Chef Maycoll Calderón has opened up his first restaurant taking inspirations and influences from Mérida, Mexico here in New York. Located in the East Village at The Standard, people can expect the best out of what Mérida has to offer to the world.
After the success of his pop-up earlier this year in New York, Huset, his menu at Cuna expresses the different sides of Mérida, and he explained further about his motivations for deciding on Mérida as the staple place his dishes would be coming from.
“Mérida has beautiful ingredients. I brought many of those ingredients to Cuna, like the octopus. There’s very few regions in the where you can fish octopus, or that grills octopus,” Chef Calderón discussed.
One of the few dishes that includes octopus has it grilled and served with black beans, mole, plantain, cilantro, and crema. Chef Calderón also commented that Cuna is more seafood-oriented, this is shown within his wide variety of fish that is offered between the mains and starters.
While he can’t travel to Yucatan, which is the state where Mérida resides in, to grab their delicious fish, he emphasizes that he’ll be using the community around him to gain access to the seafood. He also emphasized the inclusion of spice in his dishes, adding that hint of a kick when people sit down and try, for example, the Corn Fritters, which have a touch of spiciness from the cheese that doesn’t overpower the other flavors happening.
“We love chile habanero in New York. We love spice,” he starts off. “Everything related to chiles we’ve tried to include on our menu. It’s not too crazy, but it makes you salivate and smile, and then immediately want a drink.”
Spice and citrus work as a team throughout many of the dishes at Cuna. Citrus, as the Chef describes, is one of the most important flavors for any dish in Yucatan. Customers can get a glimpse of that taste with one of the most delectable starters on the menu, the sea bass ceviche.
Sea-bass ceviche includes lime, avocado, ginger, radish, celery, and cilantro, which all work in unison to create that sour taste that hits you up front before becoming a savory snack that you won’t put down.
For a first-time restaurant owner, he hit the ball out of the park with star dishes, and he explains that when it came to building Cuna to what he has now, the kitchen side of things were easiest.
“I have that side of things controlled,” he starts off. “What I don’t have control over is the team. I’m all about creating solid teams. I can’t do it all. Hospitality for me is essential, in all aspects of the restaurant.”
Chef Calerón wants the love and effort his team puts into the kitchen to translate to the dining experience, when customers get their food and feel the energy of hard work and quality over fast service, leaving customers unsatisfied.
“I think that’s the hardest part of creating a restaurant honestly, because sure, you can have the idea of a restaurant, but to create a solid team to execute the vision is the hardest part,” he discussed.
Moving outside the kitchen, he has a wonderful person who helps him with the aesthetic and design of not only Cuna, but collaborates on many of his projects, his wife Marifer Durán.
“It’s all about her vision nowadays. All the designing part with architects, the lighting, and the sound creates the dining experience. I think we make a great team,” he stated.
The love of Mérida can be felt no matter where you are at the restaurant. The bars include soft lighting and gorgeous succulents can be found throughout the restaurant with wooden accents that reflect the restaurant’s origin.
With the many trips he and his wife take together to visit restaurants and taste amazing ingredients around the world, the duo tries to incorporate their favorite aspects into their own concepts.
“She’s a key component to all our projects. She really takes care of the customer behind the scenes and makes sure they’re having the dining experience from start to finish. Not even just at the restaurant, but with reservations, following up, etc. She’s extremely good at it and she really helps us make that happen,” Chef Calderón finishes off.
With both being from different places (Calderón from Venezuela and Durán from Mexico), he discussed a little about his own flares and twist that he adds to Mérida dishes and on his menu.
“There’s always rice on my menus. As a kid, I grew up eating rice, and I think that every Latin American family, that’s one of the key ingredients. I’m also very tropical, so using mango and pineapple, fruits that I have eaten since I was little. Of course black beans, but all these things remind me of home and where I grew up,” he explained.
All his experiences from Venezuela, Mexico, and the other seven countries he lived in before combines within Cuna and a city known for never sleeping, to which he describes very proudly, as a dream come true.
“For me, I always wanted my own restaurant first, and I love New York. Part of my personality belongs here. So when I left, I always thought that maybe when and if I come back, I want to have my own place.”
Though Cuna is still in its beginning phases as a restaurant, Chef Calerdón told us that there are still more dishes yet to come later on in the season.
“Most of them [dishes] already have recipes, but they’ll be coming. Some of the ingredients I can’t find right now. But when summer comes next year, those dishes will be on the menu for people to enjoy.”
