Profile: Nancy Oakes and Pam Mazzola

By: Mary Luz Mejia

Over the years as a food TV producer and journalist, I’ve heard from many women in the food industry about how restaurants, front or back of the house, are still mostly a “man’s world.” But in San Francisco, CA, Nancy Oakes and Pam Mazzola have defied naysayers, the odds, and any challenges the industry has thrown their way. In their words, “We have failed to recognize the difficulties.” My guess is that they’ve worked through them with unwavering commitment to their craft. Successful chefs and restaurateurs, Oakes and Mazzola recently opened their new collaboration, Prospect, dedicated to contemporary American cuisine. Two women’s stories about life in the food lane and how together, they’re a force to be reckoned with.

Mary Luz: What does food mean to you?

Pam Mazzola (PM): Food has always been an important part of my life, at the center of family gatherings and social events. It is an outlet for creativity and a way I keep centered and in touch with those around me. It is a way I say thank you, I love you, and let’s spend time together. I think this is why I am in the restaurant business- I love to feed people, cook and watch them gather.

Nancy Oakes (NO): At home food was the medium of all conversation and connection. At the restaurant it is the same. It’s all about the food. Food is the heart and soul and the engine that drives the restaurant. Everything else is the wheels and the chasse. It doesn’t go anywhere without the food.

Mary Luz: Nancy, you’re a self-taught cook. How did that journey begin?

NO: My parents had a restaurant- it was a hobby for my father who was in marketing and advertising. I grew up in a family where having a restaurant was natural. Even after we moved to Carmel, CA, he did his job and ran a restaurant. I got hooked on that environment.

Mary Luz: Pam, you started cooking at 8, armed with a French Cookbook. What book was that and how did your family encourage your love of food?

PM: It was the Women’s Day Book of French Cooking, which a friend of my mother’s gave me as a gift. My first effort, a strawberry tart was a success. It wasn’t hard to convince the family to let me cook for them after that.

Mary Luz: Nancy, you studied printmaking, painting and etching at the San Francisco Art Institute. How did you make the transition from art to food?

NO: There is a craft portion of culinary arts and I was really attracted to that. I was also attracted to the “make people happy” part of cooking. The part of cooking that transforms ingredients into something else is not all that different that transforming paint into a painting. You learn to work within your medium.

Mary Luz: Pam, you dropped out of your liberal arts program in university to pursue your love of cooking in Colorado. What was that like?

PM: It was a great relief. To have the opportunity to pursue what I truly loved was not a difficult decision.

Mary Luz: Nancy, you lived through the San Francisco of ‘60s. Was anything going on in the food world then that caught your eye and would later influence you?

NO: The 60’s were magical but the food was still very continental. I believe I witnessed the emergence of whole wheat, granola, and organic food; the idea that you could transform your health and wellbeing through what you ate.

Mary Luz: And what brought you to SF, Pam?

PM: A man and the desire for better food.

Mary Luz: Nancy you worked at the Carnelian Room in Nob Hill as the food checker, hostess and cashier. Later, you cooked at L’Averne, when one night Pam came in for dinner. That changed both of your professional courses. What happened next at that fateful meal?

PM: The true story is I went to dinner shortly after Nancy opened L’Avenue and met her after the meal. I went into the kitchen to tell her how wonderful the meal was and she called me a few days later. I had taken off nine months after the birth of my first child. I was ready to go back to work and she hired me. Here we are 23 years later, partners and answering these questions together.

Mary Luz: Boulevard and now Prospect are both your “babies.” What do these restaurants represent to you as chefs, restaurateurs and entrepreneurs?

PM: Boulevard is Nancy’s restaurant although we have been co-chefs there for many years. Prospect was the opportunity for us to become partners along with Kathy King and Ravi Kapur, two others we have “shared” the restaurant with. Prospect has give us the opportunity to spread our wings.

Mary Luz: Do you think it has been easier to get to where you are as partners, helping each other out?

PM: I have said many times- it would have been very difficult for me without Nancy. I was able to raise three children with her support and that is one of the most difficult aspects for women in the restaurant. Plus she is my BFF.

NO: Pam keeps me going and I don’t like to do things by myself. Pam has great ideas and we collaborate well.

Mary Luz: What’s your management style as business owners?

NO: People in general don’t like to be managed. Once you accept that fact, you have to make them feel they are part of the process and then they don’t feel managed, even if they are. When employees have a voice- it really means a lot to them. Even if what they want isn’t what’s decided upon- they feel differently than having that decision dropped on them. Managing this way blurs the lines between suggestions and commands. But what you get back is very good. People stay with you. My butcher has been with me 24 years, my fish-cutter has been with me 16 years and my banquet busser has been with me 26 years.

Mary Luz: Any advice for aspiring women restaurateurs?

Both: You have to love it more than almost anything else. Because we have shared this career, it has made it possible for us to have something else in our lives.

Prospect is located at 300 Spear St., San Francisco, CA 94105

Photos by: Todd Parsons