Cook Like a Chef with Nyesha Arrington

Q: You've described your cuisine as “Progressive Californian.” What does that mean to you? And how do you think it differs from other California native chefs?

My style of cooking is very much authentic to my personal journey. It’s rooted in Southern California cuisine, where I was born and raised, but I’ve also had the opportunity to travel around the world and pick up ingredients or techniques from the places I’ve visited. Along with the fundamentals of cooking for French fine dining that I learned growing up, I developed a global tapestry in my cooking. My food is also rooted in storytelling and seasonality––which is how we primarily cook in California. We generally stick to the farmers markets and tend to be health-focused but unafraid of flavor. When people think of California cuisine, they often think of avocado toast and a smoothie with a chia seed bowl. But it's not that. California cuisine––and particularly what I've dubbed Progressive California cuisine––follows the trends. It's fun food that feeds not only your palate, but also your soul.

Q: Would you share the inspiration behind the featured recipe, Aisoon Short Ribs & Sweet Potato Grits?

My grandmother inspired the Aisoon (Korean) flavors, which are named after her. This a quintessential example of how a dish can tell a story and the power a recipe can hold.

The dish dates to around 2006, when I learned the technique of braising in the first Michelin-starred kitchen I worked in. There's a beautiful art and soulfulness that goes into taking something like a short rib and slow cooking it for a few hours. The dish started to become my own when I opened my first restaurant in 2014. I took elements of the original dish, the mirepoix or the French Trinity of carrot, onion and celery, and I added robust Korean flavors, like Asian pear, orange zest, sesame oil and soy. I served it with beautiful heirloom potatoes roasted with beef fat and the short rib with a beautiful glaze. It quickly became the most popular dish on the menu, and the LA Times wrote a beautiful cover story on it.

As a kid growing up, my family would make breakfast on Saturday and Sunday mornings with the most delicious, humble ingredients, like ground cornmeal. When you cook it over time, it tends to soften, and it has this most pleasurable texture to it by adding a little salted butter. I just loved it. As a native Californian, I'm always searching for how to add vegetables or produce to my dishes, and I thought, "What if I marry the two and make this a sweet potato grits moment that adds vitamin A, vitamin C, nutrients, texture and flavor?” I served that dish to about 700 people at an event, and I got emails for weeks and weeks. When I returned the next year, people were still talking about it.

Q: Would you share what Black History Month means to you as an Afro-Korean woman? Do you have special traditions during this month?

February, for me, is a time of reflection––a time that I slow down, be present and not labor as much. It’s a time to pay homage to ancestors, both in my family and folks who have made history. I’m predominantly a Black woman. Both of my parents were working parents and my grandmother––a Korean immigrant––helped raise me. I'm fortunate to have had a grand matriarch in the family bestow a lot of her lived experience onto me. I feel like that's helped to shape a lot of my discipline and work ethic as an adult. My dad's side of the family comes from Mississippi. There's a lot of generational root systems that speak to the diaspora of Africans through Mississippi and the South over to California. It shows this sort of timeline of who we are as people.

Q: You’re known for your sustainability practices inside and outside the kitchen. Why is sustainability important to you? And how do you apply those practices to cooking?

If you peel it back, sustainability has many layers and facets. It's not just about agriculture, lifestyle or personal health. It's about closing the loop. A small example is, "Oh, I bought this avocado from the farmers market or from the grocery store." Well, I have the choice to throw that seed in the trash, or I could sprout it and plant it. And it might not happen today or tomorrow, but eventually, that plant is going to give me 50 avocados. I have five avocado trees just by doing that practice. You could also take your green onions and put the sprouts in water to grow new green onions. It's a low-stakes way of being sustainable. Sustainability is also transferable as a term to our daily lifestyles. Am I getting enough sleep to sustain my energy output today? Am I putting the right fuel in my body to be sustainable in my efforts in making an impact on the world? Ultimately, it’s completing the life cycle, both micro and macro.

Q: Could you share an example of how you apply sustainable practices to your cooking?

It comes down to being intentional. When I buy whole chickens, I break down the chicken and use the bones for stock. Same with fish. I make stock out of the bones and take the meat off the filet to make chips out of the skin. The skins are omega-rich and make delicious, texturized chips. Another example is what I do when we have a dish with braised leeks on the menu that called for the bottoms, leaving unused leak tops. I dehydrate the tops and grind them into a powder. They make a brilliant green, robust flavor dust that tastes like sour cream and onion chips––perfect for dusting on fish skin. If you have vegetables going bad in the fridge, bake them, crush them up, use them in your oatmeal, and make a vegetable crumble or something else. All these things cost nothing and waste nothing. Other than composting, these are my favorite ways to be sustainable.

Q: Are there Black chefs, cooks or restaurateurs who have inspired you?

So many, like Tiffany Derry. I've watched her journey from Top Chef to hosting television shows to being an incredible leader. I think she's one of the most influential Black chefs in America. Mashama Bailey has grown to be one of my favorite people on the planet. Her passion exudes excellence.

Q: You’ve appeared on many “cheftestant” TV competitions as a judge and competitor. You’ve been a podcast host, worked in Michelin-starred restaurants and have your own catering business. What do you see as your next grand venture?

I'm a creative, so I'm always searching what next venture will feed my soul. And for me, that’s travel. I get a lot of first-person experience of how the world works––and where we are as a society––outside of just my scope of Los Angeles. That's very important to me. I'll be cooking international dinners that people can look out for. That’s my next venture.

Q: How do feel your identity as a Black woman has shaped your experience as a chef in the culinary arts industry, and beyond?

When I started out on this journey in 2002, and graduated from culinary school, I knew in my whole being that I was in the field that would serve me in every way. It's challenging. It feeds my creative soul. It feeds my analytical brain. And you can never really stop achieving. You just keep moving the goalpost. I hope to help leave the industry in a better place than when I entered it. I think all we have this lived experience that we can share with the next generation. And I'm so lucky to be able to do that through food because it is the axis of many intersections of the plant kingdom, of our animal kingdom, and who we are as a human race. It hits all those touchpoints. And it's a way to attain a full circle, sustainable life.

Q: Your sauce brand, Aisoon, was launched during the pandemic, making you a business owner in addition to being a chef and media personality. Do you have any advice for aspiring business owners?

Speaking from how I like to operate and what is sustainable for me and my landscape, I’d say that it’s okay to build slowly. I like to think of it as a simmering pot. It's not the pot that's rapidly boiling on the front burner. It's the pot on the back that's slowly brazing. Enjoy the process instead of trying to just put something out quickly and have fun with the details. People like to think, “Don't sweat the details, think of the macro.” But you can come from a sound place when the details have been sifted through.

Q: How did your sauce brand, Aisoon, which is part of the recipe we feature, come to be? How does it speak to your grandmother’s legacy and your own?

I remember going to my grandmother’s house and opening the refrigerator door and hearing clanking of glass, all repurposed glass, whether that was a mayo bottle or a ketchup bottle. She'd always wash off the labels and repurpose them and make this sauce. I was four or five years old, but it just fed my soul. I remember thinking, "This tastes so delicious, and it's so spicy." Grandma sweated the details. She did it the hard way. And it's so hard to mimic that. But I feel like if you carry the love in your heart, that’s the true secret ingredient. This was the first step in venturing out because not every single person I wanted to touch could come to the restaurant. But if I can add value in the home and bring some joy on the plate and empower someone to pick up a pan, that's true impact. That’s why I started it.

And it has been a passion project. For the first few rounds, I rented out my friend's commissary kitchen, and my sister and I bottled and labeled every bottle and sealed every package. And I think it's just fun, those sort of origin stories and finding joy and the why of what you’re doing. There have been moments when I wish you could just sell these moments of joy. So the quest is really for me to evoke that emotion in the sauce.

Q: Throughout your career, you've lent your voice to many nonprofits, social advocacy organizations and cultural interest groups with a wide range of foci. Why is doing this work important to you?

I’d love to steer my work into nonprofit full-time. It’s something that’s very exciting to me because you can make a true impact on the world. If I can cook a dinner and flex my creative muscles for something I already love to do, but also make a direct impact, it's a no-brainer. And I hope that my career can lead me into more nonprofit work in the future.