Mexico in L.A. : L.A.’s Hidden Chefs

Some of the best Mexican cooking in Southern California restaurants never sees a paying customer. This is because some of the best Mexican cooks work not as chefs in Mexican restaurants, but as prep cooks and dishwashers in the back kitchens of Southern California’s finest French and Italian joints. Indeed, no matter what the cuisine, whether high-design eclectic or mom-and-pop Thai, chances are the kitchen is largely staffed by Mexicans and other Latinos. They peel vegetables; they butcher meat and fish; they mince blizzards of garlic and chop mountains of carrots. But the only time they cook their own food is when it’s time for the staff meal.

Eloy Leon Mendez, for example, a prep cook at L.A.’s Campanile restaurant, worked for years as a chef in Mexico City. But few at the restaurant realized this until it was his turn to make staff lunch. He made albondigas (meatball) stew, which in most Mexican households is traditional comfort food. Usually, the meatballs are poached in a soupy tomato-onion sauce; in some regions, chipotle chiles are added.

Mendez’s albondigas , however, are made with tomatillos (Mexican green tomatoes), green chiles and lots of garlic. It’s an urban-rustic version of Mexican home cooking that Mendez served to his restaurant customers in Mexico City. And on those days when it’s served to the staff at Campanile, it’s delicious enough to get chef-owner Nancy Silverton to go back for seconds.

ELOY MENDEZ’S ALBONDIGAS

1 1/2 onions

1 pound ground beef

1 pound ground pork

4 cumin seeds

6 whole peppercorns, fresh ground

6 whole cloves, fresh ground

5 mint leaves, chopped

2 to 3 hard-cooked eggs, coarsely chopped

2 pounds tomatillos

4 cups boiling water

5 cloves garlic

1/4 pound long green chiles, roasted and peeled

1 1/2 cups cilantro sprigs

Salt, pepper

1/4 cup oil

Chop 1 onion. Grind 2 cumin seeds to make about 1/8 teaspoon. Combine beef, pork, ground cumin, ground peppercorns and cloves, chopped onion and mint in bowl. Mix thoroughly with hands. Form into 1-inch meatballs, putting pieces of hard-cooked egg inside each meatball. Set aside.

Place tomatillos in boiling water with garlic, remaining 1/2 onion and 2 cumin seeds. Cook until tomatillos are tender. Place in blender with green chiles and 1 cup cilantro. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Puree mixture.

Heat oil in 5-quart Dutch oven. Add pureed chile sauce and meatballs. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Simmer about 20 minutes. Stir in remaining cilantro. Makes 6 servings.

Note: If all-beef meatballs are desired use 2 pounds beef.