A first-time James Beard semifinalist reflects on his journey
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The James Beard Awards are the Oscars of the restaurant industry, and in Minnesota, 11 chefs and restaurants were recently named as semifinalists. The semifinalist list includes some famous names like Yia Vang, Diane Moua and Gavin Kaysen.
Abraham Gessesse may not be a household name, but he is the chef owner of the St. Paul restaurant Hyacinth and he’s been nominated in the Best Chef Midwest category for the first time. He joined MPR News host Nina Host to talk about what it means to be a semifinalist.
Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.
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Audio transcript
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: Thank you for having me.
NINA MOINI: What a huge honor-- the Oscars of the food world. How does it feel?
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: It's pretty overwhelming. I didn't expect to get nominated, at least so quickly.
NINA MOINI: What do you mean by that? Because you just took over, right?
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: Yeah, I just took over this last year. Yeah, I think I expected it would take a bit longer to get noticed. And so, yeah, it's been a big surprise.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. But this was sort of-- food has always been a part of your life. This was an evolution. For folks who don't know-- maybe they've never been-- tell us about Hyacinth.
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: Hyacinth is a small, 35-seat restaurant on Grand Avenue. Its feel is very European, very Brooklyn, small, relaxed service, but accuracy and care and everything. Our food-- I describe our ethos as very Italian, just the way we approach everything. But not necessarily everything on the menu is going to be Italian or super traditional, but it will be approached the way someone from Italy or the Mediterranean would approach cooking a vegetable or ingredient.
NINA MOINI: Cool. So I understand you had some Italian influence in your cooking and some of your food growing up, but what were your other influences? Like, who influenced you to be the chef you are today?
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: Definitely the previous owner, Chef Rikki, Rikki Giambruno. He was a chef of Franny's in New York, which was a similar restaurant to Hyacinth, but just maybe like an earlier form of Hyacinth. And so after he left Franny's, he continued to develop what they were doing at Franny's to its logical end.
NINA MOINI: OK. Yeah. And so he's like a mentor to you. And then you took over a year ago. And with it being such a small restaurant, how do you think that impacts people's experience of it?
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: Our service is really personable. I mean, we have an open kitchen. And we can see everyone from the kitchen and see if they're enjoying the food, and see if they're getting their food on time and stuff. And so it's very tailored, very active and an approachable. And yeah, we're very involved.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. I'm sure you have to have a really deep passion for cooking to get to this point in your career. What is the type of food, or is there a specific dish that you're like, "This is my moment. This was my James Beard dish," or something you're known for or enjoy making?
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: At a dinner not too long ago, I debuted an Ethiopian-Italian dish. It was lasagna with a berbere ragu, something that's done a lot in Ethiopia, done a lot here for a very long time. We all grew up with this dish. But it's really a dish that people are not aware of and sort of represents a lot of cultural Italian influence that people are not aware of across the world.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. Yeah, like Italian cuisine had influence on Ethiopian food, and then merging all of that together. And here in the Twin Cities or in the state, we have such a diverse food scene and so much overlap. And it's just amazing that we get to experience so much food and so many different cultures. What does it mean to you to see Minnesota sort of representing that way on the national stage?
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: I think, to me, every culture, every cuisine is equal. And there's so much that so many different cultures have had to offer for so long, but didn't have the opportunity, maybe because it was a new palate for people here, or immigrant communities needed more time to get established. So it's really like a maturation of a lot of what's been going on in the Twin Cities to where our immigrant communities are now in a good enough place financially and to where they're starting to thrive and starting to put out a lot of restaurants, and art, and stuff like that.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. And did you grow up here?
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: I did grow up here. Yeah, mainly in the Twin Cities.
NINA MOINI: OK. And what was that like? Like, what types of foods did you experience growing up here?
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: Yeah. I mean, growing up, I ate mainly Ethiopian food. But then I had the same sort of general Minnesotan food experience, stuff like pizza and burgers, but also just like church basement food. I grew up with a lot of that, too.
NINA MOINI: So just really the coolest thing I think about food and making food is you must probably always be learning something new and experimenting. And now you have this pretty cool award. But I'm sure that it's not the biggest deal. I think the biggest deal is just continuing to grow within your passion. Have you thought about kind of what you want to tackle next, or kind of what's next in store for you?
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: Yeah. I mean, I think all of this is-- you know, I mean, it's a great thing within itself to get an award like this. Ultimately, the goal is to take care of me, myself, my family, and my community. If an award or publicity helps me do that, then I'm on board for that.
NINA MOINI: Yeah. Because it hasn't always been easy times, especially in recent years for restaurants. So it's cool to have a platform to be able to build off of, but also great to kind of like bring other people with you and introduce people to other types of foods, I would imagine. So we do like when we have chefs on to ask them what is for lunch, like, on a typical day. You're not putting something cool and fancy together at the restaurant. You're just at home. You're rummaging through the fridge. What's for lunch for Abraham on a day like that?
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: I really like some fine couscous with a sauce that's just garlic, pepper, oregano, and tomato, and lots of olive oil, and maybe a little bit of feta, or some sort of cheese on top.
NINA MOINI: Oh, I mean, that sounds pretty good.
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: Yeah, I really enjoy simple flavors and keeping flavors open, not necessarily dialing things up all the way, but really just allowing space for things to breathe, especially when I'm eating at home.
NINA MOINI: For sure, yeah. Before we go, do you have any advice or any words of wisdom for people who might want to break into being a chef? Sometimes it doesn't sound like the most attainable thing to study food and to make it a part of your livelihood and career. What would you say to people who maybe don't have experience or know someone in that field, but love cooking and want to be a chef?
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: That is a very good question. I would say if you're not willing to sacrifice pretty much everything in order to make it, you're probably not going to make it.
NINA MOINI: That's real.
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: Unfortunately. It's a long road. And you have to do it for the love of it.
NINA MOINI: For sure.
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: You have to keep pushing yourself to do the right thing day after day, year after year. And then, hopefully, that'll all add up and work out. But there's not really another way.
NINA MOINI: I like that you're honest about that, because it lets people know you don't just wake up with a James Beard nomination. There's probably a lot that goes into it. Abraham, a million. congrats to you. We wish you the very best. And what an exciting time for Minnesota food. Thank you for being here.
ABRAHAM GESSESSE: Thank you.
NINA MOINI: Abraham Gessesse is the chef and owner of Hyacinth on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul and a James Beard Award semifinalist.
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