Behind the Counter: Irena Stein (Alma Cocina Latina → Candela)

Venezuelan-born Irena Stein has spent her career braiding culture and hospitality into living, breathing spaces. She piloted zero-waste cafés at Johns Hopkins, opened Alma Cocina Latina in 2015 to champion contemporary Venezuelan cuisine (earning national acclaim and a 2024 James Beard nomination), co-created Alkimiah to serve 150,000+ free meals during the pandemic with partners like Mera Kitchen Collective and World Central Kitchen, and published AREPA: Classic and Contemporary Recipes of Venezuela’s Daily Bread, the first global cookbook devoted to the arepa, featuring her own photography. Next up: Candela, a new arepa bar debuting in 2025, adding even more Venezuelan soul to Baltimore’s Station North.

If you have not yet experienced Alma, the experience is transportive: ceramic tile underfoot, greenery everywhere, and a tapestry by Juan Félix Sánchez that nods to the Andes. Plates arrive like small works of art. Chef Héctor Romero maps the Amazon, Andes, Caribbean, and llanos on every dish. For Irena, it’s all one story: food as memory, belonging, and responsibility and … she shared her story with us here at TheListAreYouOnIT.com

The List: For readers new to your work, what’s the thread that ties photography, anthropology, and restaurants together?
Irena Stein: Storytelling. Anthropology taught me to listen; photography taught me to see. Restaurants let me bring those senses together so people can taste a culture, feel welcome, and leave more connected than when they walked in.

The List: Alma is as much a feeling as it is a restaurant. How did you design that?
Irena: We wanted the room to breathe—plants, natural textures, art that speaks to Venezuela. When people sit, shoulders drop. That sense of belonging is intentional; hospitality starts before the first bite.

The List: Describe the food lens at Alma.
Irena: Chef Héctor Romero carries a deep knowledge of Venezuelan gastronomy. Each plate is a map, Amazon to Andes, Caribbean to plains—told through ingredients and memory. Even our peppers carry history: seeds from home, now grown by Maryland farmers.

The List: You’ve called food “a bridge.” When have you felt that most?
Irena: During the pandemic. Through Alkimiah, with Mera Kitchen Collective and World Central Kitchen, we cooked more than 150,000 meals for Baltimore communities. It reminded me that kitchens can be engines of dignity and care.

The List: Sustainability has been part of your work since the Johns Hopkins cafés. What does it look like at Alma today?
Irena: It’s daily practice, composting, thoughtful sourcing, minimizing waste, and investing in our team. Sustainability is culture, not a marketing line.

The List: You’re also a mentor and community builder. How does that show up?
Irena: Alma has been a starting point for many, talent from Venezuela and beyond. Some stay, some take what they’ve learned out into the world. That circulation of knowledge is the legacy I care about.

The List: Your book AREPA is the first global cookbook centered on the arepa. Why that project, and why now?
Irena: The arepa is everyday bread, versatile, ancient, beloved. I wanted to honor its history while inviting people to create with it today. Photographing it myself kept the storytelling intimate.

The List: Candela launches in 2025. Give us a taste.
Irena: Candela is an arepa bar next door to Alma, playful, bold, and very Venezuelan. It will spotlight heritage corn, bright fillings, and the convivial energy of a bar where you eat with your hands and talk with everyone.

The List: What’s one dish that captures Alma right now?
Irena: A plate that marries local produce with Venezuelan technique. familiar and surprising at once. You see it, smell it, then taste a memory you didn’t know you had.

The List: Advice for young chefs and creators who want to blend purpose with craft?
Irena: Know your “why,” protect your team, and practice patience. Beauty and impact take time—and they’re built choice by choice.

The List: Last question: when you look back at the “yearbooks” you’ve made of Alma, what do you see?
Irena: Faces. Moments. A decade of shared table. It’s proof that restaurants can be archives of community as much as places to eat.

Follow Alma Cocina Latina for updates, and watch for Candela’s debut in 2025. If you know, you know, behind the counter is where the best stories start.