Yes And No...

Gustavo Romero, Minneapolis, and a long-lost primo.

Minneapolis was the first stop.
It was supposed to be the first of four before four became five. We were all excited getting on that flight. I made sure everyone on the team had a window seat. I could look across the plane and see one group on one side, another on the other, everybody looking out.

It was surreal. It was a good time.
Then we landed. It was cold.

You have heard me talk about this before, but arriving in Minneapolis in the middle of winter was probably not our best move. It was, however, the only move we had. At the time, it seemed logical. Get there. Get it done. Keep shooting.

But when we arrived, it felt less like beginning a production and more like visiting family.

Manny writes about that in the piece for Curarda:Minnesota in the Dead of Winter which you should read. There was something special about Minneapolis from the beginning. There was also something else behind this episode that most people do not know.

Gustavo Romero is the cousin of the late, great Lauro Romero.

Lauro was once my best friend. My chef. My business partner. For a long time, the two of us were inseparable. We looked out for each other. At least, I know I looked out for him. Maybe too much. Yet, at the end, maybe not enough.

That is another story.

What you should know is that, until about two weeks before we stopped being friends, he was like a brother to me.

So meeting Gustavo felt like meeting a long-lost cousin. A primo from the same town whose stories I already knew.

I knew Tulancingo. I had been there. I had gone to the torta stand where they would go during lunch. I had eaten the barbacoa from the town. I had walked through the place where they went to school and imagined the stories Lauro carried with him. Some of that will appear in the upcoming Hidalgo season of Memorable.

By the time we arrived in Minneapolis, I had met Gustavo once before.

It was about a few months before, when he and Kate came to Portland after Nixta was recognized by Bon Appétit. They were only in town for two nights. We met officially at the party, and somehow I was introducing Gustavo to people even though I had only just met him myself.

“This is Lauro’s cousin.”

Lauro had died only a few months before. None of it was easy. It is something I still feel deeply and almost never talk about.

That night, Gustavo, Kate, Olivia, and I went out for a drink. Gustavo started telling us a story. Somewhere in the middle of it, I asked him about Minneapolis.

Did he feel supported there? Did he believe it was a place for him?

He said, “Yes and no…”

Whatever came after that did not matter.

“Yes and no” was the thing Lauro used to say that drove me fucking insane. You would ask him one question and somehow receive two answers, neither of them quite answering anything.

Just yes and no.

Gustavo’s mannerisms were similar. His energy was different, but there it was. For a second, Lauro was sitting at the table again.

I started choking up. I looked over at Olivia, and she was fully in tears.
We had joked about that phrase so many times.
We tried not to make the evening strange. We talked about his cousin. I told Gustavo everything I could tell him. All the good things. Everything I remembered.

That was the first time we officially met.

The second was Minneapolis.

So yes, filming this episode felt like visiting family. Like finding a long-lost cousin in the middle of winter.

We originally hoped to release this story earlier in the year. We thought we might raise enough money to give it the proper rollout, hire the right publicists, and move everything faster.

It did not happen.

The timing was wrong.

Now, the timing feels right.

You need to watch this story. You need to listen to it. You need to support these people. One way to do that is by supporting us and allowing us to keep telling stories like this.

And when you are in Minneapolis, go see them.

If you are in Milwaukee, take the train over.

If you are in Oregon, take the flight.

For now, start here. Watch the episode.

It means the world to me.

Then again, they all do.

After you watch the teaser above, go watch the full episode over at TODOS.

Then come back and read Gustavo’s piece here. It is always a joy to hear a chef speak for himself and offer his own take, in his own unfiltered words.