The power behind San Antonio’s solely Michelin-recognized Jamaican restaurant is a James Beard-nominated chef— Nicola Blaque.
Blaque began The Jerk Shack as a 600-square-foot, hole-in-the-wall with a walk-up window and picnic tables. Inside a yr, the easy-to-miss spot off West Commerce Road was named one in all America’s 16 Greatest New Eating places.
Accolades poured in like rain. Upon studying the James Beard Basis had named her a semifinalist for Greatest Chef: Texas, Blaque went on-line to search for a solution.
Who’s James Beard?
She had no concept.
The Jerk Shack has since moved to a bigger area — 2,700 sq. toes — on town’s far West Facet. And the awards preserve coming. The restaurant earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand, the information’s advice for top of the range and good-value cooking, in 2024 and 2025.
On this week’s episode of the bigcitysmalltown podcast, host Cory Ames joins Blaque in The Jerk Shack to debate her outstanding journey from navy veteran to acclaimed chef and the challenges of bringing genuine Caribbean delicacies to San Antonio.
As well as, Ames and Blaque look at the evolution of native meals tradition, town’s eagerness to embrace new flavors and the collaborative spirit amongst San Antonio cooks.
In addition they discover:
• Find out how to bridge cultures and reclaim identification via meals
• What it takes to construct an area restaurant, together with obstacles, alternative, and group help
• The significance of chef collaboration in fostering a various meals ecosystem
• Reflections on parenthood, legacy, and the subsequent chapter for Black and Caribbean delicacies in Texas
The episode examines the resilience wanted to thrive in an unsure economic system and and what the longer term may maintain for San Antonio’s culinary panorama. It additionally explores Blaque’s immigrant roots: She arrived from Jamaica as a younger woman in a navy household and located it tough to construct connections.
“From 5 to 18, I actually struggled with my identification and who I wished to be and who I wished to be round,” she mentioned. “And I joined the Military. And the one factor … that I actually felt like really linked me to myself or my household or something, was meals.”
Watch or hearken to the total episode right here:
