Laura Brahn

Born: Spring Lake Heights, NJ — 1989 / Living: Asbury Park, NJ

Interview by Speciwomen — May 2016

Speciwomen: Tell me about yourself.

Laura Brahn: I’m a 26 year old chef and business owner at Cardinal Provisions in Asbury Park, New Jersey. I went to The New School for fiction writing and language before finding my way (back) into the kitchen.

S: What got you into food? 

LB: I was born into a super casual level of the hospitality industry. My Grandma owned a luncheonette and my Aunt had her family diner. My mom milled about behind the scenes at both of those spots, and eventually elsewhere busting her ass for her kids. By four I was hanging out in the restaurant with my staff shirt on thinking I was the dishwasher. All of this, naturally, lead to an instinctual loathing of the industry, but a level of magnetism toward, and comfort within it, too. I found the kitchen to be the place in which time passed most quickly for me at a restaurant. There I could use my hands to create, exhaust myself physically, and gain high praise for my good performances. Being in the kitchen allowed me to avoid the level of pain in the ass, negative social interaction that tends to come with high volume diner spots. Food was the tool laying around the family business for me to grow up playing with. 

It also doesn't hurt that I come from a family of flavor and food lovers, who hold sacred the enjoying of good food and wine (or craft beer) with the people we love.

S: Do you have any culinary influences? 

LB: Influences are tough, I don’t know whether to go micro or macro on this.

I’m influenced by both ‘necessity’ and ‘the desire to make art’. I constantly remind myself that with food— especially breakfast and lunch— on say, weekdays in my tiny little speck of a city— people have needs. I like to think that Cardinal is the type of place that is not only a beautiful serene environment to enjoy oneself with intentionally and well crafted dishes, but also gets a job done. That is how I hope it’s being received. I’m trying to imagine a different art form doing both these things but I’m having a hard time. Maybe it’s a really artfully and intentionally designed map. Maybe its an instruction manual/text book that is also a poem or a sculpture/lawn mower. I’m not sure. I can’t really see myself committing fully to art, or existing in a job devoid of it. So here I am, heavily influenced and reliant upon that limbo. 

S: Who inspires you? 

LB: Chefs who (appear to) have it all together inspire me. I don’t know how they do it, make it home in time to have a family, be with friends, and exist anywhere other than the restaurant. We cut out dinner service at Cardinal (aside from monthly pop ups and catering gigs) to try make sure we lead lives with balance but it’s still hard as hell. 

My colleagues inspire me. The fact that they each quit jobs elsewhere to come create this little world with Grace and I is the most humbling thing and I want to make all of their dreams come true because of it. I hope to empower them, provide them with a creative outlet along with necessities like money so they may flourish. 

My business partner Grace inspires me. I look forward to seeing how she tackles a menu and to the moments we have collaborating. I constantly learn from her. 

S: What type of food do you like to cook?

LB: I like to cook comforting, simple things. I spent a long time making Neapolitan pizza which is a quintessentially simple, but beautiful food. I like to cook simply and beautifully with local seasonal produce and spicy food. Typically light Mediterranean or Latin fare.

S: Who do you cook for? 

LB: I cook for all kinds of people: Family, friends and total strangers. Kind people, assholes, kids, grandparents and all of the ages in-between. The working people of Asbury Park and those vacationing down the shore. Brides, grooms, their guests. Industry people and those who haven’t the slightest idea what goes into serving a meal commercially.

S: Do you plan to express your cooking outside of the kitchen? 

LB: Totally! Grace and I both have backgrounds in literature, and she’s an insane visual artist as well, so a cookbook is definitely a dream. We started recording the first episode of an intended podcast series but got busy and have yet to finish it. 

S: What is your dream career? 

LB: What I currently have is the start of it— or, I can see it in the distance. What Grace and I are building at Cardinal–– a dynamic, creative team committed to respect (mutual and self), food that makes people happy, and using the best ingredients we can get our hands on, that we feel good about— is the dream career. Right now it’s a lot of praying that we successfully learn how to do all of the less art oriented stuff that comes along with the dream career, but it’s the goods. 

S: How has womanhood impacted your life? 

LB: I am so lucky to feel comfortable, proud, and effected positively by the gender I was assigned. There’s the whole bullshit world of hyper masculine kitchens, and I’m happy to say that it currently is not impacting my life at all. There are very real struggles for me like being a boss, a business owner, and a respected chef. They all stem from issues I have with my own voice, insecurities, and authority, but I have no one stifling my voice these days. It’s a dream world, this one I live in.