- 6 weeks ago
Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Chef Yara Herrera, owner and Executive Chef of Hellbender, NYC’s most exciting Mexican restaurant. Hellbender is Yara’s first experience opening a restaurant as the owner. Discover the highs, challenges, and flavors that go into running your own restaurant, and how Yara and her team craft their Mexican dishes like salsa macha, empanadas, churros, and aguachile.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hellbender. It's my first time opening a restaurant as one of the owners and being
00:05the executive chef. I want to highlight the things that are important to my
00:09culture. It's scary to create something and then close your eyes and hope that
00:14everybody likes it. It's very easy as a chef to want to do everything yourself.
00:19Once you open an establishment it takes an army and you need to be able to find
00:25the trust in your team and yourself. This is what I've worked for. It's a dream
00:30come true and proud of myself.
00:38Hello, I'm Yara Herrera, chef and owner of Hellbender. We got a big prep day ahead of
00:43us so let's get inside. It is 9 a.m. and the first thing I do when I get in is go
00:50through the closing checklist from the night before.
00:53Let's see what our sous chef did last night. Anything that happens is my fault
00:58whether I did it or not because I put my name on it. So for me it's really
01:03important that things don't go on scene. Some of the team has already started
01:07setting up. Appliances on the shelves organized. Just want to make sure that
01:12there's no food in here. Everything is nice and dry and we're not breaking any DOH
01:17violations. There is no like puddles of water down here that might be creating
01:21mosquitoes or fruit flies. Everything is looking okay. Could be a little tighter
01:27always. We're gonna head over to our spice shelf which is here. I see one thing
01:33that's not labeled so we're gonna ask one of our prep cooks to help us label that
01:37so that someone doesn't think that that's sugar and it's salt. When the
01:41Department of Health comes, if you're doing your job you shouldn't have anything
01:44to worry about. Show me a cleaner ice machine. This is our tiny hotline. We're
01:52making sure that all of our surfaces got cleaned. Replacement of foil on anything
01:57that might have foil. Make sure that nothing was left in the oven overnight. I made a
02:02quiche one time and never took it out. Everything seems good to go. We're gonna
02:08start making some salsa. So we're gonna start making salsa matcha. Salsa matcha can
02:16be easily compared to a chili crisp. We right now are serving an heirloom tomato
02:22tostada covered in lime crema finished with salsa matcha. We have about ten salsas
02:29we make daily. This is one that we can make a big batch of and hold so that it's
02:34not a daily salsa. It is a little tedious and time-consuming. We're gonna start
02:39with our canola oil. We're gonna let it come up to temperature a little bit. The
02:44garlic, it's really delicate. They're really thin sliced pieces so it's really
02:48important to get them the same size so that as you're stirring they're all
02:51cooking evenly and you're not left with some chewy garlic pieces and some burnt
02:57and toasty ones. This is one of the harder salsas to make. You have different
03:02ingredients that all cook at different times and you got to hit it right
03:05especially if it's the one pot method. So I usually take on. Cooking should be
03:12natural and it should make you happy. Some days I wake up and I'm like this is my
03:17real life. Sometimes I feel guilty about it. I wish everyone else was happy as I am.
03:23Alright so the pepitas puffed up a little bit. They're nice and bright and green and
03:28we're gonna finish by throwing in the chiles. Guajillo. It's a really floral and
03:34almost sweet chile and it's very easy to find here. We're not cooking the chiles.
03:39We're rehydrating them in this oil and making them soft enough to be able to get
03:44crushed. We're gonna leave this to chill so that when we start to buzz it it
03:49doesn't splash all over us and burn our faces off. Also when you start blending this
03:54you want to make sure that you don't throw all the oil on the first blend and
03:57then you're only stuck with chunkies. You want to make sure that you have an
04:01equal amount of oil and solids when you start to blend. You want the pieces to be
04:07bite-sized. This is way too big for us right now. We're looking for something more
04:12like that size. To my right Ami is fully in guacamole mode. We make guacamole every
04:19single day. The best way to break down avocados is through a cooling rack. It's
04:26just easy, less messy, and it's quick.
04:33Because we've been blending this for a while, the oil has this dark look. It's
04:40gonna settle, it's gonna really concentrate, it's gonna turn a really bright red, it's
04:44gonna look really pretty. This is my favorite delivery. It only comes on
04:48Wednesdays from Hog Farm up in New Haven. I met Sean, who runs the farm. One of the
04:55first years living in New York. We have been friends with the family for almost
05:00five years. I go over and hang out with them, stay at their mom's house, jump in
05:04the pool. But they have some of the best vegetables I have ever seen. Can't find
05:09them at Union Square where most chefs are getting their farm veggies from. They
05:13have these really cool varietals of Silver Slicer cucumbers and the skin is
05:18really nice because you can eat it and it doesn't have a weird mouthfeel. I'm gonna
05:23start putting away this order. The faster you put them away, the fresher they're
05:26gonna stay. We're gonna make churros next. We have our mise en place ready to make
05:33churros. We got water, a little bit of neutral oil, coconut milk. We've added the
05:40apple cider vinegar, same time as the liquids. Apple cider vinegar is also
05:45gonna help activate the gluten. Sugar is the only dry ingredient that goes into
05:51the water because this is granulated. We want to make sure that it fully melts,
05:55turns into almost like a simple syrup. Liquids in here are going to come to a
05:59full boil. We're going to start adding all of our dry ingredients into here because
06:05we're working with really small portions of baking powder. Even one point over
06:09will cause the churros to either puff up too much or not inflate at all. I hate
06:15baking. I hate baking. I have no patience. I asked someone that likes to measure
06:21things out to do it for me. You have a team. Use it. We're gonna get our sheet
06:27trays ready. This is what we're gonna pipe our churros onto. This is a piece of
06:31parchment paper. I folded this in half and this is gonna mark how long we pipe
06:36our churro out to. Consistency is super important in a restaurant. When a guest
06:41returns and they order something that they've had before and it's different,
06:45it could be a little disappointing to find out that the reason why you came
06:49back is no longer there. This lip here, when you try to pipe out, it doesn't let
06:55you come all the way to the edge. We're gonna flip it over and then there won't be
06:59anything stopping us from that hand movement. So this is coming together. If
07:04it is not fully boiled for at least 30 seconds, the dough will not come together.
07:10We're all done here. It's about noon right now and we need to start breaking
07:15down some fish.
07:17So fluke just came in. This guy no longer has scales. It smells nice and fresh.
07:23There's no discoloration anywhere. No weird piercings. You can always order the fish to
07:30already be cut for you. I like to have it whole just in case we don't get to it over
07:34the weekend. It doesn't dry out. I start off by removing this wing and I'll show you
07:39why in a second. So we are gonna be serving this as an aguachile. Aguachile translates to
07:46spicy water. So this is gonna be served like sashimi with a nice spicy broth. Right now we're
07:52serving it with honeydew and cantaloupe. Because the fish is flat, we're gonna find
07:57ourselves angling our knife a lot more. As I've taken the head off, I can also
08:01identify where the spine is going. This line starts to kind of curb and that
08:06helps me find my end point there. Really all I'm doing is pressing down and trying
08:11to come in contact with the bones here. I like to turn it around on this side too.
08:16If you haven't cut a fish before, it's one of those things that you're just going to
08:20have to practice. You're gonna mess up a lot of fish, but I don't think that
08:24there's really any other way to learn. This is a prep task that I usually take
08:28on because these proteins are gonna be a lot more expensive than a vegetable per
08:33se. You have a little more to lose. My first job was at a sushi restaurant, so I'm
08:38pretty familiar with filleting most fishes, but it wasn't until I moved to New
08:42York that I got to see a fluke. So it's really popular in areas of Montauk. You're gonna
08:48need to take the skin off, get a nice grip on it without being too wasteful. So I'm
08:53tugging the skin as opposed to slicing my knife. So here at the tail, you'll see
08:59kind of where like all the sinew starts to come together. This is holding the
09:02meat and we want the least amount of this. The smaller the fish, the more sinew
09:07you are getting to flesh ratio. We're gonna do a classic sashimi style. I like to
09:14angle my knife. I like to start to twist it in. We want it to have some volume to
09:20see that you are eating a fish. You don't want to look at it and be like, I don't
09:23know what that was, but you want it to be small enough and tender enough that you
09:26can chew it with ease. I always like to taste test. We're gonna get into empanadas.
09:32Masa was made earlier this morning. Once dough has been refrigerated, starts to get
09:38hard. So what we need to do is rehydrate this. Masa is a corn dough that has been
09:45made from corn that was dried and then nixtamalized. You can choose what grade
09:51of ground you want to do. This one is pretty fine. This is what we would use
09:55for tortillas and in this case empanadas. Adding too much water will make it stick.
10:01Once it goes in the deep fryer, it might also just fall apart because there's so
10:05much water in it. But it already looks so much softer and pliable than this
10:09that's kind of breaking apart. Alright, so this is our press. I like to use blue
10:15bags. Let's say a little piece of the plastic ends up in your empanada. It's
10:18very easy to catch it before it makes it to the table. So we try to measure these
10:24out before pressing them. And I'm going to make these little logs build that long
10:30shape that we want from an empanada. It's going to press a lot thinner here. So we
10:36always want to kind of rotate it around and make sure that we're getting an even
10:40press on all the sides. This is ricotta cheese. It's not Mexican. It's Italian. I
10:47thought it would be a really fun play on an empanada. That American culture of three
10:53cheeses. This is quesillo or Oaxacan cheese. It's very similar to mozzarella. It
10:59doesn't have as much moisture in it, which is what we want because it's going to go
11:03in the deep fryer. Get some basil in here. Squash blossoms are very popular in
11:07Mexico, very popular in quesadillas. So we still wanted to have this dish tied into
11:12that. This is a very hands-on dish. It takes a lot of physical labor, manual labor to
11:18make it happen. And that's something that we are accounting for when we're pricing food.
11:22So there she is. As a chef-owner, there is so much more thought that goes into
11:28planning a dish. You have to think about sourcing. Are you killing the planet with
11:34your idea? Is it feeling like too much work? Is everyone bored? Is it too hard?
11:39I just want to stay true to my culture and make sure we're being nice to each
11:43other and having fun along the way. I'm here every day, 12 hours a day. It's a big
11:50responsibility and it really is like having a whole baby. We're not. Are you ready for
11:58family meal?
11:58What do you have today, Efrain? Eggplant? Roasted broccoli? Chicken? Salad? We have options. We try to
12:08make sure that there's at least a protein salad. We usually delegate the bigger tasks.
12:13Usually the person on salad finishes the salad. The prep team starts off the protein and the line cooks finish it.
12:20But we try to make it a team effort.
12:24Service is about to start. So we're just going to do a little taste test. Make sure that all our ingredients are fresh and tasty.
12:33All the salsas look good and I need to start expediting.
12:39Doors are open. It's five o'clock and tickets are starting to come in.
12:43We're fired on a tomato tostada and an aguachile.
12:46The expediter lets the kitchen know what they're supposed to make next.
12:50A KDS is a kitchen display screen. This is a paperless way of bringing food in.
12:57We have two stations up here and these tickets divvy up to whatever each station has to fire.
13:04So that station does not see the tickets for this person and this person does not see the tickets for that person.
13:10It gives everyone a little bit of a breathing room.
13:13So Churros walked. I'm going to fulfill that. We're going to ring for a runner.
13:17We're swamped. We gotta go. We're going to have to lock in so we need you all to get out of here.
13:23Thank you so much for coming through, checking out Hallbender, and getting to know what we do.
13:34We love magnets.
13:37It's a collection of places we visited. People come and visit and bring us one as a souvenir.
13:43Sometimes people give us funny little notes and we keep them in there too.
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