John Hatch fuses Italian American and Puerto Rican flavors on freshly baked baguettes.
By
Katrina Yentch
2/12/2021 at 4:39pm
The Jawn is Papi Salâs fusion of Puerto Rican and Italian American cuisines: Puerto Rican pork lechon, Provolone cheese, sofrito mayo, and oil-roasted long peppers on a freshly baked Italian baguette.
When John Hatch was growing up in the Italian American neighborhood of Roxborough in Northwest Philadelphia, his parents expressed their love the way most Italian families do: through food. âAny time my friends came over, [my mom] wouldnât leave them alone till they were fed,â Hatch says.
But questions about his identity lingered. Hatch could tell by the way his classmates treated him that he was different. At 18, he finally got some answers: he learned he was adopted, and of multiracial Puerto Rican and Russian descent. His first dive into his newly discovered Puerto Rican identity was, of course, through food.Â