[image]
[title]For many, the pandemic was a time for slowing down and taking stock. It was a period of necessary introspection for chef Tracy Chang whose career took a definitive turn while the world was shutting down: In 2020, she cofounded the nonprofits Off Their Plate—started as a way to feed healthcare workers—and Project Restore Us, which delivers culturally sensitive grocery boxes to families in food deserts. Both organizations endeavor to empower local kitchens run by women and BIPOC. It’s a relevant shift that Chang hopes others will follow. “It doesn't have to be a pandemic that wakes everyone up to do something meaningful,” she says.
As a chef, owner, cofounder and lifelong Bostonian (not including her time spent cooking at a three-Michelin-star restaurant in San Sebastian, Spain), Chang also finds herself more in tune with customers than ever before. Sourcing ingredients responsibly and remaining mindful about the way guests feel after they leave her restaurant are paramount to her success. “As someone who grew up lactose intolerant, it's not the easiest thing to eat out,” she admits.
Here, the conscious chef behind Japanese tapas restaurant PAGU contemplates the importance of helping others, the lessons she learned about running a restaurant from her grandmother and how nostalgia plays into the way she cooks and eats.
Your grandmother heavily influenced your decision to go into the culinary business. What did you observe from her specifically?
I saw this Taiwanese immigrant in her 60s deciding to open a restaurant, which wasn’t her trade. She didn’t do it because it was a money-making thing but because she enjoyed the people in the room and enjoyed building a community around food. She didn't speak the language but she spoke the language of food really well. That was something that always resonated with me.
How did this inform your decision to work in the nonprofit sector?
In the past few years, I feel like I've been able to better define what that feeling is of bringing people together. Everyone was at home during Covid, thinking of ways to be helpful to their community and be important as a human, and so we started creating a kind of mutual aid program. We created two nonprofit initiatives that helped give people in the community who were used to coming into our restaurant a way to engage with us by volunteering and bringing food to other people. Making that connection and meeting with people is something that I didn’t really think I would be doing in my career in my 30s.
Tell us about the nonprofits.
The first one, Off Their Plate, started as a way to feed folks who were on the healthcare frontline and shifted to feeding folks in community health centers who were food insecure. Project Restore Us spun out of the feedback we received. We realized there was a gap in community organizations that didn't know how to access food that would last long, like pantry staple goods, and that were tailored to different cultural roots. We designed grocery boxes for these community groups using sensitive information and with help from a 100-percent volunteer network.
You’ve held so many different positions in restaurants, from chef to owner to handling communications. Is there something you haven’t attempted and want to try?
I've definitely gotten a lot of practice at a lot of different things, though I never feel like an expert, per se. The thing I think about most is the importance of the work that I've done versus the work I've done in the last 10 years and how to get more people to do that kind of work. I guess my goal is to make that information more accessible to everyone; I want to create an open source of information. I was talking to friends working at World Central Kitchen and trying to ponder peoples’ processes, logistics and bottlenecks so we could build a better system ourselves. Why should that be proprietary knowledge? There should be more people doing that kind of work. We live in such a different age of technology and communication that if this kind of information were open source then more people would be doing more good.
What are the guiding principles behind your cooking?
I try to keep things simple and approachable, and to a certain extent fun. There’s a combination of classics and our interpretations of classics with kind of a twist that’s either Spanish or Japanese. We try to be very responsible in our sourcing but also mindful about how guests feel after they dine with us, specifically as it relates to food allergies. As someone who grew up lactose intolerant, it’s not the easiest thing to eat out. Our ethos is being responsible and mindful of how people feel not just during but also after.
How would you describe your style of cooking?
My personal experience has definitely come into play. I trained in Spain but I worked at a Japanese restaurant, and I grew up with a lot of Japanese and Taiwanese food. The menu at PAGU is autobiographical and about my experience learning very specific dishes and techniques from people like my grandmother, my mentor and some of the chefs I’ve worked with. The dishes have usually been marinating for a long time.
What's the one dish you'd rather have someone make for you?
I do most of the cooking now in my family. But there are so many dishes growing up that only grandma made the best, and that would be something as simple as chicken katsu. One part is fried chicken cutlet and the other is this really delicious broth with vegetables and at the end, she would put an egg slurry into it so the egg is gently cooked and scrambled and then you top it off with the katsu. That’s something that no one can replicate. They can but it’s not as good.
Name one pantry staple that you can’t live without.
It’s definitely the dry shiitake I put it in a lot of different things, including anything with stock. I use it for vegan paella and people are surprised because it’s really flavorful. I use it as a powder; I don't drink coffee but I drink a mushroom infusion. I like coffee but I don't need caffeine. I only drink it on vacation, which is rare because I rarely take vacations.
What would you choose as your last meal?
I'm really simple. I really love fried rice. There's just something very nostalgic about fried rice.
What is your current go-to tip for healthy eating?
Repetition and holding yourself accountable with a healthy routine are really important. I’ve been sort of quieter at the restaurant this summer and have more time to make breakfast every morning. I make a tortilla española every morning—olive oil, onions, egg, salt—and I serve it with pan con tomate and a smoothie with acai, blueberry and either oat or almond milk, which we make ourselves. Everyone eats it, including the kids.
What's the worst thing a diner could do to alter a dish?
I’d say my pet peeve is asking for soy sauce and putting soy sauce all over everything. What’s probably worse than soy sauce is sesame oil—it’s a very strong ingredient and a little goes a long way.