Tinfoil Swans Podcast

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On this episode

From fixing radios and writing slam poetry as a child within the Bronx, to changing into probably the most celebrated pastry cooks and neighborhood builders of her technology, 2021 F&W Finest New Chef Paola Velez has by no means adopted the anticipated path. Alongside the way in which, she’s embraced subcultures that gave her belonging, constructed areas the place strangers join over shaved ice and cocktails, and redefined what it means to be a chef on social media, in eating places, and within the wider world. On this dialog, she shares the braveness it takes to decide on pleasure within the face of battle, the humility behind turning down a serious accolade, and the movie star chef who made a video for her mother.

Meet our visitor

Paola Velez is an award–successful pastry chef, writer, host, and co-founder of Bakers In opposition to Racism, the international bake sale motion that has raised thousands and thousands of {dollars} for social justice causes. She is a 2021 Meals & Wine Finest New Chef, 2020 James Beard Award nominee within the class of Rising Star, and received the muse’s Rising Voice award for her debut cookbook, Bodega Bakes. Velez was the host of the Meals & Wine video sequence Pastries With Paola and obtained twin Emmy and Webby nominations for her work with AJ+ and Bakers In opposition to Racism. The Bronx-born Velez skilled with Jacques Torres earlier than shaping kitchens in New York and Washington, D.C. She is now a companion at Providencia, a 22-seat bar that blends Dominican, Salvadorian, and Taiwanese influences. Velez continues to make use of her platform to push for fairness and connection within the culinary world.

Meet our host

Kat Kinsman is the chief options editor at Meals & Wine, writer of Hello, Nervousness: Life With a Unhealthy Case of Nerves, host of Meals & Wine’s Gold Sign Award-winning podcast Tinfoil Swans (at the moment a finalist within the Folio Awards), and founding father of Cooks With Points. Beforehand, she was the senior meals & drinks editor at Further Crispy, editor in chief and editor at giant at Tasting Desk, and the founding editor of CNN Eatocracy. She received a 2024 IACP Award for Narrative Meals Writing With Recipes and a 2020 IACP Award for Private Essay/Memoir, and has had work included within the 2020 and 2016 editions of The Finest American Meals Writing.

She was nominated for a James Beard Broadcast Award in 2013, received a 2011 EPPY Award for Finest Meals Web site with 1 million distinctive month-to-month guests, and was a finalist in 2012 and 2013. She is a sought-after worldwide keynote speaker and moderator on meals tradition and psychological well being within the hospitality business, and is the previous vice chair of the James Beard Journalism Committee.

Highlights from the episode

On discovering belonging in a subculture

“I keep in mind being launched to Goth and Goth popular culture and being like, ‘Whoa, these are my individuals!’ All people was so welcoming and loving. Beneath all the macabre, it’s truly, very nice, lovely, heartbroken people. They noticed that I used to be getting bullied in class as a result of I am from the Bronx. While you’re not a byproduct of the atmosphere, you get bullied since you’re an outsider. They took me in and embraced me and acquired me miniskirts and knee-high socks and chokers. My mother was like, ‘I do not get it,’ however she allowed it anyway.”

On selecting happiness, even within the midst of battle

“There’s magnificence within the struggling as a result of it signifies that you are alive. As someone who struggles with loads of situational points on this world, it signifies that I’m nonetheless right here and I’m successful sure battles. That’s why I select happiness. I select to be sort. These are lively decisions. To be human is to err and to be upset on the issues which you could’t management. I did not management how I bought right here, I can not management how I go away, and I can not management the whole lot in between. I’ve to only select to just accept and discover the sweetness within the chaos.”

On setting a boundary that paid off sweetly

“I began out savory. I did pastry as a result of I needed to go on dates. So by the point that [her now-husband] Hector and I began going out, my schedule was simply chaotic. I had no boundaries at work. We’d at all times go on dates within the morning, breakfast dates. I used to be like, I simply wish to go to dinner and a film. I wish to see the moon caress his cheekbones. I wish to kiss below the celebs. I transitioned into pastry. I knew pastry can get me the schedule and I may study.”

On getting the Finest New Chef name — and turning it down

“[Then-restaurant editor Khushbu Shah] was like, ‘Let’s get into it; you’re a Finest New Chef.’ I used to be like, ‘Completely not. Please take it again. I don’t suppose I ought to settle for this. I believe that I’ve gotten sufficient. I believe that there’s loads of good issues which have occurred to me, however I believe that you just guys ought to take this and provides it to another person who doesn’t have something. Thanks.’ She was identical to, ‘Lower the recording.’ I actually gave it again. I don’t wish to develop into a supernova. I don’t wish to shine so brightly after which simply be forgotten. I wish to construct neighborhood. I wish to get to know individuals. I wish to perceive what the neighborhood wants after which meet their wants.”

On what occurs when you do not win

“I hope that people listening at residence perceive that possibly typically you received’t get the accolade. The truth that you have been in a position to have braveness to do the work — that’s sufficient. That’s an accolade inside itself. So have braveness.”

On assembly Man Fieri after she created a pastry as a tribute to him

“Man Fieri was like, ‘So your mother was watching my present, and that’s how you bought impressed?’ And I used to be like, ‘Nicely, we have been watching your present. We like seeing you. It’s comforting for me. I’ve been to loads of DD&D locations. If I’m shut, I’m going to go as a result of I could be each chef and client.’ So he despatched my mother a video. She was like, ‘Man Fieri. Para mí? Good.'”

On constructing an area for everybody 

“Providencia is a 22-seat bar the place there’s mild bites and actually enjoyable cocktails that encapsulate three cultures: Taiwanese, Salvadorian, and Dominican. You strip down these three cultures to search out the widespread floor. While you actually look, it is subtropical, it’s very energetic tales. The power that pulses by the menu could be very welcoming, very accepting. Some days you will see people who foyer, different days you will see artists and creatives, typically you will see a mother who’s getting out for the primary time after having a child. These people have to sit down subsequent to one another, as a result of they wish to strive a cocktail or shaved ice. You don’t must journey far in D.C. to go on an nearly otherworldly journey.”

Concerning the podcast

Meals & Wine has led the dialog round meals, drinks, and hospitality in America and all over the world since 1978. Tinfoil Swans continues that legacy with a brand new sequence of intimate, informative, stunning, and uplifting interviews with the largest names within the culinary business and past, sharing never-before-heard tales concerning the successes, struggles, and fork-in-the-road moments that made these personalities who they’re immediately.

This season, you will hear from icons and innovators like Roy Choi, Byron Gomez, Vikas Khanna, Romy Gill, Matthew Lillard, Ana and Lydia Castro, Laurie Woolever, Karen Akunowicz, Hawa Hassan, Dr. Jessica B. Harris, Wylie Dufresne, Samin Nosrat, Curtis Stone, Tristen Epps, Padma Lakshmi, Ayesha Curry, Regina King, Antoni Porowski, Run the Jewels, Chris Shepherd, Tavel Bristol-Joseph, Paola Velez, Bryan Caswell, Harry Hamlin, Angela Kinsey, Hunter Lewis, Dana Cowin, Edward Lee, Cassandra Peterson (a.ok.a. Elvira), Ruby Tandoh, Phil Rosenthal, and different particular visitors going deep with host Kat Kinsman on their formative experiences; the dishes and meals that made them; their joys, doubts and desires; and what’s on the menu sooner or later. Tune in for a feast that’ll feed your mind and soul — and loads of knowledge and quotable morsels to savor.

New episodes drop each Tuesday. Pay attention and comply with on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you hear.

These interview excerpts have been edited for readability.

Editor’s Be aware: The transcript for obtain doesn’t undergo our normal editorial course of and will include inaccuracies and grammatical errors.