No Pix After Dark Podcast

Chef Carlos Raba was born and raised in the Mexican state of Sinaloa by his mother and her four sisters. He learned to make tortillas by hand in his uncle’s restaurant and picked up classic Mexican recipes like cochinita pibil and lengua from his aunts and grandmother. Raba’s mother was a journalist who was critical of Mexican politicians, so fearing for their lives, she sought asylum and moved the family to the suburbs of Washington, D.C. when Raba was 17. After he graduated from high school, Raba attended business school for a year and then began working in grocery stores. He started at the Whole Foods in Kentlands, Maryland, trying his hand at different roles—butcher, fishmonger, cheesemonger, and eventually store manager. He. then moved to Giant Foods and worked at various locations for five years. Tiring of the corporate life, his business partner Lane Harlan convinced him to use his creativity and family recipes to open Clavel in Baltimore in 2015. In a Converted American grill, Raba serves the same shr