RESIDENT CHEFS

Born in Santiago, Chile, Cote has few but very fond memories of being a child there,most of them revolving around food. She also remembers the tremors, specifically a memory of grinding corn and having to duck under a table! She and her mom came to NY after her dad had been here 3 years scoping out the place, as many immigrant dads would do. “NY was great, but even though I was surrounded by Latin people, my cousin and I were the only Chileans. I feel like I somewhat adopted a lot of cultures around me, and struggled to grab onto mine.”, she says. But that didn’t stop her parents from trying. Almost every weekend the family would make the trip to Tarrytown, NY to the Chilean bakery, Los Andes. There, they had the best empanadas de pino, sandwiches + pastries around. Chilean bakeries tend to have it all: savory, sweets and all the random grocery items one misses from home. It is her dream to one day own a bakery like this.
 

Her family lived in NY for five years, but she and her mom subsequently moved back to Chile. “I was in middle school and so angry about leaving what I by then considered home.”, she says. As it happens, moving back was the best thing that could have ever happened to her. “I loved every minute of it. I felt such a connection with everything, I wanted to soak it all in. Time with family, the food, the culture, all of it.” It was hard for her, though, because when fluctuating between two cultures she never really felt like she belonged to either. “You’re either too Latin for American friends or too American for Chileans — my eternal struggle,” explains Cote.
 

After spending two amazing and eye-opening years in Chile, she moved back stateside to the Pennsylvania suburbs, the very non-minority-driven PA suburbs. All of a sudden she was the foreign student who was trying to fit in. At this point in her life she was very aware that she and her family were undocumented, and the easiest way to avoid any questions was to make her Chilean side “go away” and assimilate as much as possible. So, that’s what she did for many years. “It wasn’t until my early 20s and my move to Philly that I finally stopped worrying about my status and fitting in and honestly started to embrace who I am and where I come from,” she says. Suddenly she was surrounded by people like her. She gives much credit to her husband for helping her get past the mental hurdle that she felt had limited her in so many ways. “Now I can finally look back on my childhood memories and the food that I loved so dearly and make it my own and in keeping with my vegetarian beliefs.” Cote’s specialty cake business Mole Street Baker was recently voted the Best of Philly 2021 for custom cakes, she works on savory Food as well on Kampar Kitchen. “Yes, I’m most comfortable making cakes and pastries but making this savory food that I love and have cooked for my friends and family for years feels like coming full circle and a wonderful new way to embrace that I’m from Chile. And not only that, but to make sure that my son also feels this way.”