，”Velez回忆道。但她会听到同样的回应，而不是关于她是如何“不是正确的契合”。在她在铁门采访时，令人沮丧，她要求所有者看看她的Instagram，在做出决定之前，她一直在建立一个甜点组合，说：“在你根据我的样子评判我之前，我听起来像是，让我告诉你我能做什么。“她得到了这份工作。
在铁门，是第一次，Velez有机会经营糕点厨房。她在200岁以下的甜点下，从贝加拉夫到几种类型的蛋糕，每周旋转它们。当kwame onuwachi（2019 F&W Best New Chef）邀请她在KITH＆KIN运行糕点计划，在那里她通过罗丹斯山核桃馅饼等甜点展示了她的多米尼加遗产的口味，如烤香蕉果酱。然后大流行击中，韦尔兹发现了自己的枯萎化。
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