'Chef’s Table: Volume 7': Norma Listman masters the culinary arts of a very special country
'Chef’s Table' is an Emmy-nominated documentary series that has been simmering since its last episode in 2022. It's finally time to eat again, but like with any excellent meal, preparation is a crucial step in the process.
'Chef's Table' is now returning with a dynamic husband-and-wife team, Norma Listman and Saqib Keval, who combine South Asian and Mexican tastes to create a distinctive culinary story that honors their cultural heritage. They have dedicated their careers to promoting food as a tool for exploring justice, decolonization, and the establishment of community-based businesses that center on movement building and political education. They are co-chefs and co-owners of an emerging restaurant group in Mexico City that currently consists of two restaurants: Masala y Maíz and Mari Gold.
The two run their companies, which also include a chef residency program and a labor justice foundation, with a communal leadership approach, an emphasis on radical hospitality, a worker- and community-first mindset, and complete financial transparency.
Norma Listman aims to carry on her Mexican lineage through her food
Norma is a Mexico City and Oakland, California-based chef, artist, educator, and specialist in the food sector. She and chef Sabiq co-own and run Mexico City's Masala y Maiz, a cutting-edge eatery that uses ingredients, cooking methods, and South Asian, East African, and Mexican components to create dishes inspired by the chefs' family traditions and histories.
Her ancestry guides her work as a chef and artist; she is particularly interested in traditional culinary techniques and the many eras of Mexican cuisine. Norma's interest in working with native kinds of maize was sparked by her father's lifelong work with the crop and her own desire to preserve her culture. Her desire to preserve traditional values necessitates paying close attention to regional farming practices.
Norma Listman has worked under several culinary legends
Norma started off as a culinary manager at the well-known Oakland eateries Bay Wolf and Camino. She followed her love of food and went into the kitchen, working under renowned Bay Area chefs Russell More at Camino, Dominica Rice at Consecha, Charles Phan at Hard Water, and Anthony Strong at Delfina and Locanda.
As a chef and an artist, Norma works to preserve traditional Mexican cooking techniques and cultural heritage while promoting Mexican cuisine in Mexico and the United States through a variety of art-inspired dinner performance events.
Additionally, Norma works with La Perla Hospitality as a restaurant consultant.
Norma Listman teaches Mexican food history to young minds in culinary
Norma teaches Mexican cooking methods at 18 Reasons Organization in San Francisco and is an active food scholar. Since 2015, she has been instructing mole lessons at the non-profit.
She has taught the subjects of Mexican food history, traditional farming methods, and the current status of Mexican cuisine in the context of global food culture at colleges in the US and Mexico.
Her study of Mexican native corn and nixtamalization is her main interest, and she presently resides in Mexico City.
Volume 7, a standard season of 'Chef's Table', will air on November 27 on Netflix.
