“Love. Straight up…”
— Ricardo Valdes, Chef and Owner
Ricardo Valdes, Chef and Owner of Raiz
Ricardo grew up in California where the lessons learned around his grandparents’ table instilled a deep connection to hospitality and food. Ricardo has worked at the Ace Hotel LA, Delancey, and London Plane among others. He and wife Amy Brown met in LA and after a boomerang back to CA following the birth of their twins, are proud to call Seattle home. Prior to opening Raiz with his longtime friend Chef Kenny Villegas, Ricardo opened El Xolo inside of Nacho Borracho.
Excerpts from a conversation at Raiz on an afternoon in March 2023
You describe the food at Raiz as, “Inspired by the vibrant food of Mexico City and placed here in our beautiful Pacific Northwest.” Was it always part of the vision to honor your heritage in some way?
Nope, not at all. I'm very stubborn… And to be quite honest, I'd never really put a whole lot of thought into what my place would be. I kind of just figured it would come to me and I would figure it out…Right now, if you asked me, I'd probably give you a little bit of a different answer. I'm constantly learning things about myself and what my cuisine is… opening day of this place, I had no idea what it was… Northwest meets Mexico City or vice versa. It was a little bit of a safety net. And it still is to a certain extent… That gives me a broad stroke to, kind of, work within a larger umbrella, to have a little bit of freedom to say “this dish fits here because it fits here” … There’s nothing set in stone.
The last eight years, I really learned to embrace the Mexican side of cuisine and what that means, and what it means to me, and what my experiences have been. So that was kind of put on the back burner because of the pandemic… I’m back in the kitchen. I'm starting to rekindle this fire of figuring out what it means for us to be here and how we cook and how we do things…
Is there a tension between what your relationship is now with Mexican cuisine and people's perception of what that means?
That's part of the pressure for me…We don't want to be what older generations of Americans think Mexican food is. That’s the nicest and the easiest way to put it. I don't mean in a bad way, but rice and beans on a plate, that’s just not us and I don't want that to be us. And I don't want us to come off as that and we still deal with that. People walk in the door and they expect that sometimes. Granted, we still serve burritos and stuff at other times and I know that can be confusing…
But yes, that is a bigger pressure… how do I define my cuisine and where does it fit into Mexican food if you will. That's why we don't even say Mexican food. Google does that for you. And I've tried to find a better descriptor and there's not, so I think that's an interesting thing that I'm sure other restaurants and other cuisines deal with. Same with when you have to check the box on the government papers for your race and your background… I'm trying to break that stigma, a little bit, of what the food should be. It's an ongoing thing. I think about this every day, all day long.
I think I need to figure out a lot of things for myself…my grandmother was a great cook but she was also subjected to her time and place. Mexican food wasn't even what we know as Mexican food and what I grew up eating is like a different version….what was available to her, it's not how her mother cooked, you know? …it's been an interesting journey and it's a continual journey because now this is what I do. And now it's really become my focus. The challenge is to figure out what our cuisine is.
What does hospitality mean to you?
Love. Straight up… that could be love of any sort, but simple: a smile, a look, a welcoming gesture, you know, “Come on in, how's it going?” It’s acknowledgement. You know, from across the room, somebody just looked at you and saw you walk in the door.
How have your past experiences working in restaurants influenced what you’re doing here with Raiz; for example, the Ace in LA, Delancey and London Plane in Seattle?
A lot of it's in the food. I spent a lot of impactful time cooking Eastern Mediterranean food…And I found a lot of similarities to Mexico there. So that's kind of my comfort zone. London Plane was a little bit later than that first experience but…Matt Dillon, he's very in that zone and plays a lot with the eastern Mediterranean or African flavors. I see a lot of ties in Mexican technique, flavors, chilies, bold, salty, preserving, all those things…A lot of Arabs ended up in Mexico; flour tortillas comes from that region of the world, you know. And if you really take time to think about those things, there's a connection.
…I tried to lean on past food influences and, technique wise, obviously French, but that's ubiquitous. You can use the French technique in any way. But when it comes to food and flavor I draw from Mexico and eastern Mediterranean. And on the table the way they eat, going back to my dad's side of the family; they were snackers and their parties were different. Their parties had lots of alcohol, playing cards, smoking at the table, multiple meals there at the big table and there's the decks of cards, beers of all sorts. They're big beer drinkers in that part of the world. And snacks like olives and nuts and cheese and crackers, all of those were on the table.
Who’s on your wish list for collaboration?
I have a friend in Mexico City that I'd like to bring up. He is the inverse of us and is Northwest in Mexico City. So he's cooking. What you'd see typically on tables here but in Mexico…I’ve talked about it a lot [doing some sort of collaboration]. He's a great friend of mine. We're pretty close. And so that's always dope and he opened right about the time that we did.
What's your panic meal?
A simple kale salad. Or like bitter green salad. Raw garlic, hard cheeses, some sort of egg yolk, and lime or lemon. Just real simple…it’s just delicious, it's quick, it's easy, and it covers all the bases of flavors that you want…
What is the most requested food by your kids?
Oh, they're terrible. They're the worst eaters on the planet. We have this joke all the time. You know, it's the classic cobblers’ kids: shoes are worn out. My kids…they're very regimented and I guess, Amy and I are also, but like quesadilla every night of the week, Dino Nuggets every night of the week… On Valentine's Day, Amy made cheeseburgers…and Luca had some of the bread but then said, “It's too much ketchup.” And I'm like, what?
…But it's funny…They used to eat whatever you're eating at some point… but then they [start] talking back and they have an opinion. You're like, “God, a quesadilla again?” We go to a restaurant and they're like, “nope”. The only restaurant that guarantees they'll eat is Delancey… pepperoni pizza.
What is the spice or sauce that you always have on hand?
Spicy sauce I mean, guaranteed. There's always crunchy salt. Whether it's flake salt or fleur de sel there's always crunchy salt. And hot sauce…Valentina is good. Tabasco has its place. Cholula is probably the most rounded one. You can use that pretty much anywhere.
And mayo, Kewpie Japanese mayo. You can put that on anything. Here [at Raiz] it’s Salsa Macha…It’s essentially Mexico's version of Asian chili crisp…it's fried chilies, garlic pumpkin seeds, and sesame seeds typically.
Last best meal in Seattle?
I ate at Tomo recently by myself… I went down there on a Tuesday night [and I sat ] at the bar and it was great. I didn't have the tasting menu- just ate a few of their dishes and a beer and a cocktail. Super good.
Previous to that….Off Alley. Off Alley was spectacular. We [Amy and I] did eat there together. That was our anniversary. It’s a New York Times Top 10 restaurant in Beacon Hill…it's a little tiny shoebox 12 seat counter situation … It's the hardest place to get into…the wine list is awesome. It's all handwritten and they change maybe 40% of the menu daily. Not a bad taste or bite or anything. The music's loud. The lights are low. Super cool. They're a little bit rambunctious and loud themselves. It's a cool space.
What is the best piece of advice you've received?
Greet everybody. It's the hospitality piece; just say hello. For us [as a team], when you walk in the door, shake everyone's hand and say hi… that will just radiate out to everybody else.
