Paola Velez was born in the Bronx, a first generation American of Dominican descent, pastry chef, activist and long-time No Kid Hungry supporter, who credits her mother and grandmother with the woman she is today. She was selected as a Food & Wine Best New Chef of 2021.
It was in fact at one of those restaurants, owned by her mother’s cousin, where a young Velez would stare at the cooks while her mother worked, entranced by their chopping and slicing and where she grew keenly aware of the lack of chefs of color in the kitchen.
Velez graduated from Le Cordon Bleu and worked as a chef in New York, while regularly selling treats to raise funds for community-based efforts. She later moved to DC and surpassed her wildest dreams by becoming a coveted pastry chef.
She drew from her childhood experiences visiting the Dominican Republic several months out of the year to visit her grandmother, one of the matriarchs of her family. Some of her earliest memories include playing amidst rows of cacao trees and eating fresh fruit from her backyard.
“My grandmother always cooked extra food at noon, regardless of how many people were at the house,” she remembers. “If it was just me and my mom, she would cook extra food to give to the community. It didn’t matter if you were unemployed or if you were a doctor or lawyer; she would just welcome people.”
As she reflects on those memories, she concludes, “Giving is a part of who I am because I was raised that way. My mom made sure that if we had three dollars, we’d give one way. When I see a need in the community, I activate.”
Velez was assessing what more she could be doing with her talents and skills when the coronavirus pandemic furloughed huge swaths of the restaurant industry, including her co-workers. She describes the bureaucratic process of trying to get unemployment benefits for her staff and herself as “very humiliating.” If she encountered such difficulty as a documented worker, she could barely imagine what undocumented workers were enduring in their attempts to keep the lights on throughout the lockdowns.
“I didn’t have currency in the form of money, but I knew how to make things that I could sell for money, that I can use to donate,” Velez shared.
She joined forces with Daniella Senior of Colada Shop to make Doña Dona a reality, a pop-up donut shop specializing in Latin American flavors with Americana influences to raise funds for undocumented workers. “We were very successful and sold out all the time. A lot of people liked the idea of donating to this community and getting a reward – which was doughnuts,” she laughs.
Velez brought her activism to an even higher level in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020, which prompted nationwide protests against police brutality and mass soul-searching about what more individuals could do to take a stand against institutional racism.
She remembers thinking, “I’m not ashamed of being Black and Latina. I can’t live like this. All I could think about is my husband or a loved one being stopped while driving and something happening.” For Velez, the path forward came in co-founding and launching Bakers Against Racism, a global bake sale that has raised millions of dollars in funds to support Black Lives Matters chapters and organizations around the world focused on social, racial and economic justice.
It’s clear that we still have a long way to go as a country two years later. But Velez remains hopeful. “I hope that people don’t just see the painful history, right? I hope that in the future, we can see the beautiful accomplishments of Black and Latino communities – not only in music and science, but art, social advances, technological advancements. I can’t wait to teach my children about Afro Latinos and Black People who have changed the course of history – not just the same few individuals that most school curriculums focus on.”
Velez envisions food as her way of making a difference. She calls food the “great equalizer because it’s what connects us” and it’s what propelled her to partner with No Kid Hungry, a campaign to end child hunger in America by ensuring that all children get the healthy food they need every day to connect and thrive. “I always make sure that the organizations that I'm working with are aligned with what I wish that I had access to when I was younger.”
As she thinks of the future, Paola wants to “talk openly about how Afro Latino history is Black history and all the Afro Latinos that have impacted Black history, that oftentimes don't get spoken about.” She wants children to realize that “there are a multitude of Afro Latinos fighting for them to be seen for them, to be heard, and for them to have the same opportunities. We’re also building awareness of what our culture is, and giving that same platform to them as we wish we had growing up.”
“I am very grateful that I am Afro Latina, because it allows me to be in two communities at the same time.” And today, she is slowly but surely transforming the industry to ensure the flavors of the Caribbean are as revered as those of Europe; among her many accolades, she has been named as a 2020 James Beard award finalist for Rising Star Chef and named Esquire’s Pastry Chef of the Year 2020. But her focus remains on her activism against racism and hunger.
