Mia Ponzi Hamacher

Bushwick, Brooklyn

We were lucky enough to be invited by co-partners Mia and Amal to experience their last Yellow Light Supper Club in NYC. Knowing that this experience was fleeting, we felt a sense of urgency to really enjoy this special dinner concept, focused around a tantalizing Thai tasting menu. Though Mia is onto new pastures, quite literally outside of the city, we felt honored she had some time to sit down with us and chat about her experiences. Fear not - she is not gone from the F&B scene forever. In fact, she dropped a hint she will be opening a B&B in the Willamette Valley named Sosta House. You know we will be the first to book a flight to Oregon to visit. In the meantime, read more below about how Mia & Amal’s friendship was the North Star in their supper club adventures.

Full name, age, where are you from?

Mia Ponzi Hamacher, 23, Scholls, Oregon 

What is your title and where do you work?

 I am the chef/co-owner of Sosta House B&B in the Willamette Valley, Oregon- opening this summer! I also ran a supper club called Yellow Light while working and living in NYC for the past five years- Kin Plā was the final edition of the supper club in New York and a special collaboration with Amal Flower Kay. 

Was food a big part of your upbringing?

 Food was the center of everything for me  growing up. I come from a big Italian family that will take any opportunity to gather together for a long meal with lots of wine. My favorite place was always in the kitchen beside my grandmother. She would give me little jobs to help out when I was little and eventually taught me most of what I know about cooking. I don’t mean the techniques but what it actually means to cook for others, to care about your ingredients, to be resourceful and how to make a kitchen a joyful place. Both my parents are great cooks too- even weeknight dinner was a sit down affair. Food is the fire that keeps traditions alive and brings our family together. The rule in my parents house is if you cook then someone else cleans up and I hate doing the dishes so that might be part of why I started cooking to begin with. 

What are your earliest memories of dining out?

My grandparents ran an Italian restaurant when I was a kid and I remember going there and sitting in the booth right next to the kitchen. I loved watching the chefs and seeing the food coming off the pass. I always ordered the same thing- clams in white wine- to this day if I see it on a menu guaranteed I will order it every time. I’m one of four kids so I grew up sharing everything, eating at a restaurant was so special because we each got to decide for ourselves. I loved the feeling of going someplace and having someone cook a dish just for me, what a treat! I still feel like that.

If you could give a piece of advice to someone who wanted to pursue your career, what would it be?

Start where you can and learn from everyone around you, ask tons of questions. I was a prep cook and dishwasher when I started in restaurants, the baseline skillset from those jobs got me everywhere I wanted to go in this industry. If I didn’t know how to do something I would ask- some people are too caught up in the competitive nature of the work but a lot of people are willing to teach. And it is really hard work. If you want to cook professionally you have to make a choice to sacrifice a lot of other aspects of your life, it’s an inevitable truth. I don’t mean that in a negative way, just realistically a lot of life happens between 1pm and 1am, when cooks are cooking. When I was really young getting started in restaurants, wanting to become a chef, the advice I got from SO MANY chefs was: “don’t”. I thought they were saying I didn’t have the skills, the drive, I saw it as an underestimation of me- but I get it more now. Cooking in restaurants takes a lot of time and the hours are different from most other careers. I struggled a lot working in kitchens, especially in college because I often felt very lonely after work- I would get home and my friends would be asleep with class in the morning. I’ve always been the youngest person in the kitchen and rarely joined my older coworkers for after-work drinks- by the time I was old enough to legally drink I was a sous chef and trying to assert myself as a leader, a difficult thing do when managing people twice your age. In a kitchen, I feel at home but when I leave work it’s more complicated to find my place in the world. I was totally out of sync with most people my age in my teens and early 20s, I still feel like I am a lot of the time, because I have been really focused on my career. It’s not something I regret at all but it can be isolating. I am grateful to have my friend Amal, another young chef. When we met in college it was the first time I found someone the same age as me with the same drive and aspirations, and willingness to sacrifice a lot of normal life stuff for the thing we both love. A friend who can relate is precious, I hope every young chef finds their Amal along the way. 

What do you think working in this industry has taught you?
Learn from everyone, never stop. When I was 17 I was working in a really fantastic restaurant in Portland, Oregon. I worked with someone who had a really great attitude that stuck with me. Whenever they did something wrong and the chef or another cook corrected them they would never say “sorry” they would always say “thank you”. I love this approach to anything but especially in a kitchen, it’s easy to feel defensive about your way of doing things but this openness to correction, to growth, learning, improvement, it only serves to make you a better cook. Knowledge is a great gift that can quietly pass by if you aren’t looking for it. Everyone in a kitchen has something to learn and something to teach, if given the opportunity everyone can benefit. The best chefs I have worked with understand this and see the value in every person in their kitchens, and the most unbearable chefs I know disregard the people “below” their rank and see themselves as beyond learning. The latter is a dying breed, literally (they are old!) but also because their food is no longer relevant and they can’t staff a kitchen (because who wants to work for someone that doesn’t value them?). 

What's your favorite dish/drink on the menu?

Amal and I had so much fun shopping, prepping and cooking together, it’s a menu we have been discussing for over a year. A couple items were always meant to be there and some were switched out or added in. The final Kin Plā  menu was so beautiful, it’s hard to choose but the Hor Mok Pla was probably one of my favorites. I love texture- sometimes I think it is more important to me than flavor, it really makes eating a thrilling experience! Hor Mok Pla is a steamed red curry custard in a folded banana leaf boat, the version we made had little pieces of gently cooked sea bass- and lime leaves from Amal’s grandmothers trees. It was so perfect- soft, light, creamy, yum. Oh and the Aeb Pla Nin!! A banana leaf package filled with red snapper and seasoned with herbs, lemongrass, rice powder and chilis, grilled then steamed. I had never had this dish before so Amal took me to Jackson Heights before our pop up to try a version he really liked at ZaabZaab. It had such a great texture from an ingredient we were both unfamiliar with which we found at a market in Chinatown and used it in our Aeb Pla Nin for supper club. It turned out really nice with the perfect texture we were looking for. 

What is your favorite place to go out and eat at and what are you ordering?

I love Okonomi in Brooklyn for a solo breakfast. They only have one dish on the menu- I get the small version and add Ikura and Uni (texture!). It’s a tiny place and they only do one thing but execute it beautifully every time- my perfect restaurant. 

You’re on a desert island, what are the 5 kitchen items you need to run your business? 

Music, my knife (a well loved Mcusta Zanmai Gyuto), my cast iron pan, good olive oil, and a wooden spoon.