- I moved to Mexico City after working in San Francisco
for about five years.
My true joy was going to the market,
because they have changing tasting menus for lunch.
- Yeah, yeah.
- So I'm like, "This is what I've been looking for."
So I wanted to recreate that here in Oakland.
- So we're meeting up with a chef who's doing
Mexican cuisine her own way,
and I wasn't about to come to California
and not visit a farmer's market.
So we're gonna meet Chef Dominica,
get a couple ingredients from the market,
and cook it up at Cosecha.
Hey Chef.
- Hola como estas?
Welcome to the market.
- Thank you.
So in Oakland, it's a part of the culture
to go to a farmer's market to get your produce
and get your stuff.
- Especially for the chefs.
They have chefs coming to this market
from all over the Bay Area.
So right here, on this corner,
you're getting the best of Watsonville, Sonoma, Petaluma,
the best of the Bay.
- It's the best of the Bay.
- [Dominica] Right there.
We do have a signature salad that we make.
It's mango, but it always changes with the seasons.
- [Sheldon] The market writes your menu for you.
- [Dominica] Yes, exactly.
- And what are we gonna be eating?
- Maybe a little pork belly taco, pan-seared?
Homemade tortillas.
- Let's cook, let's cook.
- Okay, vamanos, vamanos.
(upbeat guitar)
- So this is Swan's Market.
- Wow!
- We're gonna cook some pork belly.
- [Sheldon] Ah, my favorite vegetable.
- We're gonna do some salting the night before.
It's gonna take about three and a half hours to braise,
and then we're gonna let it rest overnight,
and then we're gonna slice it up, and then pan sear it,
and we'll make a lovely taco for you.
- The techniques doesn't sound Mexican.
- I was a winter intern, this was back in the '90s,
for Chef Alex Lee at Restaurant Daniel in New York.
Alex Lee was about educating you.
So one day he grabbed some really beautiful,
braising pork belly, and shoved it in my mouth.
He's like, "Learn to eat pork belly properly."
He's Chinese American from Jersey,
and he was very much into bringing a little bit of his side
of culture and French-forward thinking also
with the cooking style and techniques,
so that's where I learned how to concentrate
and braise pork belly.
So we'll marinate this with a little bit of the achiote,
the anatto seed, little citrus, little garlic.
(brass instruments with percussion)
- You spent quite a bit some time at legendary spot
that's like quintessential California.
- Right, right.
- Chez Panisse.
- Dios mio!
They changed my life.
They told me no three times; they wouldn't hire me.
I was like 25 years old.
You're already damaged goods.
I kept going back and I said, "I'll do any job.
"I'll work for free."
And they sent me to be a busboy, and I did it,
and was a busboy for a while,
and then they brought me into the kitchen after.
A lot of chefs told me in the past, like,
never take lateral moves, always to go forward,
but I didn't buy it.
I'm like, "No, I wanna be here."
(electronic beat)
This is like my Mexican market salad.
So the things that always stay the same with the salad,
the mint is always there, the toasted pumpkin seeds,
and then of course, a nice citrus-y base vinaigrette.
- I love that.
- Eso! Pork belly!
- Yes!
- [Dominica] Been braising for three and a half hours.
Once we let that chill overnight,
we'll slice it, and then we're gonna recreate
that chicharrón effect.
This is a special taco, so there's no holding in this.
You have to sear it and eat it.
That's it.
(electronic piano)
- [Sheldon] Tortillas always from scratch.
- [Dominica] Always from scratch.
- [Sheldon] Never out of a bag.
- [Dominica] Never from a bag.
No, no, no.
- Tortillas are bomb!
(electric base)
- This is one of my favorite tacos.
This is honoring my mom and my grandma,
and also the French chefs from Daniel,
and the Jersey chef, Alex Lee, all in one bite.
What also helps is the lovely Paloma
to kick through that little bit of fat.
(electronic jazz)
- Let me eat this in silence.
Let me.
The freshest produce, the picklings are perfect,
the salsa has the right amount of heat,
and the braising technique,
and down to the fresh tortillas.
Every little detail makes it super special.
Put these palomas down and go taste some more.
- Yes, vamanos.
(smooth electronic music)
- Is Cosecha a Mexican restaurant,
or this is a Chef Dominica restaurant?
- This is authentic, a la Chicana.
- Okay.
- This is authentic California.
So this is a tradition that goes back 200 years,
and we're keeping it alive every day.
Provecho!
- California peaches, first of the season.
It's amazing to me, when I finally went to Mexico,
of how light and bright the food is actually,
compared to the dullness and heaviness
of what I envisioned what Mexican food was at first.
The cheese, the queso.
- [Dominica] I like the sweet, but savory, the yam.
It's very good.
I think it's one of the truest luxuries is to have that
hot tortilla straight off of the griddle.
- Especially when it's browned from mixed tamal,
and you guys make it literally pressed,
and cooked almost to order.
Your friends brought you down to this area first.
- Yeah, that was back in the late '90s.
We're on 9th Street at Broadway,
and that's the entrance between Chinatown
and Old Oakland.
A lot of this side in Oakland was abandoned.
I couldn't wrap my head around it that there was
a farmer's market almost being shut down.
And at that point, there was no hot food served
in this market hall.
There was just two butchers holding it down,
and then us.
We didn't do any advertising, we just said,
"Who lives downtown? Who works downtown?
"Who needs our support? Who needs us?
"Are we relevant to this neighborhood?"
We didn't wanna advertise to bring people
to the neighborhood, we wanna know who's here already.
And we had to clean it up and make it look nice,
and serve good food,
and they've been supporting us and taking care of us
ever since.
Cosecha, which means harvest, is trying to bring
the best to our customers and for ourselves.
- Any hopes for the future of Oakland?
- I really hope that Oakland can really keep it brown.
I don't wanna see another community get wiped out
like in San Francisco,
so I wanna see Oakland really invest in their students,
and take care of their families.
I'm really fearful that those communities will get
lost in the shuffle.
That makes me nervous.
- That's heavy.
- Oh yeah.
- Even though there might be some dispersion
because of the gentrification of it all.
- Right, right, we have to look out for each other.
- You guys are looking out for each other
and keeping that spirit alive.
What's next for you, chef?
- A trip to Maui.
- Yes!
(both laugh)
- Finally.
- Yes.
- So today, we're gonna make kuy teav phnom penh,
which is like a noodle soup dish, a pork belly dish,
called prahok ktiss.
- You saying pork belly is straight to my heart.