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Chef Sophina Uong opened Mister Mao five years ago, and its menu focuses on tropical flavors from across the globe. She’s been nominated for James Beard Awards and was named to its current TasteTwenty national cohort of chefs to watch. The Beard Foundation is hosting its first Taste America event in New Orleans on Wednesday, Sept. 16, at the Josephine, and attendees can sample dishes from all 20 chefs. Uong also is hosting a happy hour on Monday at Mister Mao featuring her friend and fellow TasteTwenty honoree chef Christian Irabien, from Washington, D.C.’s Amparo Fondita. For tickets to Taste America, go to jamesbeard.org/events. For more about Mister Mao, go to mistermaonola.com.
Gambit: How have you been involved with the James Beard Foundation?
Sophina Uong: With James Beard, I have gone through their chefs advocacy program, their chefs boot camp for food policy advocacy. There’s also a program called Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership (WEL).
The boot camp was a couple years ago in Seattle at Carnation Farms. You go, and it’s a two-day training program about policy, like the Farm Bill, and then you learn how to butcher a whole animal. It’s bringing chefs together to teach them how to have voices and to educate them on policy and sustainability, but mostly about the Farm Bill.
No one realizes that SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) is heavily funded by the Farm Bill. That segues into that we’re having an advocacy event on the 17th at OneKitchen Louisiana, which is fairly new.
We’re trying to get the chefs to come together and realize there is so much we could do better in New Orleans. We work with our partner Food Policy New Orleans. There’s a lot that they’re doing for New Orleans that people don’t know about, whether it is procuring food for kids during the summer or educating people that a Dollar General actually feeds people because they had frozen vegetables.
There are so many people we need to feed. The coalition we are forming for OneKitchen Louisiana is trying to find out who wants to get involved in what, and being able to go to Capitol Hill or Baton Rouge and say you can’t cut funding for this.
Gambit: What will Taste America be like?
U: It’s James Beard’s Taste America. It’s 20 chefs from across America that are chefs to watch. It’s the first time they are having them together in one building. It’s amazing for New Orleans to show the community and the hospitality we have here.
It takes a lot to bring 20 people and their sous chefs to town. It’s an honor to be included and an honor to host. It’ll be a fun event. There’s 20 chefs plus some James Beard people, and they’re selling tickets.
I am doing a shrimp and crab dish with Cambodian flavors and some corn espuma.
A friend of mine, Christian Irabien is coming, and we are having a happy hour pop-up.
There are other Taste America events. I hope to go to some of them. There are set dates for San Francisco and the different cities.
Gambit: How are things at Mister Mao?
U: It was a brutal summer. It was better than last year. We did inexpensive happy hour. What struck me was that there are a lot of people in the neighborhood that have kids. It’s nice to feed all the kids.
I am looking forward to having a bar manager this year. I don’t have a GM. It’s a struggle. It’s due to finances. But fall is looking up. Reservations are coming in, and people are starting to book parties. Mister Mao is having broader appeal to Uptown and people outside New Orleans.
Dining and Cooking