8 Badass Female Chefs Elevating NYC Food Pop-ups
Did you think we were going to let Women’s History Month pass without celebrating some of the badass women in the NYC food industry?! It goes without saying that NYC pop-ups have hit a new level in the the past year, and a lot of credit deserves to go to these 8 incredible women. From the innovative dishes they’re putting out consistently to the non-stop hustle it takes to operate a pop-up with no brick & mortar restaurant; these women are not only inspiring, but elevating food pop-ups in NYC.
Miriam Weiskind
The Za Report
📸: Good Morning America
If you’ve ever been on one of Scott’s Pizza Tours, you might know Miriam Weiskind, whose pizza passion rose to the public eye after winning consecutive NYC Pizza Runs in 2010 and 2011. Her prize was tickets to the pizza tour and she soon became a tour guide. She led tours for eight years, accruing a rolodex of pizza knowledge that led her to become a pizzaiola herself. At the beginning of 2020, Weiskind began working at Paulie Gee’s, but the pandemic forced her out of a job. However, she persisted, baking pizza to pass time and giving out free pizza to other’s who had lost their jobs, first responders, and anyone facing hardship. What started as a way to give back has become one of New York’s top pizza pop-ups, frequently selling out at breweries, bars, and restaurants in Brooklyn and Queens. Her next pop-up is April 8 at Wild East Brewing. Tap the pizza below for all the info.
📸: @thezareport
Neapolitan-ish pie by The Za Report
Erika Costa
Patikim
📸: @patikim.nyc
If you live in Bushwick and have a window, you’ve probably smelled the pork skewers and calamansi ribs from Patikim. The smoky, but bright aromas billowing from their grill have a hypnotic effect on everyone within a half-mile radius. Chef Erika Costa, the force behind the Filipinx food pop-up has additionally created a platform for other businesses to join the pop-up game with the markets she hosts alongside her pop-ups. Her mastery of Filipino flavors is always a great reason to travel to rural Brooklyn and wait in a line that wraps around the block. She’s currently on a well deserved vacation, but when she’s back in action you’ll be able to find details of her next pop-up on the 8it app.
📸: @patikim.nyc
Ribs by Patikim
Rāsheeda Purdie
Ramen by Rā
📸: @steve8it
For Harlem native Rasheeda Purdie, ramen is a canvas for innovation. Having previously held many different roles in the restaurant industry, including back of house, hosting, and management, she is now teaching ramen demo classes with The Institute of Culinary Education and taking NYC by storm with her ramen pop-up series’. Her most recent series, Rise + Dine, sold out every seating over a two month period while changing our idea of brunch for good. Purdie enveloped her guests with relaxing elements like hot tea, burning sage, and a Jazz playlist she curated herself. Get your chopsticks ready, because the Rise + Dine series is set to restart in the Spring, and she’s hosting a one-night-only dinner open to the public later this month. Tap the ramen below for all the details.
📸: Angela Bankhead
Bacon Egg N’ Cheese Ramen at Rise + Dine
Shelly & Jataun Flash
2 Girls & A Cookshop
📸: @2girlscookshop
This mother-daughter duo that pops up at kitchen incubator Nimbus won the New York City Wine & Food Festival’s award for “Best Taco”. Inspired by the cook shops of Jamaica and love for street food, they blend cultures to create a menu of burritos and tacos that dance in your mouth with nuances of flavor. Known for their jerk chicken and chopped cheese tacos, but they also have vegan options and make their own hot sauces with jonkanoo and scotch bonnet peppers. Their food is available for delivery and pickup every Tuesday - Friday. Tap the pepper below for all the info on their pop-up.
📸: @2girlscookshop
Tacos by 2 Girls & a Cookshop
Christina Martinez
South Philly Barbacoa
📸: Jacques Morel @jmorel_jr
James Beard Award-winning Chef Christina Martínez is an international barbacoa sensation, and she’s bringing her adored specialty to Nimbus in Brooklyn every Saturday through March. With over 40 years of experience making this dish, it’s not just extraordinarily delicious meat, handmade tortillas, and fresh salsa; it’s history. Martínez began making barbacoa at age six in Capulhuac, Mexico, and she has since become a legend of the pop-up game, starting South Philly Barbacoa out of an apartment in Philadelphia in 2014, before opening Casa Mexico in 2020, which won her the James Beard Award for the best chef in the Mid-Atlantic in 2022. In her episode of Chef’s Table, you can get a glimpse of her intricate process making barbacoa and the sacrifices it took to get to where she is today. Tap the taco below for all the info on her Brooklyn pop-up.
📸: @barbacoachef
Tacos by South Philly Barbacoa
Marisa Mendez Marthaller
Soup Doula
📸: Evan Angelastro
Hospitality veteran and postpartum doula Marisa Mendez Marthaller drops an array of soups including pozole, minestrone, curried squash and lentil, and borscht at Nightmoves every Sunday through March with her pop-up Soup Doula. According to Eater, Marthaller started Soup Doula during the pandemic as a way to help her clients who had just given birth despite parameters that prevented in-person visits. Along with the pop-up, Soup Doula also delivers soups like white bean and escarole to Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. Tap the soup below for all the info on her pop-up.
Soup by Soup Doula
Courtney Sproule
Din Din
📸: Resident
Chef Courtney Sproule’s Din Din pop-ups are meals that taste as if “Julia Child had joined the riot grrrl movement,” according to James Beard Award-winning food critic Karen Brooks, and that quote perfectly captures her culinary rock show Din Din, that draws inspiration from regional French cooking of the countryside home. A typical Din Din setlist might include an ensemble of trumpet mushrooms and celtuce carpaccio, poached oyster salsify soup with maitake mushrooms and fried chicken skin, lamb speck sausage with hazelnut and porcini in Chartreuse cabbage tomato sauce, and goat cheesecake with shortbread and cassis blueberry coulis.
📸: @dindin_nyc
Trumpet mushroom celtuce carpaccio by Din Din
Cassandra Lam
The Laksa Shop
📸: Black-Owned Brooklyn
This curry noodle soup pop-up was born out of Mama Lam’s, a mother-daughter duo bringing Malaysian flavors to NYC in the form of curry pastes and hot sauces. The daughter, founder Cassandra Lam, teamed up with former Chopped contestant Chef Lizzy Singh-Brar to make the popular southeast Asian dish laksa that’s ignited by the curry paste. Their bowls of perfect drinking-food have graced bars and breweries in Queens and Brooklyn. The next Laksa Shop pop-up is coming up on April 2 at Wild East Brewing. Tap the bowl below for all the info.
Laksa by The Laksa Shop
Whether Women’s History month or not, we should always continue supporting women-owned Restaurants all year long:
Click here to see the top dishes at women-owned restaurants in NYC