By Leslie Brenner
Here at Cooks Without Borders, we’ve been fairly obsessed with heirloom maíz since early last spring, when we hosted Masienda founder Jorge Gaviria and Dallas chef Olivia Lopez for a Makers, Shakers & Mavens talk about the next-wave masa movement (you can watch it here!).
Not long after that, we hit the road for Bon Appétit magazine — traveling from Dallas to Houston and to Brooklyn, New York, to visit a couple of new businesses (one a pop-up, the other a restaurant/cafe), centered around heirloom masa.
At long last, the story — “Here’s Why You’re Seeing More Masa on Restaurant Menus” — is published.
We thought you might like to see some of the people who (in addition to Gaviria) have been important in pushing the movement forward, and the food they serve. (Head to our our Instagram feed to find more.)
If you live in Houston, Dallas, New York City or the San Francisco Bay Area (home of Emmanuel Galvan’s Bolita Masa, which, alas, we did not get to visit personally), you can taste-experience the molinos spotlighted in the story.
If you’re not lucky enough to live near a next-wave molino (there are many others mentioned in the story!), you can still be part of the movement: Masienda makes heirloom masa harina that’s super easy to work with. It’s the next-best thing to masa ground from fresh nixtamal.
Interested? Here’s a story to get you started:
And here’s a recipe for a tlayudita inspired by one I loved at For All Things Good.
RECIPE: Avocado Tlayudita with Salsa Macha
Watch this space — or sign up for our free newsletter — there’s lots more coming!