Chef Silvana: A top chef in the Southwest
2012 was a year of transitions for Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza. It was the year she brought her saucy demeanor and savory authentic Mexico cuisine into Old Town Scottsdale.
In addition, it also was the year she expanded her restaurant empire from her acclaimed Barrio Café in Phoenix to Sky Harbor International Airport’s Terminal 4.
For Silvana, this past year was a time she achieved career highs, and lows.
“Getting awarded ‘Best New Restaurants of 2012” by Esquire magazine for Barrio Queen was a highlight,” she says.
And a low point? “Closing Silvana Bistro.”
Silvana came into downtown Scottsdale at 7114 E. Stetson Drive in January with two restaurant concepts with two distinct menus. The restaurants were Barrio Queen Tequileria and Silvana’s Bistro. Barrio Queen was a casual breakfast, lunch, and dinner eatery. Silvana’s Bistro was a upscale, Euro-Mexican style restaurant.
She closed Silvana’s Bistro on Feb. 4, three weeks after opening it.
“There was not enough room for both, and Silvana’s Bistro didn’t feel right to me. Very strange energy went on there,” Silvana says.
She reopened the bistro space as an expansion of Barrio Queen, and revamped the menu to include even more dining choices. The new menu encompassed flavorful reflections of her Oaxacan and Chihuahuan styles of cooking.
If you wanted, you could eat all three of a day’s main meals there. For breakfast, you can select a chilaquiles dish with freshly made corn tortillas, permeated with longaniza sausage topped with two huevos, and slathered in pork green, red chile, or mole sauce.
For lunch you can enjoy tlacoyos corn fritters with chicken, black frijoles, onions, salsa verde, cotija cheese, and crema Mexicana. And for dinner you can savor Silvana’s recipe for slow-cooked cochinita pibil – roasted pork, habanero pico de gallo, and pickled red onions, served with a side of fresh tortillas, epazote black frijoles, and Barrio slaw.
Silvana held on to two of her favorite recipes from the old Bistro menu: en hojaldre, a mesh of huitlacoche and porcini mushrooms in white truffle oil and cheese-filled poblano. Another was the pan-seared duck breast with garbanzo bean sauté and Serrano spinach in quince fruit and wine sauce.
Silvana, who was nominated for the prestigious James Beard Best Chef Southwest Award in 2010 and 2011, says Valley food lovers have embraced the Barrio Queen concept.
“The main factor for closing Silvana Bistro is that Barrio Queen was a success for its food from day one,” she says. “Service came a little slower with the growing pains of going from 55 to 145 seats – overnight. But it got there. We pack ‘em in and people are leaving very happy.”
The ambitious Silvana also opened her Barrio Café por Avión dining spot at Phoenix Sky Harbor this year. She reports that dining venture has “wings.”
“The airport was a hit right out of the gate. Even now with the crop of restaurants at the airport, people are walking from one side to the other to eat at the Barrio Café por Avión!” she says. “Amazing indeed. I only wish mi papa y mama were here to see what they started back in 1964 at La Azteca Bakery. I am just following their steps.”
Silvana grew up in Merced, California. She worked in her family’s bakery when she was 6. When he was 15 she started selling carnitas there, and began a tortillas y pan route, selling to local stores with farm-worker customers. She later started her own catering business.
She was formally trained as a chef at the Scottsdale Culinary Institute, where she had a full scholarship. As an intern she worked under sous chef Matt Carter at Christopher’s Bistro.
Cooking and being a chef is “in my blood, part of my soul,” Silvana says. She describes her award-winning style of cooking as “chef-inspired Mexican cuisine at Barrio Café, and chef-inspired comida de mercado at Barrio Queen.”
Chef Silvana also is known for her community activism, creating a mini-arts district through a mural project called Calle 16 surrounding the Barrio Café at 2814 N. 16th St. in Phoenix. Art by local Latino artistas also abounds at her two other restaurants.
“Art has always been a key factor in the success of our business,” she explains. “It’s Karma. We offer our customers beautiful local art to enjoy as part of their experience at the café. Meanwhile, we offer local artists a venue to sell their art, free of charge. It’s a win-win situation. And I get to collect more art. Currently I have an artist painting murals inside the building that will, someday, be a new bar at the Barrio Café.”
Asked to name a resolution for 2013, Silvana replies: “One I know I will break in two weeks – lose weight. I do hope to continue moving forward. My kids are grown and don’t need me as much as they used to. I guess, to open more restaurants!”
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