Cooks Without Borders hit the road to spotlight chefs and entrepreneurs doing fabulous things with heirloom maíz
Heirloom masa treats from For All Things Good in Brooklyn, New York (clockwise from top left): tlacoyo filled with pinto beans and salsa macha, topped with avocado, salsa verde and queso fresco; mezcal-mushroom tlayudita with black beans, Oaxaca cheese; tetelas fiilled with black bean & epazote; Chihuahua cheese & salsa verde; hibiscus flower & salsa chipotle; tlayudita with black beans, avocado, salsa macha and fried shallots
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.
Matt Diaz (left) and Carlos Macías, owners of For All Things Good in Brooklyn, NY
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.)
Deliciousness from Tatemó in Houston (clockwise from top): a cheese-filled tetela; sope filled with chorizo and potato, topped with avocado and sea salt; infladita filled with cucumber pico and finished with uni, avocado crema and serrano chile. This is one course of Tatemó’s tasting menu.
Megan Maul and chef Emmanuel Chavez own Tatemó in Houston.
Olivia Lopez’s pineapple tamales. Lopez is founder of Molino Olōyō in Dallas, Texas.
Chef Olivia Lopez, founder of Molino Olōyō in Dallas, Texas
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!