Chef Jackie Carnesi Brings Her South Texas Spirit to an Iconic Brooklyn Diner

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Shortly after Jackie Carnesi arrived in New York Metropolis contemporary out of culinary college, she grew to become a fixture at one in every of Brooklyn’s largest restaurant empires, Roberta’s. She’s been tapped to steer equally spectacular eating places ever since. Following Roberta’s, Jackie grew to become government chef at Nura, the place she filtered her expertise and South Texas upbringing—she grew up on Tex-Mex and Mexican cooking, alongside the Southern staples of her Tennessee mother—by way of the lens of Indian delicacies. Although this was unfamiliar terrain on the time, she gladly, simply met the problem (Nura grew to become a Michelin-recommended restaurant beneath her helm).

Now, she is about to go the kitchen of the previous, iconic Kellogg’s Diner in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, whose new menu will function Tex-Mex and traditional diner fare. As she prepares for its much-anticipated reopening this spring, Jackie—who is rarely one to withstand flexing and stretching her abilities—is concurrently in command of the nightly menu at Pan Pan Vino Vino, a brand new bakery/wine bar from the Nura group. In between this enterprise, perfecting her flour tortillas for Kellogg’s, and her busy household life—she affectionately calls 5-year-old boy, Hunter, the “gentle of my life and full-time wild animal”—she took a second to inform us in regards to the ladies who encourage her and the way she’s feeling in regards to the problem that awaits her.

How does being a lady affect your work?

Jackie: I undoubtedly assume that being a lady within the trade has had an impact on my work, principally as a supervisor. I feel it has offered me a stage of empathy for individuals who have perhaps not had it really easy on this trade, however I additionally assume I’ve a whole lot of affect on my profession from being a mother. It is taught me a whole lot of endurance and understanding and vice versa—being a chef has taught me find out how to hold a cool head when your child is having a mood tantrum. I’ve realized a lot from each side of my life.

Who’re the ladies that encourage you in your trade?

I am continually impressed by ladies on this trade, whether or not cooks like Chef Aretah Ettarh over at Gramercy Tavern, or Chef Ryoko Yoshida at Marlow & sons and Diner, or Cooks Sam Brief and Tajeh Porter as pastry chef and head chef, respectively, at Nura. I really feel so grateful to be inside a circle of wonderful feminine cooks like Sohla El-Waylly, who is also so inspiring to me. She’s so deep rooted in her values and so vocal about that.

What’s essentially the most troublesome a part of having a artistic profession?

I’d say that the toughest a part of being in a artistic discipline, particularly in New York Metropolis, is attempting to maintain up with all the opposite wonderful cooks which are placing out a lot stunning meals that is actually revolutionary. It is very easy to get caught up in the concept that you are presupposed to continually be creating, and never simply creating, however creating one thing new that folks have by no means seen earlier than, and that is a extremely excessive bar to carry your self to.

How will you juggle work between Pan Pan Vino Vino and Kellogg’s?

Pan Pan Vino Vino was all the time meant to be a short-term factor, extra of a seek the advice of gig, however I care so deeply for and have such an excellent working relationship with the group there, I’ll make myself obtainable in no matter capability they want me, whether or not that’s menu updates or coaching new workers or no matter.

What would be the problem of working Kellogg’s in comparison with the problem of Nura, the place you needed to educate your self find out how to cook dinner by way of an Indian lens?

Making a Tex-Mex menu has been thrilling for a lot of causes, however primarily as a result of it’s the possibility to cook dinner meals that’s so near my coronary heart and jogs my memory a lot of my hometown. Bringing that consolation right into a metropolis that I’ve made my house could be very gratifying.

It’s difficult in methods Nura wasn’t. At Nura, there was the joy of studying as a lot as I may a couple of culinary panorama that I wasn’t so conversant in (Indian delicacies) by way of a lens of a culinary panorama I used to be very conversant in (Mexican delicacies), and naturally there was immense stress to do it properly, however the level was additionally to create one thing new, and non-traditional, and that got here with a specific amount of freedom.

With Kellogg’s, the mixture of Mexican and Tex-Mex, which has such an extended historical past, has to dwell as much as extra outlined expectations. There’s a special taste of stress concerned and a few of that’s from my very own background and culinary expertise. At Nura, the bar was extraordinarily excessive, however attempting to recreate your mother’s or your grandma’s migas or flour tortillas? That’s private.

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