Greater Harrisburg's Community Magazine

A Taco Tale: The humble food gets a celebrity makeover at Mid St8 Taco.

Screenshot 2015-04-29 00.44.11Pippa Calland moves through the details of her life and accomplishments quickly, methodically and with dizzying speed, much like the way she wields her chef’s knife at Mid St8 Taco, her new enterprise at the West Shore Farmer’s Market in Lemoyne.

This biography starts with her unique appellation. Her parents, she explains, were enamored with Robert Browning and named her after a drama verse he penned called “Pippa Passes,” which tells the story of a young, silk-winding girl who sings as she completes her work and influences others to act for the good.

Like her namesake, Calland started her career early and embraces a strong work ethic and a belief in trying to make the world a better place.

“My first job in food was when I was 14, in Westport, Conn., working for Joanne Hush,” she said. “She studied in Paris and was Martha Stewart’s first business partner. My mom, too, was a great cook.”

Eventually, Calland pursued graduate studies in Buffalo, where she worked in a restaurant to put herself through school.

“They thought I could be the chef at a restaurant called Reginald’s,” she said. “That ended up being the deciding factor. I taught myself to cook there and was there for four years.”

She also started a program at Buffalo’s AIDS hospice, Benedict House, where she created a “Meals for Residents” program.

The press got wind of her efforts and, after making the news, she sent her videotape to the James Beard Foundation, which awarded her a fully paid scholarship to the Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School and a stipend for books from a pastry chef who had died of AIDS.

“It’s now a massive school called ‘The Institute for Culinary Education,’” said Calland.

Getting Noticed

After graduating, Calland returned to Buffalo before setting her sights on Manhattan, where she spent 10 years. There, she found herself at the helm of the Tuscan restaurant Le Madri and was recognized by Esquire Magazine as one of “13 chefs to look out for” in 2002.

Calland’s fame rose to a whole new level when Food Network’s “Chopped” came calling.

Calland took the screen test and accepted the reality chef challenge. Her episode, which aired in 2009, featured tofu, oysters and blueberries. To this day, she laughs about the tofu, calling the requirement to include the ingredient “karma” for talking smack about the humble, but versatile, bean curd. Calland ended up acing the task and winning the competition.

“Time management was really crucial,” she said. “I was 100-percent steady, although there was a bit of a personality battle between me and one of the guys. I said, ‘you haven’t won yet, son,’ as we waited between the last round.”

In 2011, Calland moved to Malibu, Calif., where she was contacted by Fresh One productions and asked to appear on Jamie Oliver’s “Chef Race.” She made the cut and joined others in begging, borrowing and bartering for their meals.

Calland also appeared on “Chef Wanted with Ann Burrell” before making a pivotal decision to move to Mechanicsburg and open Mid St8 Taco.

“I’d had enough working for other people and wanted to be on my own as an independent restaurateur,” she said.

Light, Local, Fresh

With a nod to her love for Mexican cuisine, Calland set up Mid St8 Taco at the West Shore Farmer’s Market.

She credits her grandfather for passing down his knowledge of Mexican food to her mother, who passed it on to Pippa. When she decided to open the business, she traveled to Oaxaca, Mexico, to study with a renowned culinary expert, Pennsylvania native Susanna Trilling.

Since opening, business has been so brisk that Calland has added tables and chairs in front of her stand to accommodate diners who go wild for her selection of tacos nestled in made-from-scratch corn tortillas.

Nicole Falcone from Susquehanna Township eats there often with her fiancé Patrick.

“We both love to eat, and her food is so good,” she said. “Everything is so light, local, fresh and authentic. She makes everything from scratch, including the condiments. We love her food so much that we hired her to cater our wedding.”

Calland, always evolving, decided to expand recently, adding a tortilleria to her taco stand. Sourcing organic corn from Cumberland County, Calland uses a motorized stone ground mill purchased from Texas and a mechanized press to turn out her tortillas quickly.

“What used to take five hours, can now be done in five minutes,” she said, adding that plans are in the works for wholesale distribution.

Calland said this current labor of love allows her to use her imagination, skill and creativity to come up with unique taco creations.

“I think we’ve hit a chord with Penn-Mex and this enables me to draw on all my years of training, using authentic underpinnings,” she said. “I have the freedom to follow my inner voice.”

And judging by her brisk business, customers wouldn’t want it any other way.

Mid St8 Taco is located inside the West Shore Farmers Market, 900 Market St., Lemoyne. For more information, visit www.midst8taco.com or call 717-737-9881.

 

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