Growing up in the Ivory Coast in West Africa, food was a big part of chef Momo Camara’s life. “I was raised by my grandmother until I was 15. We spent a lot of time together in the kitchen. She was constantly making food – holidays, funerals, not to mention three square meals a day. I was basically her shopping cart at the market. She was very particular about where she would get certain things. All of her food, to this day, is the best food I’ve had in my life.”
Camara moved to New York when he was 15, where his mother was already living. “French was my first language, so I had to go to a private school that was bilingual – that was my first junior high school experience, and my first winter. I had just left the beach. Culture shock was huge, from the clothes to the food. I wasn’t used to eating McDonald’s cheeseburgers; I was used to eating fresh food that was made that day. At first, it was exciting, but my body couldn’t take it.”
Although he’d been interested in cooking since childhood, his culinary journey began at Johnson & Wales University. While attending school full time, he also worked full time. His first job was at Siena on Federal Hill. “It was quite the eye-opener,” he says. “It was busy all the time and really exciting.”
Those early culinary experiences kicked off a career spanning the country. Working as a sous chef up to an executive chef, Camara had a hand in a myriad of fine dining restaurants and steakhouses, from Connecticut to Miami to Houston. He helped open Catch NYC in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, known for its celebrity sightings and globally influenced seafood menu, and he was recruited by a French Creole fine dining restaurant in New Orleans. He also helped revamp several Rhode Island establishments, including Ladder 133 and Massimo in Providence, and the Surf Shack in Narragansett – where he won several awards and brought notoriety for his French Polynesian menu – before becoming the executive chef at Besos Tapas & Wine Bar in East Greenwich.
Camara’s first day of work was September 17, the same day he was medically cleared after breaking his fibula and requiring seven screws and a titanium plate, but he hit the ground running, so to speak, and began assessing the needs of the restaurant and taking note of where they could improve the most. In light of this fresh start, the team is undergoing new training, and they’ve updated the menu, breathing new life into it. “The staff is excited, the owner is excited, and everyone is stepping it up every day,” reports Camara. “I want to do a lot of great things, and I think we can achieve them.”
Besos has been known for its Spanish influence and tapas, but Camara plans to elevate the offerings and add authenticity to each dish, and, he explains, “there’s a lot of love in our process. It takes 72 hours to make the pork belly. And our lasagna is different – it’s not your typical meat sauce. We’re using high-end Spanish chorizo, veal, beef, pork, ham, and spices, more like an Italian-Spanish blend. It comes out looking like a tower, and it’s been selling the most since we changed the menu.”
Another standout Camara has perfected is the Gambas al Ajillo, or garlic shrimp, which is popular in Spain. “We get the shrimp – head on, shell on – and they’re gigantic. We roast the garlic in olive oil and use that olive oil to cook the shrimp, and then we add the roasted garlic cloves and some Calabrian chili – the flavor is just outstanding,” he says. Cooking shrimp with the head on is a New Orleans twist that Camara adopted from his time there. “Once you’re done with the tail, you can suck the head, where all the goodness is. It’ll change your life; you have to try it.”
The best thing about working at Besos is seeing the camaraderie among the team and among each group of guests. “Tapas are meant to be shared among friends. It’s interactive. Anytime you’re eating food with your bare hands, there’s no better time than that.”
378 Main Street, East Greenwich
401-398-8855
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