Behind Aguacate
Aguacate is the story of a cook who grew up between the Orinoco and Vienna. Her name is Shehawhe Scacco, and this is her path.
Photo: Shehawhe in the kitchen (founder register)
Roots
Shehawhe grew up in Caicara del Orinoco, at the edge of the Amazon. Her grandmother ran small restaurants there, right on the river — tables under the open sky, dishes made each morning from fresh ingredients. What Shehawhe cooks today begins there: with what she smelled and tasted as a child in that kitchen.
Between two worlds
She first came to Linz at the age of eight — her father is of Italian origin, her aunt has lived in Upper Austria for decades. Summers in Europe, the school year in Venezuela: two worlds existing side by side, never cancelling each other out.
After school she returned to Caracas and started a career in Venezuelan aviation, at the airline SBA. Service as a profession — noticing the guest, the right word at the right moment, a steady hand when things get turbulent. Those years laid the ground for something that would come back later in Vienna: the sense of how a room becomes an experience.
Eventually her path led back to Vienna. This time, not for a visit.
Photo: Aguacate in use (ambience register)
From the market to her own kitchen
In Vienna everything started small. A stand at the Spittelberg Christmas market, a selection of handmade arepas, long lines in the cold. Then a first, tiny shop with barely sixty square meters — hardly room for three tables, but enough to build a regular clientele.
Today Aguacate stands on Mohsgasse in the third district, on close to 220 square meters. From the stand grew a restaurant where you can have breakfast, take your time over lunch, or spend a long evening with friends.
Why Aguacate?
There are three layers in the name. The obvious one: an avocado, fresh and visibly healthy — a signal for anyone in Vienna looking for a simple, light lunch. The second: in Venezuela it's called aguacate, not palta. It's the right language for what comes to the table here. And the third: many of our dishes actually have one on top. Avocado slices on the Reina Pepiada, avocado cream in the Pabellón, avocado in the bowls — visible, not hidden.
Aguacate today is a Venezuelan kitchen that reaches far beyond Vienna's first arepa. Homemade, every day, with ingredients we know and recipes that came together somewhere between the Orinoco and Mohsgasse.
Come by. Take your time. That's pretty much all of it.