Puerto Rico–born Orlando Pagán, a James Beard Award semifinalist and executive chef at Spring Street’s Wild Common, brings his heritage into everything he does at the Michelin-starred restaurant.
Diners experience Wild Common’s cuisine through a tasting menu that marries Pagán’s cultural roots with global flavors and techniques.
The similarities between Southern and Puerto Rican food are plentiful as both have West African, Indigenous and European influences with a focus on vegetables, beans and pork — all cooked with a lot of soul.
Since Wild Common opened in 2019, the restaurant has hosted Puerto Rican pop-ups each summer to showcase the cuisine of Pagán’s home island. This year’s iteration takes place June 26 and 27.
A chef’s education
Pagán’s formal culinary education was at Johnson and Wales University in Miami. After graduating, he worked at the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove’s Bizcaya Grill in Florida before moving to San Francisco. While there, he worked in several acclaimed restaurants such as Restaurant Gary Danko and the James Beard award-winning State Bird Provisions. He also held key leadership roles, serving as executive chef at Ame and The Village Pub, chef de cuisine at Aziza and executive sous chef at Spruce.
He honed his craft on the West coast, developing a style based in seasonality and bold, global flavors. Pagán moved east in 2017, landing in Charleston to take the executive chef position at nationally-known Chef Sean Brock’s McCrady’s Tavern. Two years later, he opened Wild Common.
This journey would be impressive for any chef but has another dimension due to Pagán’s health challenges. He was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2011, which informed a new focus on wellness and a more sustainable lifestyle in the professional kitchen, which is an industry that often goes hand in hand with an unhealthy lifestyle.
Puerto Rican pop-ups
While the menu for this year’s dinner, the eighth installment, will remain a surprise, the inspiration comes from the street food kiosks of Pagán’s hometown of Luquillo to the El Yunque rainforest. The dinners will feature a multi-course tasting menu for $75 per person. Specialty tiki cocktails will also be offered for the event.
“I am very proud of my Puerto Rican heritage and that pride is something I want to showcase and pass onto my children,” he said. “When we first started doing the series, there was nothing else like it in the city. It has evolved over the years, but it is always a fun time and brings a little taste of home to all those who are Puerto Rican in Charleston.”
While the common thread of the best of Puerto Rican cuisine remains the same, this year’s event will be different than in year’s past.
“We’ve changed the format for the pop-up this year,” Pagán said. “In the past, we have done the same menu, once a month over the course of the summer. This year, we are dedicating two consecutive days to the event, just once for the summer. I think it will really feel more like a summer party and hopefully allow more people to join us.”
The flavors of these comfort foods, as Pagán calls them, will feel familiar to diners with their focus on fresh seafood and staples like rice and beans. And the dinners will not just be about food. Pagán and Lead Bartender Alyssa Glueck are in constant communication about flavors from Pagán’s childhood. She uses these conversations as inspiration and incorporates them into her bar menu for the popups.
Those who have not had Puerto Rican food before are in for a real treat and something you cannot easily find in Charleston.
“It’s a melting pot of a lot of different cultures and in a lot of ways similar to Southern food,” Pagán said. “It is seafood and meat-centered, but with staple ingredients like rice and plantains. There are some tropical influences as well: coconut and guava, for example.”
And if you are unable to make it on June 26 and 27, fear not. Pagán infuses his heritage and culture into his regular food program at Wild Common.
“From a culinary perspective, Puerto Rican food is a mix of American, Caribbean and African influences,” he said. “I enjoy bringing in a mix of varied worldly flavors into the food I create so that the dishes are interesting, complex and familiar yet unique. In that way, it reminds me a lot of the fundamentals of Puerto Rican cuisine.”
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