Taste of the town: James Beard Foundation's 'Taste of America' comes to South Florida
MIAMI -- Chef Karla Hoyos is known for her ability to create delicious dishes with ease and flair, having been personally selected by chef José Andrés as the first Latina chef de cuisine at The Bazaar by José Andrés.
She received a call one day from Andrés who asked her to join the ground efforts for his World Central Kitchen after Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.
"I was supposed to only go and help them set up a kitchen and I ended up staying three months in Puerto Rico," Hoyos said. "We were doing 75,000 meals a day for the island."
Karla volunteered on several WCK missions, including Ukraine, where she helped women and children. She learned first hand from Andres himself, whose mission is always to feed quality food to those in disaster zones.
"And you know, a plate of food was not going to fix all the problems that they were going through," Hoyos said. "But a plate of food, a warm Borscht, knowing that somebody took the time to learn their comfort food, I cannot explain the reaction."
"It's different, and it's addictive as well because you see that you want to do more."
At Hoyos' all new Tacotomia at Julia and Henry, a gourmet food hall in Downtown Miami, she creates authentic food that honors her Mexican heritage, like traditional tacos, machetes and more.
This week, Hoyos is one of 11 chefs participating in this week's highly regarded James Beard Foundation's "Taste of America" dinner in Miami, where top chefs come together for a good cause.
"I think having this event in Miami and being able to showcase local chefs that are doing this with all of these cuisines and supporting them because they also support the local chefs is great. All of the proceeds go to support local chefs," Hoyos said.
Specifically the smaller mom-and-pop restaurants like hers.
Taste of America is open to the public and is co-hosted by by The Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.
"The more and the brighter the spotlight on our culinary scene, the better prestige, the higher accolades that we can get in terms of garnering more visitors, more economic impact and more people visiting our restaurants," said Jennifer Diaz Alzuri from the GMCVB.
As for Hoyos, she's honored to present her mouthwatering food on this special night in Miami.
"James Beard is a big deal for any chef, you know," Hoyos said. "And I think Miami is the perfect place to showcase. There's no another place that you can showcase. We're such a melting pot."
The Taste of America Dinner by the James Beard Foundation is Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Rubell Museum in Allapattah.
For more information on the dinner: jamesbeard.org/tasteamerica
For more on Tacotomia: tacotomia.com
