LAURo ROMero, CHEF

“The true food of mexico is full of culture and history and richness”

Lauro Romero is the Executive Chef at King Tide restaurant in Portland’s South Waterfront. After leaving Mexico when he was 14, Lauro was introduced to the world of restaurants when he started working as a dishwasher. In our conversation, we discuss his interest to the elegant chaos of the kitchen, how he infuses memories of family gatherings into his food, and how a near-death tragedy allowed him to gain documentation to work legally in the US.

Carly: Tell me about your background.
Lauro: I was born in Mexico and moved to the US when I was 14. I went to Salt Lake City and moved to Portland about five years ago. 

Carly: Where in Mexico were you born?
Lauro: I was born in Tulacingo, in the state of Hidalgo, between Veracruz and Mexico City. When I was 9, or 10 my parents separated and my mom moved back to her hometown, which is a very rural area. Those were my last years in Mexico, and it was a shaping time for me. I’m a chef by profession and that’s where a lot of my inspiration comes. When the farm-to-table movement started in the mid ‘90s, I'd been there before. If you don't grow it, you don't eat it. 

My mom owned one acre of land, and we grew corn, squash, beans, etc. We had her cattle that we’d milk every morning. As well as chickens, turkeys, and ducks. And, every now and then, we’d eat them. My grandparents have 10 grown kids.

There was a gathering every Sunday where the aunts would show off their cooking skills. They were very happy moments, and food and community was a big part of it.

From corn tortillas to moles, traditional dishes and barbacoa, which my city is known for. Traditions were pretty hardcore in our family. 

My dad was also from a farming community. He was very passionate about growing things and respecting the environment and the earth that gave him food. But he was into wheat. We didn’t necessarily harvest them for us to eat. It was a side business and he sold the wheat to breweries down there.

Carly: What took you to Salt Lake City when you were 14?
Lauro: I wasn’t necessarily a troublemaker, but I was very independent at a pretty early stage of my life. I felt like I knew it all. And, unfortunately, in the community I grew up in there wasn't necessarily a bright future. There weren't a lot of schools or the mindset to go to college and become a professional. A lot of people were immigrating to the north, and they would come back with a lot of money and they will build nice houses. 

So, you have two options. Stay there and have almost no future. Or go to El Norte, hopefully make some dollars, and go back and have a nice life. I already had a sister and an older brother living in the US, in Utah, and I wanted to be part of that. I wanted to help my mom; I wanted to be able to provide for her.

Carly: So you went. Did you go to live with your sister?
Lauro: Yes. I lived with my sister for the first few years. When I first came, my older brother was there, we all lived together, and he tried to get me to go to school, but I was set that I came to work. I wanted to earn money and then go back. At a certain point, I realized that factory work wasn't what I wanted for my future. I came to the realization that I needed to learn the language, and there should be more to a future in life than just being a worker. For lack of a better word.

All of a sudden, the future didn't look as bright and I thought about what I needed to do to change that. I asked for help to enroll in high school, and I went to high school in Salt Lake. I think that changed some things. I was very fortunate that I had a lot of good people around me. I had people that pulled me aside and told me to go back to school to have a brighter future. I was very fortunate because I needed to hear that. I didn't necessarily understand it when they said it the first time, or the second time, but one day I woke up, and I was like, "You know what? They're right. I need to do this." 

At this point, I was already working in restaurants, and my first job in a restaurant was a dishwasher on the weekends. I enjoyed it; I thought it was the coolest thing.

I never thought I was going to be a chef, but I liked the full adrenaline of line. The ticket machine thumping, the food that needed to be made, and these guys were just in the weeds, as we say in the kitchen.

They were super busy. So they're turning around and throwing things in the pan, and the fire's everywhere. It was super chaotic, but at the same time it was kind of like a symphony.

Washing dishes was cool, it was a pretty solid job for a 15 year old. I would go on break and I could eat whatever I wanted. It was pizza or shrimp pasta, things that I didn't know back home. I never had pizza in Mexico.

I stuck working in restaurants through school. I enjoyed it and even bought a few cookbooks, but it was more of a hobby. I wanted to go to college and be a psychologist. Then, at a restaurant that I was working at, there was this super crazy guy, old school, everything you've heard about chefs from the '80s and the '90s is true. He was pretty mean, but also very passionate. He was a genius with food. He really inspired me to pursue cooking.

Once I was done with high school, I just kind of decided that this was what I was going to do. I didn't go to culinary school, understanding that culinary school is very expensive, and it was out of my pay grade. At that point, I was completely on my own. A bunch of chefs that I knew didn't go to culinary school and they were very successful. I realized that if you have the experience and knowledge, then you can be a chef.

Carly: To rewind a little bit, you mentioned eating pizza for the first time. What was that like for you, to come to America, what did you think of it?
Lauro: I thought it was amazing. I grew up with pretty good food, but I never tried anything outside of Mexican food before, until I came to the US. There were things that were a culture shock for me, like sushi. I would never have thought about eating raw fish. Or a medium rare steak. It's just a different culture, different mentality. I thought it was amazing.

Carly: When do you think you lost the desire to just make money and go back to Mexico? 
Lauro: I went back when I was 18 or 19, and it was difficult to return again to the US. The first time, I didn't come with the proper documentation, nor the second time. I realized that it's not as easy to make dollars and become a millionaire, even when you're converting dollars to pesos. I think that was when I realized that I wouldn’t be going back to Mexico. I'm just going to have to try to make a living here and do the best that I can to be a good citizen.

I probably always had it in the back of my head. Returning to Mexico was like a dream that is not going to happen. There were things that were growing here, in my heart, that were getting me more attached and more attached to this land.

Carly: How did you end up getting documentation?
Lauro: Immigration laws are pretty crazy. Technically, there was no way for me to get documentation, other than having to go back and wait for amnesty. Basically, you have to be forgiven for what you've done before you are considered to return to the US legally. But when I was 22, I was involved in a robbery. I was a victim of a crime, and I was shot in the neck.

Carly: Wow.
Lauro: Yeah. I don't know how I survived. I still wonder sometimes. There are so many things that could have gone wrong.

I was walking out of the hospital the next day and the doctor said, "Hey man, I don't know what you believe, but you shouldn't be walking. It's a miracle that you're alive.”

I'm not very religious, but there's definitely meaning in that, you know? It was a tragedy, but it enabled me to get my proper documentation. There is a program called the U-visa and because I was a victim of crime, I was able to get in that program. I had the U-visa for five years, and then I was able to get my permanent residency.

Carly: That's incredible that you survived that. 
Lauro: One thing I learned from my dad is to push and to work hard. He always told me that I could be whatever I wanted, but I would have to work for it. Things don't just come to you because you want it, you have to work for it. Sometimes you have to sacrifice things to get there. That stuck with me. 

I have always been very ambitious. I came from what I came, and I think I've accomplished some things that I'm proud of. 

I made a choice to better my life and come to the US. Obviously, I'm not saying that it was okay. I was too young to know what I was doing and to really understand the consequences of what I was getting myself into. But in the same token, somehow I was mature enough to know that, "Hey, this is what I got to deal with, and this is the consequence for my actions." 

At least for me, it was a choice. I made that decision and I had to deal with those consequences. With the Dreamers, some of these kids didn't make a choice, they didn't decide for themselves. It sucks to be those kids, that are American, raised here and ingrained in their communities, but they're not part of it because they're lacking a piece of paper. That's just terrible.

Carly: I'd love to hear more about how you came into your own as a chef, and how your Mexican roots have inspired you along the way.
Lauro: Like many chefs, I started with a pretty basic French training and technique. I worked in a lot of different restaurants with different cuisines. American, Italian, French. And then at some point, Japanese food, which I found to be similar to Mexican food, as far as depth and flavors, and the care that went into it.

There's always something that I wanted to bring to the table, whether it was something from the cuisines that I learned, or the food that I grew up with. In the early 2000s, there wasn't as much acceptance of different things and it was a little bit of a battle. It wasn't until recently where I was just like, "You know what? This who I am. This is where I come from, and this is what I do. And I'm going to do the best I can and hope that people enjoy the food." I think it's worked out well so far.

Inspiration comes in different phases. Whether it's going to the farmer's market and looking at the beautiful heirloom carrots or tasting the perfect tomato.

But, when I look deeper, I go back to those memories of the Sunday dinners and birthdays with my family when everybody came together. My mom was making mole, my aunt was doing the rice, and my cousins were making masa and tortillas from scratch, and one of my uncles was preparing barbacoa, carnitas, and all those other things. The food was amazing, but I was also a very happy kid. I think that that's my inspiration, the food that I grew up with.

This is food with history, with depth. Hundreds and hundreds of years of recipe development where generation over generation documented their own recipes. Every family in Mexico has their own mole recipe. That is just so cool.

Carly: Tell me about King Tide.
Lauro: I cook at a seafood restaurant where we do a lot of classics and I have to respect that. I love seafood, but there is also influence of my roots, even on this menu. I'm lucky enough to work for a company that embraces that and gives room for creativity and inspiration.

We also have a bar outside where we do just pure tacos and tequila. They're not necessarily traditional, but they're my inspiration of what I grew up with and what I know now. For example, we have a pork belly taco that has been on the menu for the past three years. It's kind of like a take on tacos al pastor. I braise the pork belly with achiote and some other chilis. We add a little tequila just to, just because it's fun, and it adds a little bit more balance to it. Then, we make a spicy salsa with peanuts and chili morita. Then, thinking of the pineapple that you get with the al pastor, and the sweetness that brings the dish with it, we add pickled mangoes. So, you have a little bit of acid, and the mangoes are super sweet, so you have that balance in there. And then, the other day, we did tacos that were, not necessarily super traditional, but I thought they were pretty cool: green mole, pork belly, scallops, and really nice tortillas.

It was also very well received, so it makes me very happy that people are really pursuing the true food of Mexico. It's so full of culture and history and richness. And every time you go to Mexico, you'll have a different traditional dish.

Carly: Which ingredients are inspiring you right now?
Lauro: Well, it's spring. So, with spring there is a lot of veggies, a lot of sweet stuff, like English peas, snap peas, carrots are going to come up. Fish, halibut, right now, it's coming up. Mushrooms are starting to appear. Green garlic. Ramps are coming up; I'm super stoked about ramps. I'm always looking forward to those. I don't know, there is a lot of plants about to get, you know, also ready for that. 

Every season, you're looking forward to tomatoes, and in between spring and summer you're looking for the berries. We have amazing berries here. Tomatoes are just out of this world, and then peaches. In the fall, you get the root vegetables and the squash. And in winter, more root vegetables. Part of being a cook is that you’re always learning new things and playing with new ingredients, or the same ingredients in different ways. You never stop learning. It's like an evolution of yourself, as a cook. And personally as well.

Carly: It seems like there has been a turn more towards cultural pride among Mexican-Americans because of what's been going on politically. 
Lauro: Besides enjoying the food and being proud of Mexican food, I have to go back and read some history about my culture and my ancestors to really grasp and take pride in what I was. Oftentimes, when you're the dishwasher, the cook, or the lady that cleans houses, you're looked on as the help. You're the help, and that's who you are. In a sense, that's very wrong. But whether you're the lady that cleans the house, or the cook, or the chef, or the baker, whatever you might be, you should have some sense of pride.

I think, as a community, we need to do better to show our history, show who we are, and open more doors for those kids that are coming behind us, that are going through their identity crisis. I don't want my kids to go through the same thing that I did. I want them to be proud of who they are. I want them to be proud of where they come from. At some point in my life, I felt like I was just the help. It took a lot to get out of that, and hopefully I'm doing good and better to the people that I work with and the guys that are coming behind me. Hopefully I can inspire them to achieve more and better, greater things.

Carly: Yeah, it’s important for the next generation to understand where they come from, but in a sense that identity crisis seems unavoidable. With this project, I want to show who these people are, so that maybe it helps someone, or people can see themselves in the stories of others.
Lauro: The kids who are in high school right now - whether they're Dreamers or they're born here - they need representation. They need to look up to someone, to understand that it's amazing to have this cultural background. To have this history.

Carly: It seems like you've found a good Mexican community here in Portland.
Lauro: Yes. That's one thing culturally you need. You need people that are the same as you. They look like you, they speak like you, and they have somewhat similar backgrounds. Where you can talk about the food, the mezcal, and going to Oaxaca. You can talk about your mom and la chancla, the sandal that your mom used to beat you up when you were misbehaving. It's definitely super cool to have that. I feel like we have a connection with who we are and what we've been through, what we're going through, and what we're going to. Pretty cool. I think the future is bright for our culture.

This interview has been edited and condensed. First published 13 August 2019.