5 minute read
All You Can Eat: Myo
A successful pairing
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Culinarian Myo Quinn’s unexpected journey to Charlottesville
By Tami Keaveny
arts@c-ville.com
Myo Quinn admits that she was never supposed to end up in Charlottesville. But when COVID-19 surged through New York City in spring of 2020, she and her husband packed their three boys into a rental car and headed south. They stopped in Orange, Virginia, for a night. That turned into a week, then a month. Eventually Quinn says they set their sights on “the biggest, closest town” and landed in Charlottesville.
It wasn’t the first time Quinn had made a radical pivot. She quit a hedge fund career after having her second child, and went to culinary school, where she put her love of cooking and her mother’s food wisdom together for what she calls her second life.
After cooking on the line for Danny Meyer’s Gramercy Tavern and Untitled, Quinn turned to food writing and recipe development. Her contributions can be found digitally on the Food Network, Delish, and Good Housekeeping. Last fall, her friendship with Holly Hammond of Whisper Hill Farm led to the formation of Pear, an IX Art Park Farmers Market stall that offers unique baked goods. This year, it’s been more important than ever to be optimistic when we can, and Quinn’s arrival on the local food scene definitely counts as a bright spot.
What does a recipe developer do?
There are two approaches. First, you pitch a recipe that you want to put out there. For example, I’m Korean so it might be a Korean recipe that the Food Network is lacking. If it gets approved, you write the recipe from beginning to end. You cook it, test it. Then a big part of it is introducing it to the reader. What it is, what to keep in mind, what’s important—the tips and tricks.
A second way is that the platform might come to you and say, for instance, “We don’t have a good stuffed cabbage recipe.” So they’ll assign a recipe to you. You’ll have to research it. If it’s a flavor profile you’re not familiar with you’ll have to make it several times. Ask the right questions to the right people.
Do you have a favorite or a major success?
The platform would measure that by likes, or comments, or ratings. For me, I am proudest when it’s a recipe that is familiar to me. A recipe that comes from something that I cook frequently for my family. Most recently it was a miso-braised kale that is served over multigrain rice.
Was cooking a big part of your childhood?
Yes. My mother is a very good cook. She is also a very smart cook. I always joke that all of the things I could’ve learned in a professional kitchen I came into the professional kitchen already knowing because my mom had taught me: How to be efficient. How to be thoughtful. How to work with urgency. How to clean up as you’re working. And how to be a better eater, which means trying everything.
How did Pear come to be?
Pear is the result of a friendship between Holly of Whisper Hill Farm and me. We met at the IX farmers’ market last summer. Over this past Christmas holiday, Holly came up with the idea to make cookie boxes...I think the final count was 4,200 cookies between the two of us.
JOHN ROBINSON
Myo Quinn says her mother taught her most of the things a chef should know: How to be efficient, thoughtful, work with urgency, and clean up as you go.
That number is representative of how Holly and I approach life. We often joke that we do everything with gusto. So Pear is a continuation of holiday baking.
Holly recently went back to farming so it’s just me right now. Every Thursday on Instagram we announce the menu that will be available on the following Saturday. I always try to have something with citrus, seasonal fruit, chocolate, caramel, and spice; something with a vegetable; and something with cinnamon.
Recently I had an ah-ha moment when I realized I needed to always have something for kids. Because when a kid walks up and says, “This is all grown-up stuff” and walks away, the whole family walks away.
What ingredient will never be used in your cooking?
I grew up in Asunción, Paraguay. There are so many mango trees there, and as a child you ride your bicycle on the roads and you squash the mangoes. It splashes up through your bicycle wheels and you end up smelling of ripe mango, which some people covet, but it reminds me of really hot, humid summers where you just can’t get rid of it. So, mangoes.
What are some of the local discoveries that have impressed you?
When I arrived I put out a message on a Facebook group, asking, “What is the one thing that represents Charlottesville?” and people said it was the ham biscuits. So we worked our way through the ham biscuits.
I think something Charlottesville does really well is curry. Thai curry, even compared to New York, the red curry from Chimm. Pearl Island chicken curry is phenomenal. I went out of my way to talk to [chef Sober Pierre] because I was in tears when I had it. I was like, “Wow. I didn’t realize how homesick I was.”
What do you make of Charlottesville’s food scene?
As a chef that has been cooking and eating in New York City for the past 15 years or so, the biggest challenge I’ve had is to figure out what this community is willing to eat. Just like each family has specific eating habits, each community has food preferences.
There are times when I feel very vulnerable baking here. I love that the customers will ask lots of questions and try things, then come back every week. But I’m making something completely different, and always feeling like, “Are people gonna come?”
Eat up!
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SUMMER 2021
MEET MYO QUINN
THE PEAR CO-OWNER ON HER “SECOND LIFE” IN CHARLOTTESVILLE
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