Kiko Fejarang was approached to lead the kitchen at a new restaurant in Baltimore, but there was a problem. The eatery, the former Cafe Hon in Hampden, had been styled to look like a British pub house, with antique furnishings sourced from around Europe. And, the chef recalled saying, “I don’t want to do English food.”

After a career working for other big-name restaurateurs, including Baltimore’s Tony Foreman and celebrity chef Michael Mina, Fejarang, now 40, wanted to cook on her own terms. She wanted to serve the kinds of vibrant and homey fare she’d grown up cherishing while living in central Guam and later the mainland with her family. Chamorro dishes that connected her to the remote Pacific island of her heritage like an umbilical cord. Snacks, or chesas, like crispy hand-rolled lumpia with lots of fina’denne’, a tangy condiment made from soy sauce, onion and pepper.

And that’s how she and Foreman together came to open The Duchess in December 2024, a restaurant where both the Union Jack and the flag of Guam hang outside; where diners nosh on the same shrimp and corn patties Fejarang learned to make from her aunties. A framed 18th-century portrait of a wealthy English lady hangs on one wall; on another, a framed silk scarf of Guam that belonged to Fejarang’s mom and a photo of the island sent by her aunt.

Chamorro cuisine is a melting pot of Asian and indigenous food cultures, reflecting Guam’s history and geography, with some American and Spanish influences, too. Staples of the U.S. island territory include a flatbread called titiyas served with raw fish, as well as Spam musubi and sinigang, a tamarind-based stew also popular in the nearby Philippines.

Fejarang’s family is similarly open-minded when it comes to food, incorporating dishes from around the world as new members join. There are only two commandments. “There will be rice,” Fejarang. “There will be fina’denne’.”

Food has always been central to Fejarang’s identity, so much so that she didn’t even consider it a career at first. Her nickname, Kiko, stems from her childhood insistence on pouring Kikkoman soy sauce on everything she ate. (Her surname is pronounced “FAIR-in.”)

After Fejarang moved from Guam to Florida as a kid, one of the biggest culture shocks was the comparatively dull cuisine. In Guam, good food is everywhere. If she forgot lunch, she could pick up chicken kelaguen at the corner store on her way to school, or perhaps some steamed gyozas. In the Tampa area in the 1990s, those dishes were impossible to find.

Fejarang’s earliest career ambition was to join the Marines, following in a family tradition of U.S. military service. She wanted to be a drill sergeant. Health issues kept her out. The Marines require recruits to go two years without using an inhaler. As a lifelong asthmatic, she said, “I could not do that to save my life.”

Her military ambitions quashed, Fejarang enrolled in a culinary program at The Art Institute of Seattle. A few years after graduating, she moved with her then-boyfriend to Baltimore. “He was like, ‘It’s just like Seattle,’” she laughed. “Obviously, this is why we’re no longer together.“

The couple settled in Pigtown; Fejarang soon got to work as a sous-chef at Foreman Wolf Restaurant Group’s Pazo. The buzzy Spanish tapas bar in Harbor East was doing some 800 covers a night, and Fejarang was shocked that she landed the job.

“She was a tough cookie,” said Sarah Murray, who worked as an inexperienced line cook under Fejarang. Now an executive pastry sous-chef for Foreman’s restaurant group, Murray was both inspired and intimidated by her new boss, a woman chef in a men-dominated industry. It impressed Murray to see a woman like Fejarang command the room and take other women chefs under her wing. Fejarang encouraged women to work hard and prove themselves just as tough and capable as men. “We cannot be delicate little flowers,” Fejarang remembers thinking. “We got to go.” She also pushed Murray to learn Spanish, the lingua franca of most commercial kitchens. “You’re going to learn,” Murray recalled her saying. “I’m going to help you learn, but you’re going to learn.”

Fejarang’s militaristic work ethic caught the attention of Foreman, who eventually promoted Fejarang to lead the kitchen of Johnny’s, an all-day restaurant he was opening in Roland Park. All chefs have recurring nightmares about the ticket machine that won’t stop rolling with new orders, Fejarang said, but at Johnny’s the dream was a reality. They never stopped being busy.

While the menu at Johnny’s steers mainly new American, Fejarang incorporated some Chamorro influences, too. Using leftover bacon fat from the restaurant’s brunch service, she introduced a dish — Kiko’s loco fried rice — still on the menu more than a decade later.

Fejarang was living in San Francisco and working at Mina’s Pabu Izakaya when the pandemic hit. Back on the East Coast, both her dad and brother got sick. Desperate to be closer to family, she put in her notice at the restaurant, packed up everything she owned and prepared to move to the East Coast.

Then came a message from an old friend from Johnny’s. Chris Scanga was opening a new Foreman Wolf restaurant in Baltimore, The Milton Inn. Would Fejarang come help?

In 2023, Foreman approached Fejarang with yet another opportunity. He’d taken over the old Cafe Hon space on West 34th Street the year before. The project had been held up in part by Foreman’s serious health problems.

By Foreman’s telling, he was always open-minded about the idea of serving Chamorro fare. Though the decor skewed English gastropub, he said, “I didn’t particularly want English food.” Those around him were less enthusiastic. The restaurant’s designer “lost her mind.” His longtime business partner and ex-wife, Cindy Wolf, wanted “no part” in the restaurant. The Duchess would be the first eatery Foreman opened in Baltimore that didn’t also have Wolf’s name on it.

During its first year in business, The Duchess, which opened in December 2024, proved the naysayers wrong. A New York Times critic called the place “one of the more unusual restaurants I’ve visited,” while praising Fejarang’s shrimp and corn patties as one of the year’s best dishes.

The restaurant may be the only sit-down Chamorro restaurant on the East Coast; members of a Chamorro association based in Virginia regularly drive up for brunch.

It’s a surreal turn of events for its chef. “It takes a minute,” she said, seated at a table inside the restaurant one morning. Then she remembers: “Oh yeah, I am kind of, like, the boss.”

Moving forward, Fejarang says, “I just want to keep evolving, little by little.” She wants to grow the restaurant’s catering business and participate in neighborhood events. Spring is just around the corner; she can hardly wait to see the haul from local farms. And sometimes, she’ll have a pang for another dish from back home, maybe chicken adobo. She’ll ask herself: “How can we get that on the menu?”