OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE: Portera a genuine 'foodie'

Apr. 13—New Orleans native Nanette Portera finds many ways to share her love of food.

"I love eating, and I love that's there's just about no place in Louisiana where you couldn't have a good meal," she said. "Because I am Italian, food is what brings people together so it's your way of saying 'I love you.' You feed them and that's your love language."

Portera said she lived close to her extended family in Louisiana, where her father operated a shrimp boat and worked at an aluminum plant. When the aluminum plant closed, the family moved to Wyoming where Portera's father preached and worked in the oil field.

"It's in a little valley called the 'ice box if the nation,'" she said. "It was freezing there and to be honest, the moment I turned 18 I was out."

She recalled working at a steakhouse and, as a teen, telling her family shew wanted to own her own restaurant. She worked her way up through fast food places, casual diners and fine dining establishments. At Muskogee's Chili's restaurant, she worked her way up through management. She stayed with the chain until 2018.

"I decided I needed a little quality of life and be there for my boys for their last few years of high school," she said. "I decided to work for myself and got a day job so I can work on my own."

She also began cooking at home and now operates Nanette's Home To Yours, preparing meals, baked sweets and other items. For Nanette's Table, she rents a commercial kitchen to do quick meals. She said she makes everything from scratch.

"This isn't my job, it's my passion," she said. "My sister says I never sit down. For me to relax is to be in the kitchen cooking."

Potera said she loves cooking to please others.

"I don't know if I could slow down even if I wanted to because I don't want to let my people down," she said.

Family background influences culinary paletteNanette Portera recalled growing up with a mixture of culinary influences.

She said her ancestors came from Sicily and her grandmother's lasagna recipe is a favorite in her family.

Then there's the New Orleans influence with jambalaya, seafood and shrimp boils.

"My dad had a shrimp boat, we would go shrimping together as a family, sit on the ice chest and peel shrimp," she said.

Pulling up the shrimp nets was the funnest part, she said.

"When you pull up the net, you feel like the whole boat is about to tip over," Portera said. "You feel all the weight from the nets, and it's a little nerve-wracking, and there's these little fish flopping in there."

She said she learned how to devein the shrimp, suck the head off the crawfish, "and it was the funnest thing."

The move to Wyoming introduced her to game meat — "antelope, deer, moose."

"The people hunted for a living, so that became the way of life there," she said. " I remember when I moved out of Wyoming I couldn't wait to start eating beef again because I had so much game meat."

Living her dream in MuskogeeAfter moving to Muskogee, Portera fulfilled her dream of owning a restaurant. She worked for a couple of years at Miss Addie's, an upscale Muskogee restaurant where she learned about fine dining, presentation, wine pairing.

She said she saw opportunity for growth when Chili's opened a Muskogee restaurant in 2005.

"I started with them as a bartender-trainer," she said. "Within three years, I became an assistant manager. and within three years, I was a general manager running my own restaurant. I grew very quickly within the company."

She said her main challenges involved learning about food costs, equipment maintenance and cleanliness, weighing food.

"It was a big challenge, but it is also what helped me run my own business today," she said, adding that her biggest reward has been all the people she met.

"Some of my regulars still are, to this day, some of my best friends," she said.

Portera has options for her own businessRunning her own business gives Portera many options and rewards.

"I can do as much as I want or as little as I want," she said. "If I need to take time away from working and slow down to have time for my family or friends, I can do that. If I want to do more this weekend, if I feel inspired and I want to create, I can."

Portera said she is rewarded by creating.

"There's no better reward than putting your heart into a dish and you loving it and then someone else coming in and saying 'that's the best thing I've ever eaten,'" she said. "There is no better feeling than that, and it just makes my day."

She said half of her business involves preparing meals for homebound people, most of them elderly.

"Sometimes I'm the only person they see in a week," she said. "It makes my day to walk into a home, check on my elders every week and put their food in their refrigerator, and they are going to be so happy."

Portera said she often is challenged by keeping up with the orders.

"Fortunately, I have great friends who, if there is a busy weekend or and event coming up, I can call on and they'll come help bail me out," she said.

HOW DID YOU COME TO BE AN OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE?

"My firstborn was three weeks old and at the time, my in-laws lived in Eufaula and they wanted us to be closer because we were living in Oregon, and I figured that's much closer to Louisiana, where my grandmother lived, and I was closer to my grandmother than my mother. We made the trek and moved to Eufaula initially. After a couple of years, we decided, we were going to church in Muskogee and all our friends were in Muskogee, hr wasworking here, and we just stayed."

WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT MUSKOGEE?

"The people of Muskogee are genuine, but they're also open to building new relationships."

WHAT WOULD MAKE MUSKOGEE A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE?

"What has taken Muskogee down a notch has been the crime. Crime has increased significantly since I started here. That's what gives our town a bad rap anymore is the crime. But we have a lot of good organizations here."

WHAT PERSON IN MUSKOGEE DO YOU ADMIRE MOST?

"There are so many. Randi and Jacob Williams, I met them at Boulevard Christian Church and we started a Mother's Day Out program and we have been friends ever since. Christy Hall — she has become one of the most positive influences in my life, prays for me daily, checks in with me daily. Very positive. She has always supported my business. She's also my taste tester."

WHAT IS THE MOST MEMORABLE THING TO HAPPEN TO YOU IN MUSKOGEE?

"My career with Chili's. It was a huge part of my personal growth and it was, in a sense, me achieving what I had dreamed and wanted to do since I was 14, and I did it when I was with Chili's.

WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME?

"Spend time with my girlfriends. When my oldest son is in town I'm here for him. I have a younger son who still lives in Muskogee another who lives in Edmond. When they come around, that makes my heart the happiest, for sure."

HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP MUSKOGEE IN 25 WORDS OR LESS?

"Family oriented, community involved, small town feel in a medium-sized city."