Joshua WalboltThe story goes that; From Kora started by chef founder Kimberly Camara. She was inspired by her heritage and her family to create something that would bring people together. Something comforting. This adventure began amidst the pandemic of 2020 out of her apartment. Slanging 100’s and thousands of donuts a week they eventually had to expand into a commissary kitchen. When I say they it includes her and what seems to be her entire family. Her Mom, Dad and aunties can be found in the kitchen helping her create these delicacies as well as her partner Kevin Borja (Operations Directors of Kora). Working together as a family is something that can be very proud as a family but I can also imagine that there can be a lot of stress placed on the family, not to mention the pressure from the chef herself.
Kimberly and Kevin have experience in high end restaurants in New York City. Its crazy because Kimberly and I go back to Culinary School. We never really chatted but she was one of RA’s in the building I lived in. There are always those people that I see that I knew I would remember even though we were never friends or even acquaintances. Years later we run into each other again as Kimberly starts to work at 3 Michelin star restaurant Eleven Madison Park where both my wife and I were working. The Pandemic hit and we were all sent our separate ways.
Kora’s doughnuts. Now during this time there was no actual shop. You can preorder their doughnuts here. But be warned, there is a 10,000 people waitlist as of 12/29/21. I don’t think that waitlist is going anywhere since the love for Filipino food is rising everywhere. We were lucky enough to catch them at Project Barkada’s Pop up Marker in Queens. A community of friends helping friends support the Filipino Community. It was a dope event but don’t take my word for it, check out this video of us waiting 3 hours in line for doughnuts From Kora. The guy in front of me drove in 3 hours from out of town to wait in line for these doughnuts. CRAZY!
I waited 3 hours for DOUGHNUTS | From Kora
They had a limited menu there and we ordered 2 of everything they had to offer. I even recreated their Caramelized Chicharrón. You can see that VIDEO and RECIPE HERE. It was an experience for sure. A journey that inspired me to ask myself, “what am i doing to bring my cuisine to the stage?” It’s crazy how something as simple as a doughnut can say so much and bring so many people together through stories and delicious bites. I am nuts for these doughnuts. The texture of the brioche donut and getting the best of flan and donut together is a combination that seems to have happened as a happy accident. I can imagine during recipe development they sliced a brioche donut in half and sandwiched some of mommies flan inside. That’s probably not how it happened but we may never know. But we do know this. If you want to order these Filipino bites from heaven, make sure you hop the waitlist and subscribe to their newsletters.