ELLEN BENNETT, founder and ceo HEDLEY & BENNETT

“I just love Mexico. I'm so proud to be Mexican.”

Last May, I had the opportunity to sit down for a conversation with the lovely Ellen Bennett while in LA for a photo shoot. Ellen is the founder and CEO of Hedley & Bennett, an apron and work wear company, whose signature ampersand logo can be seen on top chefs around the world.

Born and raised in LA to a Mexican mother and English father, she felt a strong connection to Mexico and ended up moving there when she was 18. She went to culinary school and later recognized there was a lot of room for improvement in the standard kitchen work wear. She founded Hedley & Bennett to address this need and has woven her love of Mexico into the company and its products. Enjoy the conversation with Ellen!

Carly: Let’s start by having you tell me about your heritage, what’s your background?
Ellen: I grew up in the United States. My mother is Mexican and my dad is English. I had this really funny blend of cultures, which I thought was perfect.

Carly: Where did you grow up?
Ellen: Here in Los Angeles. I'm a total Angeleno, but since I was little, I would go to Mexico and stay three or four months every single year. I would forget English and learn Spanish and then come back and forget Spanish and learn English. I did that all through my youth. By the time I was 13 or 14, I spoke perfect Spanish.

Carly: What took you down to Mexico?
Ellen: I would go to visit my grandmother who lived in Tampico, Tamaulipas. My family is originally from San Luis Potosí, but it was a very small little village. My aunts and uncles decided that they needed to move the entire family to them to be close so that they could go to school. They were the first generation that actually went to college. My mom became a nurse. They all lived there and helped all six brothers and sisters go to a proper school. They're just so brilliant. I think every ounce of work ethic that I have is from my Mexican heritage.

Carly: What was like when you'd go down there to visit?
Ellen: Ever since I was a little kid, I remember hanging out with my grandma in Mexico, in her kitchen and the love that came out of cooking, which I think is what prompted me to want to cook professionally. I saw her get up early everyday and then have all these little side hustles where she would sell clothing door to door to different homes in the neighborhood. People just loved her. I saw the way that she interacted with everyone. She had so much warmth and love and happiness for people no matter where they lived or who they were or what they did. I feel like I absorbed it by osmosis because I just loved that everybody loved her and she was friends with everyone.

Carly: What were some of the differences you experienced going between cultures?
Ellen: There was definitely a huge juxtaposition between the way that American kids were growing up and the way that Mexican kids were growing up. I had friends that didn't have floors in their homes in Mexico, but yet they would invite me over to have a giant bowl of steaming hot beans and rice and fresh made tortillas. To be honest, I enjoyed those meals more than sitting in a friend's fancy home in the United States where everyone was a lot more serious, a little more sterile, and without the liveliness of Mexico. I think of people being alive and that's what I love the most. That was the biggest difference.

As a little kid, I realized that it wasn't money or things that brought people happiness. It was the joy that people brought to their own life.

My friends that had no floors, in many cases, were almost happier than friends in the United States where their parents gave them everything, but maybe their parents didn't have time to spend time with them. In Mexico, no matter what, you're with your family. You're hanging out on Saturday, Sunday night. the aunts, the uncles, everyone shows up.

Carly: Do you know what it was like for your mom to immigrate to the U.S.?
Ellen: I don't know how my mom ended up deciding to come to the United States, but she did. She had to redo all of her schooling in the United States to become a registered nurse here. She did double the college. I think that a lot of people forget how much work it takes as an immigrant to come here and make it. In many cases, there are some disadvantages like that. She had to literally redo school. She came legally, but I know many people that had to cross the border illegally, et cetera, just to make it over here.

The United States is a beautiful melting pot of so many different cultures. People that had a lot of work ethic, had nothing, but came here and made something for themselves. There's a lot of risk in leaving your family behind and everything you have in search of a better life.

Carly: How did your mom and dad meet?
Ellen: They met here in LA. I think my mom was about 34. They got married and then I popped out. I have a little sister and she's super cute and looks more Mexican than I do, even though I’d say I speak better Spanish than her. While I might not look Mexican, soy totalmenta mexicana.

Carly: Do you have a connection with the Mexican community here in LA?
Ellen: When I lived in LA, before I moved to Mexico, I didn't really have a connection to the Mexican community here. In fact, I didn't really have a connection to my own culture except for when I went to Mexico. I lived in Mexico City for four years, I moved there by myself when I turned 18.

When I came back to the United States, I had such a renewed sense of pride for being Mexican. I really wore it on my sleeve and have ever since.

I was so excited to get my Mexican nationality when I lived there. That was a really big deal because it's not an easy process. I had to go to San Luis Potosí to get my mother's birth certificate, get all these different documents from all over the country, go through like 800 bureaucratic steps. It was not easy, but I did it. When I got my citizenship, I don't think they've ever had someone more excited about becoming a Mexican citizen as I was.

Carly: Like the name of this project, you became Mexican.
Ellen: Yeah! I literally became Mexican. Officially. On paper. I have a Mexican birth certificate now. It's legit.

Carly: That's amazing! What prompted you to go to Mexico City when you were 18?
Ellen: I had been going to school here in LA. Everybody was interested in the entertainment world, being an actress or a model or a dancer, but that wasn't my world. I loved cooking. I loved being around food and I felt like bit of an outlier. My mom suggested that I go to Mexico for a month. So I did, and I was like, “Oh my God, I'm not weird. I'm just Mexican!”

I'm loud and alive, like Mexican people. We have a joie de vivre. We're just like, okay, we're here, love us or hate us, but this is who we are.

My father is English, his family is British and my grandmother was Swedish. It was very white. We drank tea and had Walker's cookies, the whole bit. Then my Mexican family is just like, wow. I relate and connect to that latter part so much more. When I moved to Mexico, I just felt like these are my people. I'm home. I ended up staying for four years.

Carly: It’s funny how life takes you down unexpected paths.
Ellen: Yup. One month turned into four years and I went to culinary school there.

Carly: It's so great to hear that you've always felt proud to be Mexican. How has that pride evolved over time?
Ellen: I think my pride about being Mexican has definitely grown over the years as I've found my own self in my own way in the world. There's something special about being different and unique and original. When you can embrace that, I think you find your stride. You're no longer trying to fit into the norm or how you think you should be because other people around you are a certain color or a certain style or have a certain look.

As I was growing up, I started to find my way. It was colorful and loud and different. My company Hedley & Bennett is a combination of those two cultures that I grew up with.

It's Mexican, spicy, loud, colorful, fun, friendly, energetic, but then also it has the Bennett side, which is a little more dignified, elegant, and proper. Combined together, it's me, it’s my brand. And I really want to constantly inject that into my company.

Carly: You're doing a lot of work that kind of has as symbiosis between Mexican culture and LA?
Ellen: Yes, one of the amazing things that I've been so fortunate to have is that Hedley & Bennett, my apron and work wear company, has become a platform for the things that I love. We get to be a part of events. We get to work with incredible chefs and we really try to uplift them. There are a tremendous amount of incredibly beautiful, wonderful, insanely talented people that are Mexican chefs.

We even have a headquarters in Mexico City, I want them to succeed in the United States. Daniela Soto-Innes, who just won World’s Best Female Chef, is a dear friend of mine. There's so much pride that Mexico is getting its place in the world. I got married in Mexico City, I just love Mexico. I'm so proud to be Mexican.

This interview has been edited and condensed. Interview conducted May 2019. Published September 2020.