Karels in the dining room
She and John moved to Santa Fe in 2014, and she finished her last consulting job in 2019. “I just finally brought all of it into the kitchen.” She began cooking classes, private dinners, and catering, and that became Open Kitchen Santa Fe. Erica Tai, a Santa Fe Community College culinary graduate, joined her in June 2020, in the middle of COVID, and the two cooked together on a meal service called Cooked & Delivered. In 2023 they opened Alkemē.
At Alkemē, Karels creates the recipes, and she and Tai cook, taste, and refine them together. Braised pork belly is where their two histories meet. “What emerges is often something neither of us would have created alone, and something distinctly Alkemē.” The flagship is the turmeric crispy cod with dill, her take on Hanoi’s chả cá, fried crisp with dill aioli and a green apple-jicama-fennel slaw. Her bánh xèo is open-faced, with a Vietnamese pesto of mint, Thai basil, and cilantro.
Asked what makes her proudest, she answered with two words: “The people.” Karels and Tai lead it together, and their team brings different cultures, languages, and backgrounds to the work. The restaurant uses the Vietnamese expression Quý Khách, which translates roughly to esteemed customer, but Karels says the real meaning is about honoring the guest, that hospitality begins with caring for people. “You can’t create generosity in the dining room if it doesn’t exist behind the scenes.”
Dining and Cooking