{"id":2123254,"date":"2025-10-29T19:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T19:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2123254"},"modified":"2025-10-29T19:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T19:23:07","slug":"roman-rayas-journey-from-royals-tailgates-to-constant-carnitas-at-barbacoa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/roman-rayas-journey-from-royals-tailgates-to-constant-carnitas-at-barbacoa\/","title":{"rendered":"Roman Raya’s journey from Royals tailgates to constant carnitas at Barbacoa"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Photo courtesy of Roman Raya<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

At the crossroads of Mexican cuisine and Kansas City barbecue, Chef Roman Raya has established himself as a mainstay. Chef Raya has climbed the ladder from starting food truck Taco Tank to co-owning the flagship brick-and-mortar Barbacoa along with Madeline Buechter. Together, they have curated an experience at Barbacoa that blends Mexican and Kansas City cultures while spreading roots in the local community.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The Pitch:<\/em> Tell us about yourself.<\/b><\/p>\n

Chef Raya:<\/em> I was born and raised here in Kansas City; been here my whole life. My Dad is Mexican and my Mom is white, so I got both cultures. That, along with the entire barbecue scene of Kansas City, really shaped me, so you can kind of see how all of that formed into what we have now. As far as early life, I started out in Northeast for the first part of my childhood. Eventually my parents were able to move us out to Lee\u2019s Summit, and that\u2019s where I graduated high school. I\u2019ve lived all over through my 20s, so I have a pretty full grasp on the city.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Could you speak about your origin in the food industry, leading up to now?<\/b><\/p>\n

I really wasn\u2019t sure what I wanted to do for quite a while. I worked a desk job for a long time right out of high school. I ended up volunteering on the show Restaurant Impossible. Being in that setting, meeting the people, helping revamp the menu, and seeing this family reopen a restaurant, I said, \u201cOkay, yeah, I think this is what I want to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At first, I started throwing tailgate parties at the Royals games. I\u2019d get a bunch of tickets, depending on how many people signed up, and we\u2019d all meet up and convoy over to the parking lot. I\u2019d set up and serve food that I had barbecued overnight. We\u2019d have pulled pork, brisket, chicken, and stuff like that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One time, one of my friends passed around a tip jar. At the end of it, we counted it down and I was like, \u201cOh, I don\u2019t have to pay to be able to do this. I can actually start making money doing this.\u201d So, I decided I\u2019m gonna start by selling tortas off a hot dog cart.<\/span><\/p>\n

I looked into buying a hot dog cart and said, \u201cThese are way more expensive than they need to be. I could build this myself.\u201d So I bought a trailer and started building it myself. Then I decided that bread takes up way too much space, so I decided to do tacos. I built Taco Tank<\/a>, and got started with that in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

From there, we built up a following to the point that we were invited to open at Parlor. During this time period, the summer of 2021, I had quit my desk job. We ended up opening another location in the Iron District, and towards the end of 2022 we had made enough capital to get the keys to the current space that is now Barbacoa. After revamping for the first part of 2023, we officially opened in April of that year.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Barbacoa \/\/ Photo by Brooke Tramel<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

What\u2019s the inspiration behind the elevated design choices of the restaurant?<\/b><\/p>\n

We really wanted to have a color palette that made sense for our concept, and one of the things that we love is the charm of an old building. Moving in here, what we discovered was that the floor was painted over gray. We found some chips in the floor and noticed that this design was underneath. The one<\/em> thing we didn\u2019t do ourselves is we had a guy come in and take care of this floor.<\/span><\/p>\n

We opened it up as a low-key art gallery space for local artists. Every few months, Madeline gets together with an artist and decides on a set of artwork for our walls. They\u2019re able to showcase it and it\u2019s all for sale. It\u2019s been a really nice way for us to foster community within the space.<\/span><\/p>\n

Smoked carnitas has been a staple for your restaurants. What\u2019s your process for making them?<\/b><\/p>\n

Smoked carnitas is one of my favorite things. It will never leave the menu because growing up, at my Grandma\u2019s house, we had carnitas on Sundays. Coming into Barbacoa with the idea of integrating barbecue, we developed this idea of par-smoking. It goes through the first part of the cook in the smoker \u2014 I use hickory wood for this one \u2014 then I move it to the manteca (pork fat) to finish it off. So, I\u2019m essentially taking it through two different cooking processes. All in the same vein, but really wanting to impart the smoke, while also using the traditional technique of cooking it in the pot with the fat, spices, and citrus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Carnitas takes about three to four hours from start to finish, and that is one that\u2019s going on here constantly. So, if the kitchen smells like one thing, it\u2019s probably that.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a chef, could you share one kitchen hack that you have discovered?<\/b><\/p>\n

One thing that I\u2019ve noticed, especially when cooking at home, is people fighting with their cutting board. You slap a cutting board down on a granite or something, and then you\u2019re fighting with the cutting board sliding.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While you\u2019re working, put a wet towel underneath and it won\u2019t slide. You can use a paper towel or tea towel, but that damp towel underneath makes the cutting board stay exactly where it is. You shouldn\u2019t have to manipulate two different moving objects at once, especially when one\u2019s a knife.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is there anything coming up at Barbacoa that our readers should look forward to?<\/b><\/p>\n

We decided this year we\u2019re gonna do a theme night for Halloween, and the theme that we landed on was the Addams Family<\/em>. They have several meal times and have incorporated food into their plot. Obviously, we\u2019re not going to serve what they\u2019re serving, but on Halloween night we\u2019ll be showing the film and having a coursed meal with it.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also have a pop-up on November 2 at Panthers Place. I\u2019m kind of going back to the tailgate aspect, and they\u2019re showing the Chiefs game for us, so I\u2019m gonna set up and do some tailgate-inspired menu items. I\u2019ve got some meat and cheese flautas, hot dogs, and some other fun stuff to come and catch the game or just to grab a drink and some good food.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lastly, at Barbacoa, we\u2019re currently in the middle of our fall menu. When I wrote this menu, I felt like I was in my element and everything made sense. I think when I write menus, I probably get 90% and then I\u2019m like, \u201cOkay, I need to make sure that everything\u2019s balanced,\u201d but everything fell into place with this one and I\u2019m really happy with it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Barbacoa<\/span><\/a> is located at 5500 Troost Ave, Kansas City, MO 64110.<\/span><\/em>\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n