How Ekiben became a launchpad for food talent in Baltimore

When local chef Marvin Rodriguez decided to break away from El Paraiso, his family’s decades-old eatery in Reisterstown, he called Ekiben restaurant co-founder Steve Chu.

Chu understood what it was like to be raised in a commercial kitchen. Growing up in a family of restaurateurs, Chu said Christmas lost its meaning around age 8, when he began working late on holidays. But his early experiences did more than shape the bao buns and tempura broccoli behind Ekiben, the critically acclaimed Asian fusion chain he owns with Ephrem Abebe.

The success of Ekiben — which has grown from a hot dog cart to four brick-and-mortars over the last decade — turned Chu into a Baltimore spokesperson of sorts, and his business into a hot spot for talent that some refer to as an incubator for culinary entrepreneurs.

“Steve suggested opening my own restaurant,” Rodriguez said of Aru Aru, the pupuseria set to open at 1501 Eastern Ave. in July. Chu, who purchased the Fells Point building in 2021, offered the space to Rodriguez, believing the location would help boost the burgeoning eatery’s exposure.

Chu also told Rodriguez that he would need more training to make Aru Aru work. So for the last year, Rodriguez worked for Chu at Ekiben: He shadowed accountants and managers responsible for scheduling and worked for customer service. Rodriguez likened it to a professional basketball team with Chu as the coach and each employee a player narrowly focused on their part of the system.

Such support can be hard to find, especially as small restaurant chains decline and rising prices create new barriers for independent food entrepreneurs looking to enter the industry. In Baltimore, several food incubators — including B-More Kitchen in the Northeast, Baltimore Food Hub in Broadway East, the Fells Point Culinary Incubator and La Chow near Little Italy — have popped up in recent years to offer training and commercial space to micro businesses.

As a child, Chu recalled watching his uncle work nights in an attempt to keep his Reisterstown restaurant, David Chu’s China Bistro, afloat. Some days, Chu said, he would accompany his father, who operated Jumbo Seafood in Pikesville, to the local Giant market, where the pair made lists of all the food they hoped to buy but could not yet afford.

“Now it is way more expensive to open up a restaurant, and food at a restaurant is way more expensive than it was 10 years ago,” Chu said.

If his immigrant family were to start over today, Chu isn’t sure they’d opt to pursue the food industry over others like construction, dry cleaning or a nail salon, he said. But Chu has offered apprenticeships and jobs to those who ask him for advice on how to get started in the dining industry, in an attempt to help other businesses get their start.

Ekiben’s annual night market, which last year brought 40 vendors from across the mid-Atlantic to Baltimore, was part of Chu’s effort to bring a platform to aspiring restaurateurs. Vendors as far as Oregon, New Orleans and Maine are being considered for this August’s edition.

His many pop-ups with local creators like Clavel, the Urban Oyster and Rooted Rotisserie, and renowned chefs, such as Peter Serpico, whom Chu credits for helping develop Ekiben’s recent crab rangoon egg roll, also attract new talent to the city.

Ekiben is “kind of like an incubator,” said Farideh Sadeghin, a Maryland native and food content creator who started working for the eatery in early 2023. She struggled with how to start her own business after she was laid off by Vice Media’s food section, Munchies. She credits Chu and Ekiben with teaching her more about recipe development and running a company.

In May, Sadeghin published “The Hot Dog Cookbook,” which Ekiben is helping her promote by temporarily adding her take on a hot dog — served in an egg roll dripping with cheese and topped with a tangy crab slaw and chips — to its menu. The dish is an ode to Sadeghin’s mother, who often sliced her egg rolls horizontally and turned them into sandwiches.

At a weekend pop-up with the business in mid-June, each person who purchased the dish received a copy of her cookbook. She gave out dozens of copies.

“I don’t think it’s very common for a restaurant to be doing this,” she said of training and growing other businesses.

Sadeghin’s profile has rocketed in recent years, with tens of thousands of social media followers and popular YouTube content with celebrities, including Jelly Roll. Her next cookbook, “Cheesy,” comes out in September, but Sadeghin says she’s not planning to leave her role at Ekiben anytime soon.

“It’s hard to find work,” she said. “I’m lucky I have Steve.”