Yara Herrera (Hellbender restaurant--Queens, NY) on Standing Out, Fitting in, and Honing Your Culinary Voice
Chef Yara Herrera shares the LA fine-dining path that, perhaps surprisingly, led to her breakout success at Hellbender restaurant in Ridgewood, Queens (NYC).
Andrew Talks to Chefs · andrew friedman
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Show Notes
Chef Yara Herrera, a native of Los Angeles, worked in some of LA's most demanding kitchens (Spago, Providence, Majordomo) before moving to New York City and Momofuko Ko. During the pandemic, after gaining attention for her own food in pop-up form, she was approached by the owners of Rolo's--the hit restaurant in Ridgewood, Queens--about partnering on a Mexican-American restaurant, which came to be in the form of Hellbender. In this free-ranging conversation, Yara discusses her circuitous route to the kitchen and why it took several years to begin exploring the cuisine of her own heritage.
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