Mark Friedman, the owner of a local prepared food company called The Providers, read the story I recently wrote about
mole
, and e-mailed to let me know that his company has started making fresh
mole
and selling it in local grocery stores. The product is the specialty of Doña Chéva, a Mexican
mole
specialist who works at The Providers, and the
mole
carries her name. On the day I spoke with Friedman about his
mole
and about bidness in general, his kitchen manager was on vacation, there was trouble with a delivery driver and a small dental emergency cropped up.
SFR: Tell me about Doña Chéva.
MF:
She came up from Mexico and has worked in the food business in town for over five years and started working for me maybe six months ago. She's a
mole
master! She's known her for her
mole
.
A lot of the things [The Providers] do are things that I personally love and
mole
is one of them. So when she came along...of
course I had to do it.
Why do you think it's so hard to find fresh
mole
?
That's a good question. I don't know why nobody's ever done it. It has a long shelf life, unlike almost everything else I do.
What makes her
mole
so great?
The mojo! She's just great at it. Everybody has a different
mole
and it's not like she's using ingredients that other people don't use.
Does she use chocolate?
Yes, but that's not the most important ingredient. I don't
think it makes nearly as big an impact as some of the other ingredients. Some of the people at the Spanish Table tasted it and one of them lived in Mexico and took classes in making
mole
and she loved it. She said, 'This is great! Don't ever lose her!' That was great to hear. I probably will be selling it at the Paisano Markets, too. They gave it the thumbs up and that was really exciting.
[At this point in the interview there were muffled noises, then a shocked and vaguely pained-sounding series of garbled
oooohs
! Friedman came back to the phone and reported that he'd just lost a tooth. I responded with a shocked and vaguely pained-sounding series of my own
ohs
! and asked if he wanted to discontinue the interview, but he said, 'With everything else that's been going on today, this is minor!']
So…uh…where was I? Umm…is Mexican food new for The Providers?
Let's see, let me think. We do breakfast burritos, but that's hardly too Mexican. In fact that might not even be Mexican, right?
I don't think so.
Have you ever had our Chinese glazed walnuts? They're sweet and glazed, but they have this great dry texture. This is an item that a few years ago I met somebody at a party, she's a foodie, she goes on about this Chinese dish with walnuts and I say 'I always loved that dish,' and the next day she gives me this recipe and I'm making the walnuts. I'm like, 'These are so great! Let's put them out there!' Now they're in the bulk aisle at Whole Foods. They're really addictive. That's another sort of left field item that doesn't fit in our line. And there are a few other things I make that I don't put my label on.
Where do you think you'd like to take the business?
Oh! I don't know. After seven years I could write a book about all the things we've been through, including a chapter called 'Learning About Working with the Supermarkets.' But that's a whole other story.
I have time.
The corporate environment is so weird and they're geared towards big in so many ways. It's so much easier for them to deal with factories. When deli managers have to cut something they cut the little guys selling things like
tabbouleh
that no one can pronounce, and other things that might be really good sellers but they cost $6 per pound.
I actually approached [a local, but not locally owned, grocery store] years ago and they said, 'Everything has to go through the national office.' It took literally a year to get a meeting with them. And I meet this guy, you know, he's corporate friendly, typical. He says, 'Your stuff is really great, but you're too small for us…'
Is it easier to work with locally owned stores?
Actually, it's funny, one thing I've learned in this business is that the old knee-jerk reaction that corporate is bad and local is good is not necessarily true. It's just individuals and who happens to be in power at the time. A good person comes along and a bad person comes along. It just depends.
I couldn't do any of this without my crew. My kitchen manager Gene Tauer, he's worked [literally, everywhere in town] and he's just great. One of the biggest challenges of having a small company is having good employees. If you don't have that, the stress will kill you. My kitchen manager is on vacation right now and this is the first time I've worked in the kitchen in a long time. I also have this guy who's just my angel, the greatest worker and the greatest guy, Balmore Deras. And then Doña Chéva, of course. I couldn't do it without them.
Look for The Providers
mole
, pad thai and other ready-to-eat foods at Kaune Food Town, La Montañita Co-op, the Dixon Market, Ten Thousand Waves, Cid's in Taos and Wild Oats in Albuquerque.
Tell me where to eat! I need your input. Send all of your tips, gripes and raves to food@sfreporter.com.
