Today we’d like to introduce you to Mariha Richmond
Hi Mariha, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started my culinary career at 16 years old in Brownsville, Texas. I worked at an Italian restaurant called Toscafino, where I obtained the experience required to apply to The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. After graduating high school, I left my hometown for the other side of the country to pursue my education in Culinary Arts Management, concentrating in Farm to Table studies. My concentration consisted of attending the CIA St. Helena campus for a semester where I learned about the Farm to Table movement with Chef Larry Forgione as a mentor. I graduated from the program with a bachelor’s degree. While at the CIA, I was a full-time student and employee for the school, where I obtained a position as a student manager in their student cafe, Courtside Cafe. I also participated in extracurricular activities when I was not in class or working. I enjoyed participating in the cooking competitions that the school did annually. My friends and I won the chili cook-off one year there; that was pretty epic! I also did volunteer work independently through chef instructors and teachers who needed help. After completing my 4-year program, I decided to move back to Texas. At 22ish years old, I felt that I needed to hone the skills I had acquired from the CIA, and I was eager to enter the workforce. After graduating from the CIA, I quickly moved to Austin, Texas, and landed a line-cook position for Second Bar and Kitchen. I worked my way up to Chef de Cuisine and ran the production team, menu development, and operations at the Archer Hotel location. After my time with Second Bar and Kitchen, I worked numerous jobs both back and front of the house while finally landing another “big girl” job, as I like to call it. I was hired as the operations manager/chef and concept creator for Fairways Cantina at Morris Williams Golf Course. After successfully creating Fairways, I had the confidence and felt ready to open something of my own, and the opportunity quickly arrived shortly after opening Fairways Cantina.
My husband and I met at Second Bar and Kitchen, fell in love, got married, and always talked about the ONE DAY when we had our own place. We daydreamed of what it would be, what we would serve, how we would do things. Half of the work was already done when the opportunity came knocking at our door, allowing us to own our own restaurant. In the summer of 2022, we were blessed with our opening date of La Plancha, a premier torta shop, as we like to call it. We both love wings, sandwiches, and just good comfort food. We merged our backgrounds to bring La Plancha to life while leaning more toward my Mexican culture for menu inspiration. We wanted to create a space where all people are welcome, so we created a concept that felt unique yet familiar, with a little bit of everything so everyone has something to choose and enjoy. We pride ourselves on sourcing everything as much as we can locally and within the central Texas range.
I am still figuring out my “style” of cooking as I have always worked for someone else’s vision and recipes. It was definitely a challenge trying to find myself as a Chef. So, when creating for La Plancha, I always ask myself this question: How will my grandma go about this? She has always been my inspiration and the place where my love for food appeared. I intend to keep my family recipes alive from both my mother’s and father’s side of the family. To tell the stories of those recipes and the women behind them. I believe things die when we don’t care or pay attention to them, and I want to keep that legacy alive by serving the recipes I grew up on to the Austin community for as long as it will have us. As a chef and new business owner, I anticipate the future and am excited and looking for ways to involve myself more in the Austin community; after living here for 10 years, we proudly call it our home.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My culinary journey has been everything but smooth. After obtaining my first kitchen job, I quickly realized how tough my life would be, not because of the labor and being on my feet all day or the hours, weekends, holidays, and rarely any family time. That realization was not as hard as realizing this…the kitchen is not very welcoming to women, especially minority women. I could never win. If it wasn’t for being a minority woman and stereotyped as incompetent or always underestimated and overlooked, it was my own people who would negatively comment on my career choice. There was this one cook one time who told me, “Why would you work in a kitchen if you come from immigrant parents who gave you an education, you speak both languages, you were born here and are educated, you are just a spoiled brat that does not know what she wants, why don’t you go to school and become a professional or something?”
When I heard that as a young woman, I felt so defeated. I thought, well if no one accepts me from any side, how will I ever be successful? You see, comments like that were not unusual. Sexual harassment and discrimination were always there, and often times I suffered in silence because I knew telling my loved ones would only cause them to say, you can always do something else, Mariha. I was told many times to quit, I was told many times that this was not for me, that I just enjoyed cooking and I could do that at home, but no one really knows how much passion I really have inside me and the love I have for my industry, even when that same industry did not love me back.
I was determined. It is like a voice inside that keeps saying, “Prove them wrong,” “Prove everyone wrong.”
That is one of my biggest challenges: accepting that no matter where I went, those incidents were bound to happen to me at some point. I had to work twice as hard just to be seen as one of them or earn respect, and for the most part, it worked, although not the ideal approach if you ask me; I did earn respect, and I did find success, but I had to be tenacious and fierce and unafraid and loud and outspoken and though and with that came the labeling and I had to not care what people called me or thought about me. I feel like, throughout the years, the industry has gotten a lot better and more accepting, with less room for misconduct, but there is still so much more to grow and change. I hope to one day advocate for young women who want to start a career in the industry because becoming a chef, especially a woman chef, is no walk in the park.
The industry also comes with the “standard” struggles, as I like to call them, or the “there is always something” in this business; you can plan and have an agenda, but things never go according to plan. What I tell myself during struggling times is to do one task at a time and ask myself, “Is this the best way I can approach/react to this situation?” You almost want to leave out all emotion so you can clearly course-correct an issue or problem that arises in your restaurant. I have come to love Plan B and Plan C when Plan A doesn’t go our way, and my husband and I quickly learned that it does not hurt to have several scenarios and plans in place in case the original does not come our way. As that Friends episode “PIVOT PIVOT.”
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As a chef and owner of La Plancha, I ensure that my restaurant runs smoothly. As a small business owner, I wear multiple hats a day. Being a chef means constantly creating and evolving the menu. My happy corner is when I get to create new dishes to serve the Austin community. We quickly started getting known for our tortas, the Mexican street sandwich. Our top seller is La torta Tejana, made with 44 farms – beef brisket cooked in the style of barbacoa. People rave about the fresh flavors and the unique twist on a very humble and well-known sandwich. We are also getting love and known for our menudo, a stew that we serve only on the weekends. It is a family recipe I proudly serve; some have told me it is the best in town!
What sets us apart is our sabor – our flavors; most of our guests tell us that our food reminds them of their grandmas. That is the ultimate compliment I could receive, and I am very proud of that.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Looking back, I was a very busy child. My parents are serious about education and extracurricular activities, so I always had something going on. As a little girl, I attended school, and after school, I would attend dance classes, like ballet. I was also in the choir and swimming. I was always occupied and had many friends. I attended catechism or Sunday school on the weekends if you will. Religion and education were a strong foundation that my parents provided for my brother and me, and I strongly believe that all those experiences helped shape who I am today.
As a child, I was always labeled as the funny or jokester in the group. I like to make people laugh, and I love to have fun. I was a little social butterfly and had several groups of friends I was a part of.
Although I had a fairly “normal” childhood, I knew I was different from other girls. I noticed I liked knowing what my friends ‘ moms had in their pantries, and I often times liked to snoop around in their kitchens and ask questions. I did that honestly in almost every house I went to, and I liked asking mother figures what their secret family recipes were. My mother says that she did not think it was odd; she said she thought I was just a little gluttonous, but she never thought I would work as a Chef one day.
It was just known by family and friends that I loved food and would get excited about it.
One core memory that my cousins and I still talk about to this day is when my grandpa came home from the ranch with some baby goats. In Monterrey, Mexico – cabrito is a staple dish. It is a baby goat that is roasted in an open fire, and well, I can’t recall why exactly my grandpa had brought a few from his ranch, but the intention was to slaughter them and eat them; there must have been some sort of holiday or birthday. I remember my cousins and me playing with the baby goats when my grandpa’s butcher said it was time to take them away. I remember one of my cousins ran back inside because she knew what that meant, while the other started crying hysterically. I, however, stayed and watched; I was fascinated with how the butcher – slaughtered and fabricated the goat to get it ready for the roasting pit. My grandpa would say these were raised with love; they are food meant to be eaten. There was a feeling of respect. Respect for food and where it comes from and respect for the people who prepare it. I don’t know why I have such an affinity for all things food and drink or an obsession with cooking; I don’t question it too much. I just hope it never goes away. I really don’t know what else I would do with myself if I could not be around food or cook.
Food was an open curiosity that I think it’s an ongoing exploration that will never end.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.planchaatx.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/laplanchaatx
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/laplanchaatx
- Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/la-plancha-austin
