Paola Velez on Joy, Boundaries, and Building a Third Place in D.C.

Tinfoil Swans Podcast

Spotify

On this episode

From fixing radios and writing slam poetry as a kid in the Bronx, to becoming one of the most celebrated pastry chefs and community builders of her generation, 2021 F&W Best New Chef Paola Velez has never followed the expected path. Along the way, she’s embraced subcultures that gave her belonging, built spaces where strangers connect over shaved ice and cocktails, and redefined what it means to be a chef on social media, in restaurants, and in the wider world. In this conversation, she shares the courage it takes to choose joy in the face of struggle, the humility behind turning down a major accolade, and the celebrity chef who made a video for her mom.

Meet our guest

Paola Velez is an award–winning pastry chef, author, host, and co-founder of Bakers Against Racism, the global bake sale movement that has raised millions of dollars for social justice causes. She is a 2021 Food & Wine Best New Chef, 2020 James Beard Award nominee in the category of Rising Star, and won the foundation’s Emerging Voice award for her debut cookbook, Bodega Bakes. Velez was the host of the Food & Wine video series Pastries With Paola and received dual Emmy and Webby nominations for her work with AJ+ and Bakers Against Racism. The Bronx-born Velez trained with Jacques Torres before shaping kitchens in New York and Washington, D.C. She is now a partner at Providencia, a 22-seat bar that blends Dominican, Salvadorian, and Taiwanese influences. Velez continues to use her platform to push for equity and connection in the culinary world.

Meet our host

Kat Kinsman is the executive features editor at Food & Wine, author of Hi, Anxiety: Life With a Bad Case of Nerves, host of Food & Wine’s Gold Signal Award-winning podcast Tinfoil Swans (currently a finalist in the Folio Awards), and founder of Chefs With Issues. Previously, she was the senior food & drinks editor at Extra Crispy, editor in chief and editor at large at Tasting Table, and the founding editor of CNN Eatocracy. She won a 2024 IACP Award for Narrative Food Writing With Recipes and a 2020 IACP Award for Personal Essay/Memoir, and has had work included in the 2020 and 2016 editions of The Best American Food Writing.

She was nominated for a James Beard Broadcast Award in 2013, won a 2011 EPPY Award for Best Food Website with 1 million unique monthly visitors, and was a finalist in 2012 and 2013. She is a sought-after international keynote speaker and moderator on food culture and mental health in the hospitality industry, and is the former vice chair of the James Beard Journalism Committee.

Highlights from the episode

On finding belonging in a subculture

“I remember being introduced to Goth and Goth pop culture and being like, ‘Whoa, these are my people!’ Everybody was so welcoming and loving. Underneath all of the macabre, it is actually, very pleasant, beautiful, heartbroken folks. They saw that I was getting bullied in school because I’m from the Bronx. When you’re not a byproduct of the environment, you get bullied because you’re an outsider. They took me in and embraced me and bought me miniskirts and knee-high socks and chokers. My mom was like, ‘I don’t get it,’ but she allowed it anyway.”

On choosing happiness, even in the midst of struggle

“There’s beauty in the suffering because it means that you’re alive. As somebody who struggles with a lot of situational issues in this world, it means that I’m still here and I’m winning certain battles. That’s why I choose happiness. I choose to be kind. These are active choices. To be human is to err and to be upset at the things that you can’t control. I didn’t control how I got here, I can’t control how I leave, and I can’t control everything in between. I have to just choose to accept and find the beauty in the chaos.”

On setting a boundary that paid off sweetly

“I started out savory. I did pastry because I wanted to go on dates. So by the time that [her now-husband] Hector and I started going out, my schedule was just chaotic. I had no boundaries at work. We would always go on dates in the morning, breakfast dates. I was like, I just want to go to dinner and a movie. I want to see the moon caress his cheekbones. I want to kiss under the stars. I transitioned into pastry. I knew pastry can get me the schedule and I could learn.”

On getting the Best New Chef call — and turning it down

“[Then-restaurant editor Khushbu Shah] was like, ‘Let’s get into it; you are a Best New Chef.’ I was like, ‘Absolutely not. Please take it back. I don’t think I should accept this. I think that I’ve gotten enough. I think that there’s a lot of good things that have happened to me, but I think that you guys should take this and give it to someone else who doesn’t have anything. Thank you.’ She was just like, ‘Cut the recording.’ I literally gave it back. I don’t want to become a supernova. I don’t want to shine so brightly and then just be forgotten. I want to build community. I want to get to know people. I want to understand what the community needs and then meet their needs.”

On what happens when you don’t win

“I hope that folks listening at home understand that maybe sometimes you won’t get the accolade. The fact that you were able to have courage to do the work — that’s enough. That is an accolade within itself. So have courage.”

On meeting Guy Fieri after she created a pastry as a tribute to him

“Guy Fieri was like, ‘So your mom was watching my show, and that’s how you got inspired?’ And I was like, ‘Well, we were watching your show. We like seeing you. It’s comforting for me. I’ve been to a lot of DD&D places. If I’m close, I’m going to go because I can be both chef and consumer.’ So he sent my mom a video. She was like, ‘Guy Fieri. Para mí? Nice.'”

On building a space for everyone 

“Providencia is a 22-seat bar where there’s light bites and really fun cocktails that encapsulate three cultures: Taiwanese, Salvadorian, and Dominican. You strip down these three cultures to find the common ground. When you really look, it’s subtropical, it’s very lively stories. The energy that pulses through the menu is very welcoming, very accepting. Some days you’ll see folks who lobby, other days you’ll see artists and creatives, sometimes you’ll see a mom who is getting out for the first time after having a baby. These folks have to sit next to each other, because they want to try a cocktail or shaved ice. You don’t have to travel far in D.C. to go on an almost otherworldly adventure.”

About the podcast

Food & Wine has led the conversation around food, drinks, and hospitality in America and around the world since 1978. Tinfoil Swans continues that legacy with a new series of intimate, informative, surprising, and uplifting interviews with the biggest names in the culinary industry and beyond, sharing never-before-heard stories about the successes, struggles, and fork-in-the-road moments that made these personalities who they are today.

This season, you’ll hear from icons and innovators like Roy Choi, Byron Gomez, Vikas Khanna, Romy Gill, Matthew Lillard, Ana and Lydia Castro, Laurie Woolever, Karen Akunowicz, Hawa Hassan, Dr. Jessica B. Harris, Wylie Dufresne, Samin Nosrat, Curtis Stone, Tristen Epps, Padma Lakshmi, Ayesha Curry, Regina King, Antoni Porowski, Run the Jewels, Chris Shepherd, Tavel Bristol-Joseph, Paola Velez, Bryan Caswell, Harry Hamlin, Angela Kinsey, Hunter Lewis, Dana Cowin, Edward Lee, Cassandra Peterson (a.k.a. Elvira), Ruby Tandoh, Phil Rosenthal, and other special guests going deep with host Kat Kinsman on their formative experiences; the dishes and meals that made them; their joys, doubts and dreams; and what’s on the menu in the future. Tune in for a feast that’ll feed your brain and soul — and plenty of wisdom and quotable morsels to savor.

New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen and follow on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

These interview excerpts have been edited for clarity.

Editor’s Note: The transcript for download does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.