Lea esta historia en español aquí
At 6 a.m. on January 24, Carlos Aparicio awoke to the news that his name and restaurant were for the first time on the semifinalist list for the prestigious James Beard Awards 2024 in the best chef category. Since then, his phone hasn’t stopped ringing, and he even had to hire a company to take over El Chingón’s social media.
Ultimately, the Mexican-born chef and the Puebla cuisine restaurant he established in South Philly in mid-2020 did not make this year’s JBF finalist list, but he says being recognized as a semifinalist will always be with him.
“Now everyone hears about El Chingón,” Aparicio told Billy Penn. “People from other countries leave me messages saying they’re coming here to eat. ‘Se siente bien padre’.”
Acclaim for El Chingón is, fortunately, not in short supply. When the restaurant had only been open for 10 months, it earned a spot on The New York Times’ list of America’s 50 Best Restaurants — Aparicio’s distinctive handmade sourdough tortillas most impressed the reviewers.
“Our sourdough tortilla program is something you’ve never seen,” chef Aparicio admitted. “When people try it, they say, ‘Wow, this is something different’.”
Across his 25-year career as a baker and corporate chef in New York and Philadelphia, Aparicio, 44, says he is particularly proud that the thing getting him recognition is his fusion of flour skills with his beloved Puebla food.
From Puebla to Philadelphia
Aparicio was 13 years old when he left his home in San Mateo Ozolco, a small town in the Mexican state of Puebla, to migrate to the U.S.
“I basically ran away,” the chef said. “I never told my parents I was leaving for the United States. I was a kid.”
He first moved with his uncle to Brooklyn, New York, but within the year, he had found a job in a Greek bakery and moved out on his own.
The owners of the Greek pastry shop realized that young Aparicio was a born baker. Over five years, he learned to make laminates, cookies, cakes, bread and baklava, and even learned to speak Greek. From there, he fell in love with baking.
In 1999, Aparicio moved to Philadelphia to work in a pastry position at Stephen Starr’s Asian fusion restaurant Buddakan. It was the first time that he had the opportunity to cook beyond baking under the guidance of the chefs, who became mentors.
His career took a turn when he accepted a job as head baker at Parc in Rittenhouse Square. Aparicio made a name for himself by developing their signature baguettes, awarded “Best Baguette” by Philadelphia Magazine in 2009. Fifteen years later, these French baguettes remain in high demand by customers.
Parc “was where I was able to really use my hands and create something beautiful.”
Aparicio’s hands were next put to work back in New York for a year to train in Italian cuisine, where he learned to make pizza and pasta from scratch. From there, he served as executive chef at Serafina Philadelphia and Zavino Wine Bar Pizzeria.
He also helped launch restaurants such as Pod with Michael Schulson, Blue with Shola Olunloyo, and Osteria with Marc Vetri.
After working for more than two decades for other restaurateurs, Aparicio wanted to spread his knowledge and anchor his Latino roots with his own family business. He and his brothers-in-law bought a building at 10th and Cross Streets, just off East Passyunk Avenue, and made that dream a reality.
“A lot of people ask me why I didn’t do El Chingón 20 years ago,” he said. “And the answer is because I wasn’t ready. It took me all that time to educate myself and learn. Now it’s really cool what’s happening, and it’s thanks to all the people who believed in me and supported me.”
Building El Chingón
El Chingón began as a pop-up. The idea came as a response to a tough family economic situation when his sisters were laid off during the COVID-19 crisis. The first thing Aparicio did before launching the business was to see if people liked the concept of the cemitas sandwiches —and they loved it. “Dale pa’ lante,” was the massive response.
“All that year, we sold cemitas, and there were lines of people,” Aparicio recalled.
Over the next four years, El Chingón grew into a stable business with about 15 employees and a solid, popular menu. He credits his success to the support of his family and notes that many of the dishes are a collection of family recipes with the flavors he remembers from Puebla when he and his sisters were young.
“Every time my sister made a particular sauce, I would tell her, ‘Save that recipe because it’s really good,'” Aparicio said.
Beyond specializing in sourdough tortillas and cemita sandwiches, El Chingón also serves regular tacos, aguachiles, tostadas, elote, guacamole, daily soups, and more.
The cemita bread
To find the perfect cemita sandwich recipe for El Chingón, chef Aparicio returned to Puebla to test the different breads available in his city’s street markets.
Cemita, he explains, is a bread introduced to Puebla by Jewish Spaniards and adapted by Mexicans by adding avocado, quesillo, milanesa, and an aromatic herb called papalo.
Nowadays, it is challenging to find cemita bread made 100% by hand as El Chingón does, and wholesale production has led to the loss of the tradition of making the bread at home, even in Puebla.
“My idea is to rescue the nobility of making bread so that when you eat it, that nobility is transposed to your experience,” Aparicio said.
At El Chingón, between 100 and 150 cemitas are made daily and quickly sell out.
Philadelphia has always been known for its delicious sandwiches, such as cheesesteaks and Italian hoagies. But what the City of Brotherly Love was missing, according to Aparicio, was “a good Mexican sandwich.”
El Chingón has eight types of stuffed cemitas to choose from, such as chorizo, adobo pork, cured beef al pastor, birria, chicken Milanese, and vegan portobello mushroom.
Of his culinary journey, Aparicio says he simply loves to create, explaining he’s “always looking to create things out of the ordinary.”
