We Weren’t Sure How to Unpack La Cocina. So We Asked a Mexican Chef.
We weren’t quite sure how to unpack La Cocina... so we asked Juan Carlos - the Chef Whose Life is Straight Out of a Movie.
good.film
a month ago
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Usually when you get a film guide from us, we’ve got you covered. We’ll unpack the themes, chat about the real-world relevance of the film, and suggest some thoughtful questions you can take into the cinema with you (or chew over on the drive home). But when we watched a sneak preview of La Cocina, we have to admit… we felt a touch out of our depth.
Described as "The Bear on steroids", La Cocina takes us behind the scenes of a tumultuous NYC kitchen and into the lives of a motley crew of predominantly migrant kitchenworkers, toiling in a daily pressure-cooker. Boldly directed by award-winning Mexican filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios, the film’s themes are juicier than a prime steak: immigration, capitalism, labour, racial politics and the good old American Dream.
That’s a little out of our lane – so we called on someone with lived experience as both a migrant AND a chef in Mexican, American and Aussie kitchens. A passionate Mexican with an easy smile, Juan Carlos “JC” Negrete grew up in Mexicali, smack on the border of Mexico and California. “The border town, funnily enough, is called Calexico, which is very original,” he quips. Already chefing by age 15, JC describes it as an easy transition: “We were always around people, food, culture… I just naturally gravitated towards cooking.” He quickly took on a chef’s placement in New York City - the same iconic setting as La Cocina.
Thanks to a passion for sustainable farming, which saw Juan Carlos travel to Australia to raise lambs, pigs and even honeybees, he built his way up to owning a restaurant of his own: the gorgeous and vibrant MAIZ in Newtown (home of the “Best Mexican Brunch in Sydney!”), which is bursting with authentic Mexican food and cocktails. Even better, it’s just footsteps from Dendy Newtown, one of La Cocina’s screening locations - which we found very poetic, so we reached out for a chat!
good.film: Can you tell us about the differences between your experiences as a Mexican chef, working in kitchens in the States versus working here in Australia?
Juan Carlos Negrete: I feel like the relationship with Mexicans or the Latin American community in general in the United States is very different to here in Australia. Here, I never felt that same division. I never really felt a level of racism or anything - I've been very lucky that I have a very positive migration experience.
But I do know a lot of people out there that have had bosses threaten them [about] removing the visa, migrants can definitely be exploited. So yeah, it's a complicated topic and I don't want to generalise, because I'm part of the industry, I love this industry and I know there's others that are doing the right thing. And as a business owner, I’m hoping to be part of the change of those issues that I've seen throughout my career, especially as a migrant.
GF: When you watched La Cocina, were there any parallels that you felt between your experience and the film?
JC: There's a few, definitely the fact that [in New York] basically all of the cooks were Mexican, and a lot of the front of house people were Americans. Most of them were actors or artists, and they were just working in hospitality as a second job while they had an acting gig, they had a play or something like that, or they were trying to make it as an actor. So yeah, that's a very strong parallel.
When I worked in the United States, in New York particularly, I worked with a lot of people coming from Puebla or around that region. The head chef and sous chef had papers already, but a lot of them didn't have papers at all. I could see the owners, who were very wealthy and American obviously, had a good relationship with them. But there is definitely a reality of people living in fear that the migration department is going to come to them and they're going to get caught.
GF: Do you think La Cocina authentically captured the experience of working as a migrant worker in a commercial kitchen?
JC: I think so. Obviously the movie is a movie and you have to put a drama story on top of that. I mean the director is a very good director and the film is shot beautifully and it's a great film, but it's still a film. It's not quite a documentary! So the dramatisation of things can be a little bit exaggerated sometimes, just like The Bear.
There's a scene in the movie where a person from Dominican Republic comes in asking for a job, and everyone's like, "Ah, you’re Mexican" and she's like, "I'm not Mexican. I'm from Dominican Republic.” And it sets the environment in America where if you look like you’re from Latin America, you're automatically stereotyped as a Mexican. It's interesting that they touched on that in the movie in a very subtle way. Not in an aggressive way, but it's just underlining that idea that “anyone that is not white is a Mexican”.
One scene I really liked is when the girl brings Hoja Santa, which is a particular herb from Mexico, and the chef cooks it as a form of showing the lady that he was in love with her. I think that's a very romantic way of showing that whole scenario. It's true sometimes we feel that here, when you can't find a particular ingredient… when you finally access it, you want to treat it with so much respect, and cook it in a way that you can share it with people close to you. I think that scene has a lot of embedded significance that's very hard to grasp unless you’ve experienced living outside your own country. A lot of Mexicans think “If I can feel home here through food, I'm in the right place”. I think that scene carried a very powerful message.
GF: You mentioned a lot of the workers in La Cocina may not have papers, they may not be legal. Could you speak a little bit about how you felt the film reflected the reality of that pressure?
JC: I think it's very clear in the movie that when you're outside your country without papers, there's definitely a great level of fear of losing what you have. Their journey probably took months hiding in the back of trucks illegally or being abused or threatened, to make it all the way to New York. And obviously a lot of these people don't know the language, they just have no idea, like the girl in the movie coming into a big city like New York and not knowing any English whatsoever.
They also talk about dreams in the movie which is very interesting. The hope and the dream of having a better life, making a better dollar for themselves and for their families back home. It's definitely a great deal of pressure for them to be performing at a very high level. The owner in the movie comes in and teases them with “I'm going to get you the papers” and he might be lying or not. He even mentions in the movie, it's just a little “management tool” to keep the morale up, so they say.
There's definitely a pressure cooker of performing better than the person beside you, because they might steal your job or they might kick you out. One thing that I did see in New York though from personal experience was that even though there was this huge pressure, there was a level of connectivity between them and respect between them because they were going through the same situation. They were like family in a way, thinking about making money for their families back home.
GF: Nice one. If there’s one thing you’d like audiences to take away from La Cocina, one message or one emotion, what would that be?
JC: Good question. I feel like the movie definitely offers perspective, a different point of view, a different reality of migration. It's a good eye opener for just having a little bit more perspective on what it takes to migrate. I definitely think the struggle of migration is very very difficult, leaving behind your culture with a hope of a better life. There's a clear kind of rupture of your roots or disconnection from your original culture. It's not an easy thing to do. It takes a lot of courage.
I think with La Cocina, the takeaway is just understanding the struggles of that and what it takes. The movie shows the fear that someone goes through being threatened by not having legal papers, the hope of having a better relationship and bigger dreams. Some just wish to have a tiny house, some others just wish to have a bit more money.
I think it's a good movie to understand that we all come from different walks of life, and understanding different perspectives to others gives us a bit of tolerance, of understanding whoever is in front of us. We all have a story to tell and La Cocina just opens up on that. I like hearing stories of people around and being a migrant. It's good to be able to listen, and to hear where they're coming from and have a better perspective. It gives you understanding, and I think understanding brings people together.
GF: Yeah, exactly. We couldn't help notice that MAIZ is just a 5 minute walk from Dendy Cinemas Newtown - and you've created a sublime "Hoja Santa Mezcalita" cocktail which was inspired by La Cocina. They're the perfect pairing! What else can people expect to find at MAIZ after they see the movie?
JC: At MAIZ we really strive for a great culture - having a really good relationship between back of the house, bar management, owners - everyone comes together as a team. There's this mutual respect. We have people from all over the place! A constant rotation of different nationalities coming for different reasons and telling their story.
You'll see when you come the team is smiling, the team is together, the team is bonded. And even more so, there’s the storytelling behind the dishes, the drinks, the food, the environment that we try to create - it’s really bringing together that story we’d like to tell customers through food, and through Mexican food in this case. So yeah, they'll find a different environment from the movie…
GF: No floods in the kitchen…?
JC: Yeah! No floods, no shouting, no screaming.
La Cocina releases in cinemas Australia-wide on May 15th.
Every ticket to La Cocina purchased through good.film includes a donation to Raising the Bar, driving fantastic mental health initiatives for hospitality workers all over Australia.
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