COVER STORY — Salsa and Guacamole Chefs Take Recipes Beyond the Basics

Te Amo Tequila Bar’s Guacamole with Blackened Jumbo Shrimp

| BY ANNELISE KELLY | Salsa may be a critical component of Mexican cuisine, but it doesn’t have to conform to traditional recipes and styles. While familiar versions such as pico de gallo, salsa rojo and salsa verde are the bulk of salsas Mexican restaurants serve, creative chefs are innovating with imaginative versions spiked with unexpected ingredients.

“Over the last five years, salsa trends have skewed to include more creamy, fruity flavors with a more savory, creamy, multinational salsa emerging, while the fresh, saucy, spiciness of classic red salsa seems to still be a staple on many menus,” says “What’s Trending in Salsa,” a 2020 report from In-Sight, an information platform operated by flavor and fragrance producer Symrise.

While salsa frequently takes center stage beside baskets of chips — commonly sharing the appetizer role with guacamole — salsa and guacamole both have important roles to play beyond the appetizer menu. They can take tacos, burritos, bowls and other dishes to a whole new level when crafted to complement the main event.

As In-Sight says, “…it’s up to operators to drive excitement with menu innovations that appeal to both consumers seeking comfort in the familiar and those who are looking for a twist on the classics.”

Which is just what creative chefs at Mexican restaurants are doing.

ELIZABETH DAVIS, XICO

Elizabeth Davis is the owner and founder of Xico, an upscale Mexican restaurant in Portland, Oregon. Asked whether a good salsa program is critical to Latin restaurants, she replies, “I’d say it’s pretty important. Customers want a range of heat levels, and you have to have those on deck in case a request for very hot salsa hits the kitchen! Always have some habanero, and a solid medium-spicy red salsa in good supply.”

For a winning salsa game, she advises, “Go basic. Come up with three to five salsas, at least one green and one red, with varying heat levels. Cooked salsas

DINNER AND A SHOW: Tableside Salsa and Guac

Guacamole is a customer favorite at Mexican restaurants. While classic guacamole has a fairly limited list of ingredients, varying the texture and proportions can alter the finished product considerably. Some folks consider garlic essential, others call it an abomination. And let’s not forget the most polarizing herb on the planet, cilantro: Does it make or break your perfect guacamole?

Many restaurants have resolved this issue while also benefiting their bottom line by offering tableside guacamole. A cart loaded with prepped ingredients is rolled to the customer’s table, where a member of the wait staff nimbly composes guacamole to order: extra hot, no lime, skip the onions. For many customers this value-added experience brings a deluxe Food Network flavor to the meal, as it delivers both a fresh-as-can-be appetizer and an opportunity for interaction between guests and staff.

According to Randy Sharpe, CEO of Xperience Restaurant Group (a company that owns and operates nine well-known restaurant brands including El Torito, Chevys Fresh Mex, and Acapulco), “The first tableside guacamole happened at the El Torito in Torrance, California, many years ago when a server had the idea to make tableside guac.”

Today, six of its brands – El Torito, Chevys Fresh Mex, and Acapulco among them – have tableside guacamole on the menu. At Chevys Fresh Mex, one of the company’s more family-oriented brands, servers even offer the avocado pits to kids along with instructions to grow their own avocado tree.

The interactive food prep experience is something guests at Rosa Mexicano, a small chain with three locations in New York City and four in surrounding states, have been enjoying for decades: Guacamole made tableside has been a feature at the Lincoln Center location since 1984. The classic recipe is served with roasted tomato salsa, and guests can fancy it up by having it topped with grilled pineapple pico de gallo, cotija cheese with applewood-smoked bacon, or lump crab meat a la Mexicana with tomato, onion, cilantro, serrano chile and fresh lime.

At Guadalajara’s Grill and Tequila Bar in Tucson, Arizona, trained salseras custom-craft both guacamole and salsa off the cart. Lizandra Antunez, manager at the original Broadway location, says the salsa is the most popular thing at the restaurant.

“One principal thing – the salseras need to offer excellent customer service” says Antunez, who explains that it takes three days to train salseras, who prep ingredients for their own cart daily. “They are the first person at the table. We teach them how important it is to hear and pay attention to the customers.”

Sharpe acknowledges that it does require more labor and training, but says the payoff is a “personalized experience that really allows us to provide great service to our guests.”

His advice to operators?

“Ensure you can provide a consistent offering before you launch. The Xperience group of restaurants sticks with tried-and-true guacamole, so it does not offer exotic guacamole add-ons like fruit or protein.”

Salsa cart ingredients at Guadalajara’s Grill and Tequila Bar

Xico’s Chips and Dip Platter last longer, so try using dried chiles and canned tomatoes.”

Xico definitely goes beyond the basics.

“We have always used locally grown ingredients here. Seasonal ingredients from our farmers push us into creativity,” says Davis. “We use fruit, like husk cherries in the winter. And our most popular appetizer is a chips and dips platter, where we feature three salsas including sikil p’ak made with toasted pumpkin seeds, tomato, habanero and cilantro to give our guests a sense of the wide range of salsas out there.” The platter also includes salsa verde, salsa de muchos chiles served over crema Oaxaquena, and molcajete guacamole.

While some of those salsas appear

“Customers want a range of heat levels, and you have to have those on deck in case a request for very hot salsa hits the kitchen! Always have some habanero, and a solid medium-spicy red salsa in good supply…Go basic. Come up with three to five salsas, at least one green and one red, with varying heat levels. Cooked salsas last longer, so try using dried chiles and canned tomatoes.”

– ELIZABETH DAVIS, Xico

with other dishes, most menu items are paired with a customized salsa. Davis explains that not every salsa pairs well with chips.

“Toasted chipotle salsa, which tastes a little like barbecue sauce, is really good with pork, but too thick and strong to eat with chips. Salsa verde cruda is great as a sauce, but too thin for a chip dip – the acid and color are great on a plate of tamales, or in ceviche.” Salsa albaniles, a chunky tomatillo-based salsa, shines in Xico’s signature flaming queso. Fish tacos are topped with apple and radish salsa fresco, and whole trout pozole is paired with tomatillo avocado salsa. And the bar even relies on two salsas to amp up cocktails.

“Our spicy green margarita contains our salsa verde for an herbaceous kick, and the spicy red contains our habanero salsa for a fruity, hot kick!” says Davis. “The salsas are added before the drink is shaken. These are super popular…We use high-quality canned tomatoes in some of our salsas, and canned chiles in adobo. I’m intrigued by the bulk mashed avocados I’ve seen in your magazine!”

TODD CAMBURN, BARRIO STAR

“We are sauce and salsa people, period.” With that, Todd Camburn, chef and owner of Barrio Star in S an Diego, California, sums up the restaurant’s salsa selection.

“Every entree comes with some sort of sauce or salsa. Each different salsa/sauce is unique to the dish we pair it with. All the flavor profiles shine with each dish!” Camburn says. “Salsa is a huge Latin staple—it’s always important to have different kinds of The Optimal Automatics Autodoner is ideal for preparing cones of al pastor and other stacked meats. Comes in many sizes and models, including natural gas, electric, and LP.

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Te Amo Tequila Bar’s Guacamole Trio Barrio Star’s Brazil Bowl

fresh salsas for everyone’s palate. Our salsas and sauces haven’t varied much since conception.”

Those salsas range from the familiar, such as the fresh pico de gallo served with the Tamal de Pollo and the Barrio Bowl, and the roasted tomatillo salsa spiked with smoky crunchy corn salsa topping the Tamal de Maiz. Bright, fruity mango salsa tops the Brazil Bowl, and pineapple jicama salsa — “our most creative one, so much flavor and balance” — garnishes the Salmon Tacos and panko-fried catch of the day. Committed condiment lovers might choose Barrio Star’s Surf and Turf bowl complemented by cilantro lime salsa, coconut chili sauce, and diablo sauce.

GREAT GUACAMOLES

Te Amo Tequila Bar in New Haven, Connecticut, is not shy about elevating its guacamole menu with high-flavor, high-profile proteins. Purists can order traditional guacamole, but the restaurant also offers four deluxe options: pork belly; spicy shrimp and corn; blackened jumbo shrimp; and lobster guacamole. A guacamole trio featuring traditional, pork belly, and shrimp and corn offers a flight of flavors to curious customers.

At Xico, Davis has given up on fancy guacamoles because they didn’t sell well.

“People just want traditional guacamole,” she says of her customers in Portland. “We tried adding toppings like chicharron, toasted pepitas, and cherry tomato salsa, but no one ever ordered them, and they led to food waste.”

Barrio Star’s Camburn concurs.

“I personally believe in leaving such a beautiful fruit as the avocado alone. Let the fruit speak for itself,” he says. “For the most part, at Barrio Star we see people not veering off the path of an excellent simple guacamole recipe. We’ve done the numbers and nine out of ten tables order our delicious guacamole. I feel like so many restaurants out there in today’s world try to be just too creative — and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just not my style. Stick to the basics, add your own flair and I’m certain it will be delicious.”

Annelise Kelly is a Portland, Oregon-based freelance writer and a regular contributor to el Restaurante.

See Barrio Star’s Roasted Tomatillo Salsa recipe on page 54.

“Over the last five years, salsa trends have skewed to include more creamy, fruity flavors with a more savory, creamy, multinational salsa emerging, while the fresh, saucy, spiciness of classic red salsa seems to still be a staple on many menus.” – IN-SIGHT (in-sight.symrise.com)

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