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What you’ll hear in this episode:

• Bringing Nicaraguan cooking to Texans
• The journey from dishwasher to chef
• The diversity of the Houston food scene

David Cordúa is a chef from Houston whose family immigrated to America from Nicaragua to study at Texas A&M. In Nicaragua his family was very involved in the restaurant business, so once they settled in Houston they continued this family tradition. The restaurant they opened, Churrascos, introduced and popularized Nicaraguan cooking to Houston and is still popular today. Food was obviously a big influence in David’s life. He started cooking while earning his undergrad degree and then attended culinary school in Paris. After returning to Houston he assisted his family in opening more restaurant locations and launching the catering sector of the business. He took this opportunity to utilize what he had learned over the years, implement it, and make something of his own. David shares that one aspect that has driven him forward in his journey is that food is something you can never stop learning about, and that it is a universal language connecting all cultures.

David took part in a PBS miniseries called “The Houston Cookbook” which was about highlighting the different cuisines and cultures in Houston. He said that you could eat out every day and still only scratch the surface of what the city has to offer. Something unique to Houston that David discusses is the combining of the different cultures to create brand new fusion cuisine, which can be seen in his family’s restaurants as they take South American foods and put a spin on them to introduce them to a new audience. He believes that his family’s restaurants wouldn’t have been successful had they not been introduced in Houston because of the city’s rich food culture.

David’s advice to chefs bringing any sort of cuisine to a new audience is, “whatever you do it has to be something that you are authentically and genuinely into yourself. You can’t cook something properly if it’s not something that you inherently and deeply love and have to share.”

To hear more about David Cordúa’s background and the Houston food scene, tune into the sixth installment of Packing Taste. If you like what you hear be sure to share with family and friends, and you can listen to more Packing Taste here!

Host: Axel Brave

Guest: David Cordúa

 

Transcript:

this is a family media podcast 

welcome to the packing tape I’m your host axle about it our guest today and really good friend of mine is chef and restaurateur Davide go to the well a native Houstonian David was raised around food as you’ll hear him say he started out in the back of the house as a dishwasher but quickly moved into the kitchen David and I discuss how travel in education moved them back home to work for this family’s restaurant group and using that as a launching pad for new projects and ideas like the creation of his new company Michael and David go to the what hospitality we also dug into the origins and importance of Texas barbecue a white other grilling techniques are becoming so popular in Texas side note will probably have to record a whole other episode on just that so we can really geek out together let’s jump right into the conversation with David 

hello everybody and welcome to another episode of packing taste today on the show we have a very good friend of mine chef David core do who hails from my home town so this is definitely going to be a good episode David is a chef in Houston who studied French culinary arts and then took over the Houston scene from I think it was your families company or your father’s company and we’ll get into that but you guys started translating south American cuisine for the the Houstonians and it was a total head but yet thank you for coming on the show David what’s up axle does have me yeah of course man I’m glad we’re both in Austin at the same time and we can sit down and have a little chit chat but if you can start by Ellen us a little bit where your family’s from and how the heck you guys got to Houston 

US mushrooms from from Nicaragua came to Texas to to go to Texas and am which is actually a popular university in in Nicaragua because of agriculture in Emma’s Texas a and M. yeah they have a a good sized Nicaraguan popular population in the student body and the revolution started in nineteen seventy nine you know towards the end of their junior year I weren’t able to go back home they got married in Houston in nineteen eighty and I was born a couple years after that and we haven’t been back since I mean would send some summers there but most of families in the United States at this point and your your nominal only child you have sisters right I have three younger sisters yeah yeah we all this all ball born in in and you said on that if you saw any of this nice and you guys I 

I think I always tend to think that every south American family just cooks all the time that you guys were specifically very involved in the restaurant scene in NYC and I will right did you guys have a restaurant there yeah so my my dad’s uncle had a restaurant called Los Angeles which specialize in the Nicaraguan version of the of trust co also trust because mostly associated with South America not not Central America Argentina specifically with their different cuts of meats and Jimmy jury Brazil would there be Kenya with big chunks of rock salt and and Jimmy jury on on a rotisserie in in Nicaragua it’s a little bit different and there’s a very interesting story of how churrasco got to Nicaragua the use tenderloin and butterflies open to kind of mimic the skirt steak that is mostly common and and Argentina Sir taking the most tender cut on this year terrorizing even more by but flying it open adding more texture to it for Jimmy jury to it here more surface area to hit the grill so it’s a really unique steak that you’ll only find in Nicaragua in Miami because of the large Nicaraguan population and in Houston because of of our family 

yeah and the so your father your father came here and the two Roscoe that style did that kind of inspire your father to open up a restaurant so he first went to Miami and his eyes his thought was to franchise restaurants shows which had a an off shoot in in Miami yeah and he wasn’t crazy about it he did he didn’t love what they were of he wasn’t crazy of Miami or the restaurant concept that the the restaurant concept in the Miami version of Los Angeles so decided to do his his own brand in in eighty eight spent about two years an incubation you self taught and you know I remember him practicing recipes on us and family and friends for you know years before we perfected kind of our version which was the center cut of the tenderloin only age at a minimum of twenty one days which tenderize it even more and what resulted was something Houston had had never seen before 

the first customers came in looking for you know for he does enchiladas and nachos and of course and walked out the door but within a month or two there was a line around the building and some some incredible write ups and I was the the beginning of of our story does like when you guys were like okay there’s something here that hasn’t been done yet right right our former first slogans was further south than you’ve ever been before yeah so 

so of course our Texas listeners are very familiar with the Mexican food we all have here and that’s that’s South America it’s a lot of Texans but Texas being so big and and cattle and beef and grilling I’m sure and in the late eighties early nineties even the two thousands people are coming to to Roscoe’s which was the first restaurant right and having their minds blown up with the super tender juicy steak with an incredible sauce finish and you’re like this is as good as what I’m saying yeah but why hasn’t my meat ever tasted like this so it went from to Roscoe’s I’m sure a lot of our listeners know about to Roscoe’s in in the Houston area and then America is and what other places where you guys opening up 

so we open America’s and and ninety three which was best your restaurant by esquire magazine of by John Mariani there we open Amazon grocers are fast casual in nineteen ninety eight and artista which was in the theater district in Houston yeah and the hobby center and at what point like at what point did you guys have a ton of restaurants open and how many do you remember how many that at our at our largest which would have been you know in two thousand fourteen we had eight locations and catering division as well as the catering contract for the Houston Texans okay and you guys will you weren’t 

how involved were you at this point and was it your father who is kind of found in all these restaurants and starting them up so I started working in the restaurant when I was fifteen as a dishwasher they had you Hustlin yeah and absolutely hated it I I spent a lot of my late teens and early twenties backpacking did Southeast Asia Europe and kind of got the cooking bug through through travel and opened the hotel Valencia with from the Valencia group in San Antonio in San Jose California where I was getting my undergrad degree that’s what I started cooking and worked in Francisco napa Sonoma the did Connor school after that in Paris and then two thousand eight moved back to Houston to open the second America’s location and then opened three more trust has locations after that and launch our catering division at 

and during that time was your dad like Hey come back come help us out and you were like nominate keep backpack amen I’m a stay in San Francisco and I’m gonna keep doing my own thing I resisted coming back as as long as I could I I definitely wanted to bring something of my own to the table as opposed to just kind of can continuing and repeating what we had already created the catering division definitely allowed me a lot of room to to kind of stretch my legs and and and trying new things like I could incorporate into all the different concepts so that that was really cool having so many different concepts that you know any any new idea that I had there was yeah there was a place for it it’s it’s good to have a a platform where you can kind of express honestly express yourself through what you were doing was food and having to Roscoe’s in America is an Amazon you’re right like if you want to do something quick and casual it’s like I’m gonna do this an Amazon or I want to do something a little bit more fine dining I’m gonna do this America’s lot of opportunity 

and to Roscoe’s America’s were both south American was Amazon grill south American based yeah was it yeah it was it was very I remember going a bunch when I was younger on the the one on Kirby but I don’t remember what I eat soon soon not none of our restaurants and I would say even trust because our our country specific but they they definitely it definitely expanded geographically as as we continue to grow so trust was was was most mostly rooted and our and our Nicaraguan background where as America America’s was incorporated you know some of Mexico more more of south South America specifically Peru Amazon grill you know is really kind of street food focused and had a lot to do with with presenting food in a in a very kind of whimsical almost carnival fashion we serve cotton candy and tacos and and and cones okay those table tops mortars and it was it was a lot a lot about fun and and very kid friendly artista in the hobby center was where I got to incorporate a lot of the different ethnicities the in Houston that I date I grew up eating Sir yeah Vietnamese cuisine Indian Indian cuisine you know you’d still sit down and have the planting chips that we’re kind of kind of our signature at all of our restaurants but the cruise cuisine was less ethically restricted 

yeah and so what I mean what was up at the time what does all that mean the all that food being around all that food like how when did you knows what I want to keep doing this I want to keep being involved with food I want to be a creator a crafter was it watching people smile or was it laughing at people when they try to pronounce a word in Spanish like what what what was driving you mobile what did the food mean to you I guess is what I’m asking Well I think it’s like anything that you’re really into and brings you joy it has to be something that you can’t get enough learning about and food is definitely one of those things you can never it’ll stop learning can never know it all there’s always a different method, a different technique, I think that’s one of the things that I love most about it I love that it’s a universal language, it’s something that kind of connects all cultures I think that’s what got me into it in the first place through through travel yeah there’s also a performance aspect to it I was you know a musician before I’ve start cooking professionally and I got a lot of the same satisfaction of that instant gratification that you get from you know putting something in front of someone and seeing their immediate reaction, that can that satisfaction can be pretty addicting 

what will the it’s a good point to kind of get way into this I so as as little as the listeners know I do CBG and we do packets food and we get so focused on all the little details and like always our label correct is our lid functioning properly is our media up today that sometimes I feel that I forget about the fact that I’m doing this as an art form that food is the way I express certain things in my life my culture my ethnicity and with chefs and restaurants like that so in the forefront of what they’re doing but I try to like remember like maybe I don’t consider myself a chef but I’m like Axel you’re a cook this year expressing yourself with this and I don’t know that I really appreciate that from chefs did you you see what I’m saying loudly 

yeah I did as I think it was Anthony Bourdain who said it and I it really resonated with me you know he doesn’t call cooking an art form he calls it a craft and the distinction that he makes is that an artist has the the luxury of waiting to be inspired and to do the thing one time you know a Painter, a Musician document something one time and then has residual benefits from doing that thing just that one time, a craftsman, a carpenter you know anyone that works with our hands has to do something over and over and over and over again it has to be done exactly the same way so I like the term cooking as a craft a little bit more than one at and and an art form yeah there’s there’s there’s an artistic element to it and in terms of your combining things that maybe have been combined before there’s a lot of room for for creativity you’re you’re trying to draw a motion out of out of someone yeah I 

I guess that’s why I think art is because there’s a lot of emotion and connectivity with you the medium and the consumer right yeah I did at the end of the day you’re trying you’re trying to you’re trying to move somebody and and in some way yeah I mean you’re trying to serve somebody some food and you want to be happy right you don’t want to not have any emotion anyways yeah that’s that but it’s food I mean we can’t we can’t take it too seriously and you’re not supposed to you’re not supposed to but it’s it’s good to feel like to remember that I’m sharing something that means something to me at least right yeah yeah at the end of the day what your what you do when you put a plate in front of somebody when you’re creating a dish you telling him Hey this is what I’m into right now yeah it’s a very I really will I really dig this I think you will too yeah 

okay well one of the big reasons why I wanted the to have you on here and this kind of came up last minute but I would really want to talk about why grilling is so important here in Texas what what yeah one of the things I want to talk about yes the the Texas food saying I don’t even know how many cattle we go through but we eat a lot of meats barbecuing is huge here and I wanted to ask you why do you think it’s so big here why do you think every Texan love’s barbecue so much other than it’s amazing obviously it tastes delicious but why is it so big in our culture I don’t I don’t know if it’s if it’s specific to to Texas I think the in the beef centric of barbecue is definitely specific to Texas because of our our our background our history with with cattle and and and the cowboy but you know the the hearth fire smoke I think is just kind of in our DNA is as human beings and that’s something that that word were drawn to Texas I wanted to get Texas barbecue it it definitely is it’s it’s brisket the first thing that comes to mind it’s it’s it’s our history with with worshipping and paying homage to to be really but I don’t know if that’s specific to Texas I think the group grueling grilling overall it’s just something that’s in our DNA as humans 

yeah I think I think I wrote about something like that I think it would and of course some wasn’t even side anything but I was saying yeah it’s an art like a midget geneticists or whatever it’s called like yet it’s in our DNA to grill to burn things but he we can’t say that in you know New Yorkers and don’t don’t hate me but we can’t say new Yorkers grill more than Texans can we can we say people from Wisconsin grill more than Texans I’ve I really feel like what one of the other than you know the cowboy hats in the horses when people think of Texans barbecue is definitely something that pops up so there there is a connection there and I never really took the time to think about why it’s so big here no you’re you’re absolutely right I’m I mean living in and and working in in Paris for two years I did what a girl wants yeah you know and and and to be honest when I when I moved back a way more comfortable working with a cast iron saute pan over stove in an oven and having and having that that level of of control if there’s one thing about about grilling is it your look you’re dealing with this living element which are any of these embers these Kohls are are not consistent and he the entire time there’s a lot more variables it does it does it does you know bring a lot of challenges that you don’t necessarily have with the control of you know as sets stove setting or as I call it of an eating yeah my group has its place yeah those don’t don’t knock the microwave yeah I thought we were talking you know we’re we’re talking about grilling you you’re dealing with this other living elements that that gad this adds this come this these variables that that aren’t there with the controls of the stove top or in oven 

yeah and so you risk recently did a mini episode on the different cuisines and Houston right what was it called US news the Houston cookbook on on PBS and if it really was about highlighting the different cuisines and and cultures that are in Houston I mean you can eat out every day in Houston and it’s only scratch the surface of of what’s out there I mean it’s Ethiopian Pakistani Vietnamese and it’s incredible how effortlessly the the cuisines slick fused fused together there’s a great chef called the Kaiser last few that time Elena who’s who in Pakistani fried chicken there is group of Vietnamese buddies that grew up together in a leaf that are doing Asian style Texas barbecue and it’s you know it the term fusion used to be used back in the nineties and kind of became a bad word among chefs and in Houston is just it really is something that’s authentic to us because it’s what we grew up eating and I think that’s what we try to showcase in in the Houston cookbook was you know there there is something called Houston these cuisine 

yeah the the the interesting thing is you’re right that word fusion we tended to use as like how old we’re not gonna go there’s a fusion restaurant no no no but in is it called fusion confusion yeah but it in Houston and I think even Dallas and San Antonio and and you know some of the bigger cities in Texas or even some of the smaller cities this different culture comes in with their culinary background and their machine in the Texas cooking technique or Texas barbecue or Texas this and it seems to be working very well for a lot of places and again specifically in Houston there’s such a mix of two cultures coming together and putting their food on the same plate and one of the examples we always talk about is the crawfish yeah the the Viet Kazin crawfish they always have a crawfish right now yeah and I think after after Anthony Bourdain came to Houston in the an episode about that the the price per pound of the occasion has gone up so much the prince of crawfish yes is insane now used to be a dollar fifty two dollars a pound when I was in high school and it’s yeah it’s like ten dollars a pound so 

so what do you think what do you think Texans are so welcoming to this this a measurement this fusion of of like culinary foods coming together you know when we open the first America’s the the the walls of the restaurant were in a a three pattern of of a woven basket in the symbolism behind it was that instead of being a melting pot the Americans being a melting pot as that as it’s often called that we really were more of a of a basket of all these cultures interwoven together but with each one retaining its its background its heritage and its and its roots and I think it’s it’s a really good metaphor for for what what you said is we’re we’re all interwoven into woven together but still retain retain our our roots and and answer your question about why or why Houston you know in the late eighties when we’ve introduced a south American cuisine to the city or novela Tina cuisine it was very receptive and in a day I don’t know if we could have done that and in any other city other than Houston the it’s just it’s so it’s so welcoming the the the the deluxe sorry to interrupt at the large Latin American community help or because I thought I think even like normal like eighth generation Texans were so about that cuisine no to be honest with you at I think we we purposely tried not to cater to the Latin American community in Houston we never tried to be authentic to anything from back home it really was about creating a new a new genre which was south American dishes south American ingredients with with French technique and that’s a large part as male to why I I I moved to France and and got train there second kind of bring that discipline and apply it not just a south American but to to all the cultures are there in Houston 

yeah what what area what do you think south American food is a strong come up in Texas difficulty of like the meets in the grilling techniques like you mentioned earlier that the guy begun yeah the Brazilian cut the tree Roscoe south American cut why is that gaining so much popularity think well I think I think a of you know a large part of the roof the reason why she sinister diverses because of the oil and gas industry we do have a huge Venezuelan population for that reason a huge Brazilian population for that reason and they’re bringing their bringing their cuisine with with them so that I mean fat that first and foremost I think is the reason why you’re seeing a lot more trust Correa’s pop up because there’s just more south Americans in what now for the call Katie Kate Katie’s well our yes yes and I mean that that’s a suburb outside of a Houston Katie’s willow there are a lot of Dennis William’s there’s a lot of it has been a lot of Brazilians I mean my my neighbors throw these huge Brazilian you know parties they’re they’re grilling all day all night it and it it does it does have a lot to do with with the petroleum industry yeah and the like like you said earlier I feel like a lot of these people come here and they and their cooking or they’ll have friends over and they’re not really doing it for their other Brazilian friends were there other new got out when friends like you said when you were at the restaurant you guys are like no we’re gonna do something completely new for the people here that that are already here and naturally that it it was so successful everyone was eating there right yeah it it just fascinates me how interested Texans are nowadays to me at least with with different styles of eating meats 

well you’re you’re a testament to that as well I mean you know twenty years ago jury jury was something that people had a hard time pronouncing yeah and and you know and now your you’re introducing into people’s homes and then in the supermarket the the pickled onions that you do as well which is something that is even with every state that we have and and Nicaragua no you’re you’re you’re bringing that you’re bringing that to to the the the dinner table and and and people’s homes so thanks for what you’re doing of course do I’m doing it for you guys no but it it’s easy for me to do it because there has been restaurants like yours or there’s been other chefs from South America that common have put pickled onions on tacos and people try that and like well this is freaking amazing always knew this on my jacket yeah exactly been and same with Jimmy truly or to Roscoe’s and you know I was I was having barbecue yesterday with my family and we’re sitting down and they bring the barbecue and there’s raw like a tray of raw onions and another little Cup of just pickles and I’m really missing some acidity well no because I had my pickles and I had my onions and I’m like this this is the same stuff from I don’t know it like yeah wasn’t the pickled onions I make yeah wasn’t the the the acidity I add to my meat but it’s all there the vinegar was there the acidity was there the salt was there the sauce was there it’s just a different translation you know the Texan translation or the Argentine translation 

you know the first lesson that I that I remember that my dad my dad again a self taught chef taught me was the concept of of the vinaigrette and its its application to all foods so what what is an address by the vinaigrette is one part acid three parts fat you can take that ratio and apply it to any dish that you create any sauce that you create the that’s does that magical ratio that makes the mouth happy yes rant and when you’re talking about grilling you usually talking about some pretty fatty fatty foods fatty me now delicious fat but you do need that acidity and that’s that’s what you bring with the pickled onions that’s to bring with with with the Jimmy jury and it’s you know it’s not it’s incomplete without it I think so but and I think a lot of other people are realizing that as well 

so can you share some of some I guess support systems are hurdles that you’ve faced in Texas where we’re saying how like great an open people are to just eating any type of meter any type of grill out but have you seen any like push back from certain styles are certain techniques Sir have you seen something something’s that really are working some new things that are coming up for for me my challenge was you know coming into a miniature restaurant group that had been around for you know over over twenty years when when I joined I had I had a lot of freedom to introduce things that I had experience in my travels and in my training but it was breaking away from you know the dishes that they’d they’d they’d come for for for twenty plus years and in in in our kitchen fifty percent of our tickets were the trust co the trusted the Drawsko of so I do feel a little bit of a sense of liberation now that I am you know creating new new new restaurants new brands new dishes that are a little less ethnically bounds and and tied to two very specific dishes so excited for this next chapter and stay tuned 

and the yeah we’re we’re gonna have to see how so our listeners can follow along to see the new concepts coming up but what I guess we have to wrap up soon but what do you have any advice for for ethnic food makers people who are doing doing these fusion techniques bringing their traditional food here to Texas do you have any advice for them to connect that with Texas residents in Texas folk have you seen something work specifically you have to just repeat the word she mutually over and over again I think they ever I would give this the same advice to to you know at any chef in introducing a new a new cuisine or or a new dish whatever you do it has to be something that you are authentically and genuinely into yourself you can’t cook something properly if it’s not something that you inherently and deeply love and have to share it’s got to be something that you you can’t keep to yourself you absolutely have to try this this is insane it has to be authentic it can’t be something that is that you’re trying to replicate from back home that you’re trying to replicate from another cuisine culture it has it has to be something that you are crazy about first yeah 

I think one of one of the themes of the of the show has been often city right can we say that Mariah I think being yeah you’re right being authentic to yourself and what you’re doing maybe that is the best way to introduce new things to people that have never tasted something before I mean a ceiling authenticity that matters yeah I mean nothing to cities where the store around that you know what is what is it really the only thing that is attended was what’s authentic to you and what what gets you off and went what what can you not not share with other people 

beautiful and lastly my question I ask everybody so on a day to day basis there’s things that we have to do right so how do you manage what you want to do which is probably just mess around the kitchen all day and make a bunch of new dishes so how do you manage what you want to do with what you should do with what you have to do I like to think of it as is common access axis first of all are you are you into it right do you do you like it secondly are you are you good at it could you can really like something and being no good at it yes and and then lastly are are people willing to pay for it I did to me this is the thirty three most important components do you love it are you good at it and does it add value that someone that someone will give their hard earned dollars for it 

beautiful again beautiful beautiful but I think those are all the questions I mean I have a lot more questions but you know we we got the time here I think that’s a a good stopping point but I want to thank you again for coming on the show always love talking to you about food I think we that’s the main thing we talk about but yes can people follow you and your next concepts that are coming up on Instagram is our newsletter yeah you can follow me at at David Cordova on Instagram and David Michael Korda events on Instagram as well that’s our catering events company and if you were looking to have an event in Houston your finest at D. M. cord to us you are you do you a dot com beautiful yes so if you guys want to eat really good food you know who to hit up now you’re gonna slide into those DM’s and the TV shows that Houston cookbook and you can find it on on the the P. B. S. apps on there you go guys so you guys have a look at that stay tuned what Dave is gonna do next for us Texas folk and again thank you for coming on the show thanks brother 

thank you again David for coming on the show I had a blast we will link is Instagram and other social media platforms so you guys can keep up with David Korda and see what might be coming to Austin in the near future the packing taste team includes me axle brother producer for I got set an audio engineer Jake Wallace thank you everyone it found the media for your support if you all really been enjoying the show in love hearing me talk about food or just love food in general you should totally leave a comment or subscribe for more episodes but we’d love to hear your feedback if you guys want to give us a follow on Instagram you can find us at packing taste podcast you can even shoot us an email at packing taste at G. mail dot com if you guys are interested on being part of the show