Flavor Profile: How LA's Saucy Chick Explores Mexican and Indian Spices

Flavor Profile is our new series looking at how people, some with little or no experience, started successful food businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before the pandemic, Rhea Patel Michel and Marcel Michel were busy working parents, trying to figure out dinner after each day’s exhausting Southern California commute. They didn’t see many choices for quick and healthy to-go meals near their home in the San Gabriel Valley. Mostly just fast food.

“We were talking about what might be a great fast eat that could service all our palates,” recalled Patel Michel. “I like spicy. Marcel likes bold.”

They landed on chicken, but wanted to figure out how to make it with recipes that represent each of their cultures. Patel Michel is the daughter of Indian refugees from Uganda. Michel’s parents are from Mexico. The couple started experimenting with marinades based on childhood favorites: the cumin chicken curry Patel Michel’s dad made, and the cochinita pibil sauce from the Yucatán that Michel grew up eating.

When COVID hit in 2020, they were both furloughed from their corporate jobs at Disney, and suddenly found themselves without much income, but a lot of extra time on their hands. Michel started experimenting in the garage, sometimes in 110 degree weather, figuring out how to cook a rotisserie chicken. The pair went on YouTube to figure out how to truss it.

Using their marinades, they started asking friends and family if they could feed them for a donation. Word spread, and they found themselves driving all over Los Angeles and Orange County to hand-deliver their chicken meals.

They started developing side dishes, too. Charred haldi cauliflower. Basmati rice infused with cumin. “Mom’s beans,” a whipped pinto bean dish with chorizo and cheese, based on a recipe Michel’s mom used to make at Thanksgiving. Sauces made of tangy tamarind reduction or herbaceous greens and garlic. Hand-rolled East African chapatis.

Despite having zero experience as chefs or running a restaurant, they were fascinated by the food world, and by the other entrepreneurs they were starting to meet.

“We were at a time when we were all being asked to be distant and to have separation,” said Patel Michel. “But moving into the food industry, we found actually the exact opposite in spirit. We would not be where we are today if it weren’t for very very generous folks.”

Things began to take off after the couple applied for a coveted spot at Smorgasburg, a weekly pop-up outdoor food market in downtown Los Angeles. They set up a bright pink tent with the words “Saucy Chick Indian x Mexican” and began to sell rotisserie chicken nachos, and chaat-chos, a play on Indian street food. They didn’t want to make a fusion menu that simply mashes up Mexican and Indian food, but instead one that highlights the spices and flavors from each cuisine.

Their Smogasburg menu caught the attention of Food and Wine Magazine, and Los Angeles Magazine named them a best new take-out spot. They were also featured on a Food Network episode about whole rotisserie chickens.

But it’s been a bumpy road: Just when they were thinking of putting everything into the chicken business, they got called back to work at Disney.

“That was actually the hardest part,” said Michel. “Working for Disney was such a pinnacle in my career. I was working at the studios, working with Marvel and Lucasfilm. It was my dream job. and I [had to decide to] risk losing everything, and start something new in a space that I have no experience in.”

Patel Michel was nervous about it. “I am risk averse. If I go to the casino and I win $5, I am done. I’m going to go buy myself a coffee. I’m good,” she laughed.

Eventually, they came to an agreement. Patel Michel would keep her corporate job, so they could have health insurance, and some stability. She’d help out on the weekends and evenings with Saucy Chick. Michel would commit full-time to the business.

“What could happen if we were to swing for the fences?” Patel Michel recalls asking herself. “What does impact and legacy look like? I’m a daughter to refugees and I’ve seen firsthand the power of community. When you start looking at monopolies and major conglomerates owning a big piece of businesses, what does that mean for folks like all of us? What does diversity and representation look like?”

At Saucy Chick, it means not only highlighting their own immigrant roots, but featuring ingredients and products from other local BIPOC-owned businesses. They source their hand-crafted tortillas from Mejorado/Burritos la Palma, their beer from Latino-owned breweries like Brewjeria, Beer Thug Brewing, and Norwalk Brew House, and wine from Sipwell, a Black-woman-owned company. They’ve also teamed up with fellow Smorgasburg chefs The Goat Mafia, to open a new brick and mortar restaurant in the Beverly Grove neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Their main fan base, though, is at Smorgasburg, where every Sunday, Patel Michel still greets each customer by name, telling them to “have a kind week” as she hands over orders of nachos and chaat-chos.

Making the pivot to food was not something either of she or Michel ever expected, but it’s one way the pandemic opened new horizons for their family.

“There is no guarantee of success,” Michel said. “There have been many times where we’re just like, ‘what are we doing? Are we on the right path?’

“And it’s hard work. Back hurting, feet hurting. It’s intense. But if you are committed to creating something and have a love and passion for it, follow it.”