Josh Huskin
We challenged Cara Pitts (L), Derik Cortez and Teddy Liang (R) to step out from behind the scenes for this year's Flavor.
We challenged three San Antonio pros who are promoting a more accessible approach to food and drink to step out from behind the scenes to share what they're doing and why.
Josh Huskin
Teddy Liang oversees kitchen operations for five dining spots including the Esquire Tavern and its companion Hugman’s Oasis.
Chef-consultant
"If your restaurant is stuck, he can get it moving."
Teddy Liang recalls his grandmother dressing him at 5 a.m. and taking him to the neighborhood market in Houston. At every stall, vendors greeted her warmly with familiarity and respect. The fishmonger set aside the best of the day’s catch for her.
Armed with ingredients from her trip, she would start cooking.
“People would drop by for conversation and food throughout the day,” Liang said. “She would selflessly give. She took care of family by feeding them. She took care of people by treating them like family.”
Those memories and lessons have informed Liang’s philosophy throughout a culinary career that started with washing dishes at Mongolian barbecue franchise Genghis Grill and has since taken him into some of San Antonio’s best-regarded restaurants and the kitchens of NBA players.
Despite a veritable Who’s Who of culinary names in his contacts, the chef-consultant doesn’t seek the spotlight. Liang’s breadth of experience allows him to work behind the scenes with restaurants’ culinary staffs to offer anything from another helping hand to a life coach in the kitchen.
“I’m the Asian version of Gordon Ramsay, but one who doesn’t yell,” Liang quipped.
His current work includes overseeing kitchen operations for five dining spots including the Esquire Tavern and its companion Hugman’s Oasis, Asian fusion spot 375° Social Kitchen in Selma, Gather Brewing Co. in Universal City and the highly anticipated Conserva Elevated bar and small-bites lounge near The Dominion.
Among his past projects are Sari-Sari Filipino Restaurant, Dashi Sichuan Kitchen + Bar, The Hayden and Alamo Biscuit Co.
Liang’s corporate clients include food service company Levy, for whom he consults on its operations at the AT&T Center in San Antonio and Q2 Stadium in Austin. He also serves on the board of the San Antonio Chef Cooperatives.
“If your restaurant is stuck, he can get it moving,” said chef Stephen Paprocki, co-founder of the co-op. “He’s everywhere and he’s independent, so nobody is going to steal him as a chef. But he’s personable and inspires the kitchen. When he’s there, he’s the one people come to in the kitchen.”
Liang said he wants to instill his grandmother’s longstanding ideals of family to each project. In nearly every instance, he encourages the common culinary tradition of a daily “family meal,” where team members on shift gather for a quick bite prepared by one of the kitchen staff.
Those familial ideals can be as much about empathy with the kitchen staff as they are about understanding the dishes coming from them. It’s an industry with a high rate of burnout and can be a grind without the right mental state.
"You have to understand that it’s a lifestyle to live in and not just a job,” Liang said. “Adventure, investigating, exploring things. Sometimes that gets lost in the industry. We need to be encouraging that exploration and curiosity. We need a little hope.”
Josh Huskin
Cara Pitts' Southern Roots Vegan Bakery ships plant-based sweets to all 50 United States.
Owner of Southern Roots Vegan Bakery
“We need to get more plant-based options out there in the universe.”
Although Cara Pitts and her husband Marcus make a living selling vegan food, she didn’t cut animal products from her diet cold turkey.
Although inspired to shed meat, dairy and eggs from her diet by a documentary about vegan diets, she did so gradually. Along the way she developed a passion for finding ways to make great-tasting baked goods without animal products. She opened Southern Roots Vegan Bakery in San Antonio in 2018.
The learning curve was steep but with help from culinary accelerator Launch SA’s Break Fast & Launch — a program jointly run by the city and small-business lender LiftFund — she and her husband soon had their goods in area farmers markets.
They found fans quickly. At a vegan market in Killeen, they sold out in the first hour of the six-hour event. As a food vendor at San Antonio’s massive MLK march, they did well even though they were sandwiched between vendors selling turkey legs and fried catfish.
At the start of 2020, Southern Roots turned to online orders to satisfy sweet tooths all over the country, and by the time pandemic lockdown started that March, the business had made the leap to selling almost completely online.
“We need to get more plant-based options out there in the universe,” Pitts said.
Over the past three years, the company has fielded orders from all 50 states, with Texas, California, New York and Florida in the lead. Its mixed box of cake donuts is the best seller, featuring flavors including “OG glazed,” red velvet and lemon drop.
Pitts said her grandmother — the original taste tester for the red velvet donuts and the inspiration for many of Southern Roots’ creations — couldn’t believe that the sweets were vegan. The Mary Lee Lemon Cake, another popular item, is named after her.
Southern Roots is still struggling to get picked up by major food service companies, but Pitts said she is forging relationships with hotels, colleges and other institutions looking to offer vegan baked goods to diners.
To that end, the business launched a Dorms & Donuts college ambassador program that tasks students with bringing the goods to college events to create both awareness and new business. Pitts said college kids are a natural resource when it comes to spreading the word about her brand.
But the expansion doesn’t end there. Cara and Marcus Pitts recently acquired the Boerne-based vegan ice cream company Cielo Scoops, a brand they hope to expand by delivering throughout the country. Cielo offers a baker’s dozen of flavor options but Sea Salt Caramel tops them all, she said.
Josh Huskin
Derik Cortez dedicates significant effort to educating his staff in the art of hospitality.
Managing partner at Sojourn
"I really loved bartending, so I quit my job."
A sojourn, by definition, is a temporary stay. It’s also a fitting description of many bartenders’ lives. Moving from place to place and gaining experience and the freedom to try new things along the way is a hallmark of the cocktail slinger’s trade.
For Derik Cortez, managing partner of newish downtown bar Sojourn, his latest project is the culmination of those years of experience behind the bar — and sometimes behind the scenes — that began at 21. Cortez was in college and getting over a rough romantic breakup when he saw a late-night television ad for bartending school. He took the leap, and on his first shift as a barback he made $280, a princely sum for a night’s work in 1998.
“I really loved the bar life. I really loved bartending, so I quit my job,” Cortez said.
Cortez worked to combine the speed needed to be successful in dive bars with the ability to craft cocktails for upscale establishments. Eventually, George’s Keep recruited him. There, he adopted the bar’s high-end but approachable cocktail philosophy. That outlook moved with him to Jazz, TX, the underground bar and music venue in the basement of The Pearl’s Bottling Department building.
When Jazz, TX closed as part of state-mandated COVID-19 lockdowns, Cortez looked to future projects. He had already been working on his own downtown bar but stepped back from that lease when the pandemic hit. That distance gave him time to consult for a bar in Midland and participate in an online mentorship program organized by the University of Houston and Hilton hotels.
He also consulted on the bar programs at Mixtli Progressive Mexican Culinaria and Box St. All Day restaurants.
In 2020, Cortez was approached about the downtown space he’d previously planned to open — the former location of shuttered craft cocktail haven Juniper Tar — but things were still in flux due to the COVID crisis. But, in spring of 2021, the timing was finally right, and he opened Sojourn on Aug. 5 of this year, steps from the Frost Tower.
Eager to avoid pretentiousness, Cortez kept Sojourn’s décor light and bright. His vision was to create a space where guests can escape.
“It’s OK to come in shorts,” he said.
Cortez’s busy schedule includes consulting for another bar in Midland, which he's considering becoming a partner in. He’s also got two separate projects going in San Antonio, including on the River Walk’s southern reach and another on the West Side.
The pandemic created a reset of the industry, Cortez said. But, to his mind, some spots have veered in the wrong direction. He’s confident his dedication to educating his staff in the art of hospitality and seamless service will transcend current and future projects.
“The hospitality industry is the only one where you shadow somebody for a day then you’re on your own,” he said. “We needed to be shaken up and realize, ‘Hey, we’re doing this wrong.’”
Coming soon: SA Current Daily newsletter. We’ll send you a handful of interesting San Antonio stories every morning. Subscribe now to not miss a thing.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
