Culinary Alchemists

Founded by Hue-Chan Karels, Alkemē reflects Karels’s Vietnamese heritage and a lifelong relationship to food shaped by migration. For her, cooking is both nourishment and continuity—holding memory and transformation together through flavor and craft. Executive chef Erica Tai brings her Taiwanese heritage to the restaurant’s culture-to-table concept. In this episode of 5-Minute Fridays, we talk with Karels and Tai about how culture, memory, and identity come together on the plate.

At one of Seed2Need’s gardens in Corrales, we visited with leadership team members Dave Butler, Stacey Haught, and Stephanie Reese to chat about their volunteer-run nonprofit. In this episode of 5-Minute Fridays, we talk about how Seed2Need started almost twenty years ago and has since donated more than 861,000 pounds of produce to local food pantries. On donated land in Corrales, volunteers grow approximately 1.5 acres of vegetables and maintain two orchards with more than 140 fruit trees.

Yolanda Torres, the executive chef behind VM Coffee, lives by the philosophy “Give me a little and I’ll turn it into something incredible.” In this episode of 5-Minute Fridays, Chef Yoyo shares how she came to food from a place of survival as a kid, fell in love with the farm-to-table movement while attending culinary school, and then cut her teeth in New Orleans before returning to New Mexico. 

Patricia Garcia has transformed the cafeteria at Turquoise Trail Charter School, replacing heat-and-serve meals with fresh, scratch-made food kids actually want to eat. With a rotating menu and plenty of variety, she has students—and teachers—coming back for more. In this episode of 5-Minute Fridays, Garcia talks about what it takes to cook real food for hundreds of kids every day and why a better school lunch can make a difference well beyond the cafeteria.

Kyle Key, the maker behind NM ChileJang, is currently the only producer of cottage-style gochujang in the United States. Inspired by a trip to South Korea, Key saw a connection between Korean gochu and New Mexico red chile and began experimenting with traditional fermentation methods. In this episode of 5-Minute Fridays, Key shares how he uses locally grown red chile to create a distinctly New Mexican take on one of South Korea’s mother sauces—and how it has amassed a devoted following among local chefs and chile lovers. 

At Vara Winery & Distillery, wine and spirits have more in common than first meets the eye. At VARA, grapes don’t stop at wine—they become the foundation for brandy, vermouth, vodka, and gin. In this episode of 5-Minute Fridays, distiller Ayisha Mares and CEO Jon Murray talk about how Vara expanded from winemaking into distilling—and how a growing lineup of spirits opened the door to an equally creative cocktail program.

At Mañana Taco, Chef Nathan Mayes brings his Austin roots to Albuquerque with a New Mexico spin on the breakfast taco. Parked alongside Little Bear Coffee in Nob Hill since 2024, the truck turns out house-made flour tortillas filled with local eggs, responsibly sourced meats, and fresh vegetables. In this episode of 5-Minute Fridays, we talk with Mayes about trading fine dining for a tiny kitchen on wheels, building a loyal following around damn good tacos and salsas, and recently expanding with the addition of a brick-and-mortar location.This episode is brought to you by ⁠Quivira Coalition⁠.

Chef Kattia Rojas grew up with the flavors of Costa Rica, learning from the food cooked by her mother and grandmother. After starting Buen Provecho as a catering and farmers market business, she found a permanent home at El Vado in 2018, where she built a menu around the Costa Rican flavors and ingredients she knows and loves. In this episode of 5-Minute Fridays, we talk with her about the food of her childhood and the dishes she now serves at her restaurant, from casados with ropa vieja and sweet plantains to traditional Costa Rican tamales. This episode is brought to you by ⁠Quivira Coalition⁠.

Eldora Chocolate represents a newer era of small-batch, bean-to-bar chocolate—chocolate made from scratch with a focus on quality, transparency, and education. In this episode of 5-Minute Fridays, we chat with Steve Prickett about the importance of building relationships with farmers, R&D, and the challenges of fine chocolate making.

Rancho de Santa Fe is a sixteenth-generation farm; the Velardes have been growing fruit at Velarde Orchards for over four hundred years, since 1598. They sell their produce and dozens of value-added products at the Fruit Basket. In this episode of 5-Minute Fridays, Eddie Velarde and his son Caleb share their family’s history and reflect on what farming will look like for the next generation.This episode is brought to you by  Quivira Coalition.