by Dean Kallas, Grocery Category Manager
Dean: Where did you grow up?
Chef Thony: I grew up in Costa Rica. I was born on the east coast in a little place called Limón. In that area in Costa Rica, there are a lot of Jamaican descendants there. Costa Rica got people, back in the day, to build their railroad track, and then they segregated a whole bunch of Black people to that area and we couldn’t move without our IDs. It was probably the ’40s or something like that, you know. Pretty crazy. And that happened on the whole coast of Central America. They brought in mostly Jamaicans. The story goes that the island of Jamaica is where England had the facilities to educate Black people to read and do some math. After that they were literate and spoke English, so “high-end slaves.” It was about a way to sell high-level slaves to make more money, pretty much is what it was. The English had markets all over Central and South America, they would send the slaves to different countries and those people spoke English, that’s where my English comes from.
How did you get interested in cooking?
Cooking comes from my mom. My mom raised eleven kids by herself. And eleven kids means big cooking. Big cooking for eleven hungry mouths. Life was kind of rough, because she was alone. My dad didn’t do the right thing. So when the last kid was born he just took off. So life was really hard, and I learned early on to be a man, pretty much. I mean my brain woke up when I was six and a half or seven. I could see everything, her suffering. I have been working ever since.
I would go to the lime plantation and pick up some limes and come back to the neighborhood and sell them for five cents for three or four or whatever and then bring the money home so she could cook, to help her out you know. It was nice, I mean seeing her cooking, while she was cooking, she was dancing and singing and doing her thing. She was cooking things up with spices, simple stuff like rice and beans, but she would make it taste so good! It would be simple but bold, and it would taste so good that you didn’t think about meat or anything else, you just enjoyed it.
I base everything I do today off of using simple ingredients. There is a world of spices, you know. But the secret is in the combination. Most people combine too many, but if you do your homework and you know what each one means then you know how each one tastes. To me it is like magic! It takes years and years of trial and error. I grew up watching my mom using basic ingredients for making food that I still crave today!
How would you best describe the style of food you make to someone who has not had one of your dishes before?
I call it Latin Soul food for a reason. Because the Caribbeans are the soul of Latin America. The Caribbeans give Latin America the groove. You know: the dance, the spices, the colors and intensity. With Latin food you get your white rice, your black beans and your salad and your chicken, but because of the Caribbeans there is more flavor. That is the explanation, so I describe it as Latin Soul food.
It has to be exciting. I always say I mean, you can’t fake food, it is something you can’t fake. It either is or it is not. And I don’t think I am a great cook, because I am still learning, I am learning every day. People say I am a super chef, I am not a super chef. I am on a learning journey. The journey is to learn something every day. That is why I like music and that is why I like food because it is universal. It never ends. There is always something exciting and colorful and beautiful and delicious coming your way, you know.
Who is your biggest influence?
My biggest influence is my mother. She is my biggest influence ever. Latin/Caribbean culture gets passed down by the females. The dads work, but culture gets passed down by the moms. The moms are the ones who implant those things in us. I think my mom did a great job because I try to pass on my culture to my girls. I have tried to influence them, and maybe it works or it doesn't work, but not at the same level as my mom doing it.
How did you get the name “Mango Man?”
My wife was working for a lady and I would call my wife’s job. I don't know why, but she started calling me the Mango Man. That’s how that started. Then when we put the food cart together, we called the food cart Cafe Costa Rica featuring Mango Man cooks. Wonderful lady. It just stuck.
What made you decide to start a food cart?
I was working as a maintenance supervisor and got injured going down a flight of stairs. My knee went the opposite way it should have, so I tore my meniscus. I worked all day and got home and my knee was like a melon, it was big. I had to have surgery and my boss fired me. That pushed me to be independent. That’s how it started. We started planning the business and in 2003 we started building the food cart.
As an immigrant, what kinds of challenges have you faced in the U.S.?
As an immigrant the hardest part is to learn the rules and learn the laws. It is really hard to make mistakes, especially for a guy like me who is a perfectionist. It kind of weighs you down, it was hard at the beginning.
What is the best part of your work?
Wow! The best part of my work is when somebody doubles back and tells me how happy they are with the meal. Or how much they love my sauce. To me that is mission accomplished, you know? Everything I do is to satisfy people. I mean I am not pretentious, I do not think that I am the best, I am always a work in progress.
What are your favorite ingredients to work with and why?
My favorite ingredients are those that I haven’t had a chance to work with. That is what keeps me excited! What else can I do? Bring me something weird and I will experiment with it. That is the edginess that I am talking about. I want to keep myself antsy, I want to keep myself fresh. They will always taste something different.
When did you start making your sauces?
I started making them when I opened my first restaurant, which was in 2005 or 2006. I could produce the sauce there in the restaurant because I had the licensing to do that. Once I shut down the restaurant, in 2014, I had to apply for a separate license. We started producing at the FEED Kitchens that year.
Which of all your creations are you most proud of?
I am happy with all of them, but I am on a journey of creation, so I don’t think nothing that I have done is perfect. I don’t think nothing that I have done is finished. Even though people think it is perfect and have told me that, but I always get uncomfortable with that. I refuse to say this is done. There is always stuff to tweak, always stuff to get better. Just like if you write a good song you know, or you have a really good tune that you are working on. You play it today and it is just delicious, it is just so good! But then tomorrow you come and you are like oh, I need to put this in. It is good to not be satisfied.
What motivates you to keep creating?
The desire to be different, and I am always in search of the “Wow Factor.” So as a Chef, that is the goal. That search is part of me. I am in search of that.
I have heard you were a musician and dance choreographer before becoming a Chef. Where did you get your start? Do you still play music in a band?
Back in Costa Rica in the ’80s, I started dancing. I got together with four or five other guys, and we started putting choreographies together. I was the youngest one, but I already wanted to make it a business. Of course the others were looking at me like I was crazy. So I went and sold the show, you know for a couple of bucks at a disco. Back in the day there were still discos all over the place. A couple of places had said yes and we started performing and then it morphed into singing.
It is funny how the whole thing happened. We did a show at this guy’s bar, he had us do our little dance performance there. What happened is the PA system had a cassette player, and the cassette player did not work. Everyone was looking at me, “What do we do?” So I talked to the boss, he had a band at the bar, and I tell him, ”Hey, can you have your musicians make us a rhythm, so we can do our thing?” and he sent them over. They played a little rhythm, something funky. One of my friends in the group used to play guitar so I grabbed onto the microphone and sang a bunch of nonsense and my friend grabbed a guitar and started playing. It was surreal. It all came together like a glove and it fit.
That is how my singing started. Around ’88 or ’89. Once the dancing thing wound down, we put a band together, playing blues. Then we studied up and combined it with jazz, funk and rock. Together with Latino stuff and I have the Jamaican thing going on naturally. So it was pretty weird. It was pretty good!
No, I don’t play music with a band at the moment but I’m looking forward to doing it again in the future.
Do you have any other hobbies or interests?
I like music. I play my bass everyday whenever I have time. I also play the harmonica, and have been playing the harmonica for a lot of years. I enjoy a really good sci-fi movie or show but other than being creative with my music and the food, I don’t have any other hobbies. That keeps me busy.
Do you have any new products in development?
Yes, I do. There are two more sauces coming to the Co-op in the future. But I am hoping to get my soups into the Co-op this Winter yet, if that is even possible. The accident threw me off. I had a plan in September to talk to you all, so you could try out the soup, and then we could introduce them. It’s seasonal. I am already doing it at the FEED Kitchens with the Soup’s On people.