ELLE.COM/UKSeptember2O19Styling:MollyHaylor.Additionalphotography:GettyImages.Hair: Taichi Saito. Make - up: Miguel Ramos using Dior Beaut y.154
NIKI NAKAYAMA
Japanese haute cuisine
(kaiseki) has almost always
been undertaken by men...
until Niki opened LA’s n/nakaSAMINNOSR AT
Authorof Salt,Fat,Acid,
Heat(nowa cultNetflixhit),
Nosratbecamea full-blown
foodcelebrityat 38STÉPHANIELEQUELLEC
A recipientof twoMichelin
stars,themother-of-threeis
founderof upcomingLaScène
restaurantin ParisALISON ROMAN
Dubbed New York’s Nigella,
the food writer and chef has a
knack for making recipes go viral.
See her Instagram for proofThe FIVE WOMEN CHANGING KITCHEN CULTURE
RAVNEET GILL
The pastry chef founded
collective Countertalk in
2O18 to support women
working in the culinary worldELLEVoice“ YOUDON’Tfind
TALENT. IT’SBORN,
A NDSOME ONE in
L IFE GI V ES YOU
anOPPORTUNI T Y ”
WORK FORCE
Daniela nurtures
the skills of her
carefully chosen
restaurant staffhow to hold a knife. But Daniela chose her as her protégé because she
was attracted to her energy. ‘Everybody looked at her, and she looks
like a 12-year-old,’ she says she remembers thinking. ‘And I said to myself,
“You are going to be the best cook in the kitchen because it takes one
person to believe in you.” You don’t actually find talent. It’s like the talent
is born within a person, and you find someone in life that shines a light
on your talent and gives you an opportunity.’
Her attraction to talent is clear in the partner she has chosen –
fellow chef Blaine Wetzel. Equally as obsessive about the work he
does, Wetzel and Soto- Innes, though engaged, live apart for most
of the year. His restaurant, The Willows Inn, named as one of the
world’s 5O best restuarants, is on the tiny Pacific Northwest island of
Lummi. It ser ves hyper-local cuisine that is mostly foraged, fished or
grown on the island off the coast of Washington where it’s located.
They spend his off-season together, and travelling to see each other still
feels romantic. ‘He’s like a real-life Tarzan,’
she says with a sigh.
With her natural charm, extraordinary
talent and – let’s not be shy about this – her
throat-catching looks, I tell her I’m stunned
that she’s not on TV. ‘Oh, they’ve offered me
a couple of shows,’ she says, nonchalantly.
‘I like to be there with the people. I like to
be working with an environment that is
not twisted. Sometimes, I feel like you do
it for the people that are watching, not for
yourself. And I never want to feel that way.’
Going to a restaurant, she tells me, is
about being entertained and fed, but it’s
also an invitation to experience the specific
culture of the people who are creating your experience. ‘It’s the
interpretation of different views of the people that work there,’ says
Daniela. ‘It’s also the philosophy of whoever owns and works in that
space. It’s like: Come and meet us, come into our world.’
I’m skeptical about this lofty vision until I actually eat at Cosme.
The food, as Daniela suggests, is only part of the experience. Although
it is a perfect part of it, especially the duck carnitas – soft shreds of
meat topped with micro-coriander and encased in a warm, homemade
tortilla – which are so addictively savoury that my lunch date and
I stop talking for a full 1O minutes as we eat them.
In fact, the real reason you come to Cosme is for Daniela. She’s
the reason you come for the carnitas, and she’s the reason you stay
drinking mezcal margaritas until the early hours.