No se requiere inglés.
No English required.
That’s all Ivo Diaz needed to see to apply for a job as a dishwasher.
A teenaged Venezuelan immigrant recently arrived with his family in New York, Diaz needed a job, and he wasn’t picky. He joined the kitchen staff at a restaurant there, with no real idea what world he’d just stepped into.
The restaurant? Le Benardin, one of the country’s most exclusive fine dining establishments.
He quickly adapted, learning “kitchen English,” and started to aspire. He expressed a desire to start cooking, but was made a receiver instead, receiving deliveries and organizing the kitchen, a job that helped him learn the logistics of the restaurant industry. Within 10 years, he was general manager, deeply connected in the fine dining scene. And started thinking.
“I remember thinking, why is nobody doing this for our (Venezuelan) cuisine?” he said.
Meanwhile, his mother, Isbelis, was becoming known as a caterer. A self- and family-taught home cook working from her own kitchen, she gained a reputation for her authentic Venezuelan cuisine.
“My mom is an excellent cook, not because it’s my mom,” Diaz said in an interview for the 365 Amplified podcast. “It’s not me who says it all the time. It’s other people … She was very popular in Queens, and she became very popular for her food, and then I became very popular for my consulting and cocktails. And then I wanted to really learn what it was to be a chef de cuisine, which meant I wanted to know how to present my mother’s plates in a very beautiful setting without losing that quality.”
Together, the mother and son took the leap in September 2019, opening Casa Ora in Brooklyn.
Next week, they’ll be in the Madison area, bringing their elevated cuisine to Seven Acre Dairy in Paoli for a two-night fundraiser in support of Centro of Dane County.
Listen to our interview with Ivo Diaz:
Adapting to survive
Casa Ora opened about five months before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most of New York. Like many restaurants, they pivoted to take-out and delivery, but their fine dining wasn’t quite right for that.
“We were only doing one or two deliveries a day. And it was hard. It was really hard for a time. We were thinking about shutting down. And then I tried to focus on a solution,” Diaz said. Casa Ora operated with just Diaz, his mom and his wife, so there was very little overhead. Soon the federal government started deploying relief funds.
“That same week, our menu changed to only street food. We went from doing two, three, four, five deliveries a day to 120 deliveries a day. By the time the government announced that we were able to open on June 22, I said, ‘No, I don’t want to open now,’” he said with a laugh.
Even now, with a fully operational fine dining restaurant, a street food delivery menu accounts for 20 percent of Casa Ora’s revenue, Diaz said.
Bringing Venezuelan cuisine to Wisconsin
It’ll be the fine dining that the Diazes bring to Paoli next week.
On Wednesday, January 22, they will present a six-course tasting menu. The bar will open at 5 pm with dinner served at 6. The menu will include Casa Ora’s famed asado negro, a beef short rib brined 48 hours and cooked for 48 more.
“Asado Negro, that dish, is more than just the Asado Negro. It’s the experience of what it feels like to be Venezuelan,” he said.
Tickets for Wednesday evening are $100 per person plus a $20 service charge in lieu of gratuity. The menu is available here and tickets can be purchased here.
On Thursday, they will present a three-course “Taste of Venezuela” dinner with reservations available from 4 through 9 pm. It will feature pabellón a caballo, a traditional Venezuelan dish with shredded beef, rice, beans, sweet plantains and eggs.
Tickets for Thursday evening are $50 per person plus a $10 service charge in lieu of gratuity. The menu is available here and tickets can be purchased here.
A portion of proceeds will benefit Centro of Dane County (formerly Centro Hispano), which has been providing service and support for Madison’s Latino communities for more than 40 years.
It was Centro board member Sujhey Beisser, herself a Venezuelan cook, personal chef and food blogger at Five Senses Palate, who reached out to the Diazes. It was an easy yes, Ivo Diaz said.
“Anytime I have a chance to expand our culture and help people get to know our food, I always want to,” he said.
It aligns with his own goals as a business owner and employer. He said the majority of his restaurant’s 50-plus employees are recently-arrived immigrants who just need a place to start, like he got more than 20 years ago. The restaurant also donates a portion of its profits to families who are seeking asylum.
“I’m glad my mom brought me here when I was 16,” Diaz said. “I saw a gigantic opportunity. I come from a very poor family. My beginnings were not that great, and so just remembering that whenever you’re here, just remember to always send the elevator back down and make sure that you help those because you also have really humble beginnings.”
More details, including menus and tickets, are available at the Seven Acre Dairy website.
