The Perfect Combination
in Chef Dunia Borga’s Life
“I’ve always loved the smell of vanilla coming out
of the oven. But, oh, I used to make bricks!” Dunia Borga,
the 37-year-old of Colombian descent who grew up in LA, says with
a laugh. She quickly adds, “I never thought I’d be a
pastry chef.” Hard to believe from a woman whose layer cakes
so pleased the taste buds of Gourmet editors that they named La
Duni Latin Café one of America’s Best Restaurants in
2003, two years after the restaurant opened.
Sometimes it just takes someone else to
see our true passion.
Dunia—who goes by Duni—owns two of the Metroplex’s
tastiest South American restaurants: La Duni Latin Kitchen and Baking
Studio and La Duni Latin Café (a third location opens in
NorthPark Mall in early 2007) along with her husband and longtime
chef Espartaco “Taco” Borga. It was Taco who suggested
cake decorating about 10 years ago, when Dunia was studying to be
a child psychologist. One cake class her husband nudged her toward
led to a pastry class and yet another until, finally, Duni’s
master’s in psychology was buried under meringue.
Just like Taco, whom she’s known since she
was 17, sensed something about Duni’s true passion, the couple
intuitively saw a chance to bring a new love of Latin American food
to Tex-Mexaholic Dallas. It wasn’t their first venture—they
were the founders of “handmade Mexican” eatery ZuZu’s,
which they sold back in the 90’s—but the couple, married
four years ago, realized they always gravitated toward the recipes
of South American culture, not just those of Mexico.
“Our food is the home cooking of Latin America,” says
Duni, who uses the recipes of her grandmother and aunts. “These
recipes—I wish I could say we created them, but they’ve
been in our countries for hundreds of years.”
Duni’s first plan was to have just a breakfast place because
that would allow for better hours to balance work and family. But
Taco, who was between projects after the sale of ZuZu’s, proposed
letting him add some lunch items to the menu to make the best use
of the original space on McKinney Avenue.
In keeping with Latin American tradition, all the restaurants are
named after Duni—the home is always named after the woman
who runs it. “Whenever you sit at a table, anyone’s
table, you’re family. You’re sharing one of the most
important things, a meal, and that’s a celebration of life,”
she says. Anyone that’s stood by the stove for more than half
an hour knows that cooking for other people requires a lot of generosity.
“You give a little bit of yourself in everything you make.
It’s why recipes taste different from one person to another.”
One of the most flattering things about life as a pastry chef, she
says, is when someone asks you to bake their wedding cake or birthday
cake—or even something for a wake.
And flattery is a great motivator. Duni’s favorite time of
day is 5 a.m., when she gets to her new pastry-only kitchen in the
warehouse district. She fires up the ovens and along with five other
bakers produces at least 45 cakes for each restaurant location every
day. In addition to keeping her own customers eating cake, Duni
supplies the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport with sweets
and also supplies desserts for a handful of other restaurants. She
takes a break at 7:30 each morning to return home for breakfast
with her five-year-old son, Brandon, and Taco. After Brandon is
dropped at school, she’s back in her pastry kitchen tending
to the sweets, and Taco runs the restaurant kitchens and makes sure
meals are savory. All three Borgas eat dinner together at the Latin
Kitchen, where Taco oversees the dinner rush while Duni returns
home to put Brandon to bed.
Serving breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week at the Oak
Lawn location, and six days a week at the Latin Café on McKinney,
means the sacrifices are worth about 1,000 dinners a day.
But Dunia is taking none of their success
for granted.
“I wake up every night when my husband comes home and I ask,
‘Did people come in? Are they going to show up tomorrow?”’
says Duni. “One day at a time we work, and while we’re
at it, we plan a little bit for ahead.”
Other articles:
For the remaining articles, subscribe to BeE Woman Magazine.
