Taking Tacos Up a Notch

Operators delve into Mexican history to bring new zing to this assimilated staple.

Tacos long ago became a culinary given in the U.S.—so mainstream that they’ve pretty much become an all-American staple. Now, many operators are upping the ante by introducing additional, less-familiar menu items and focusing on refreshing tacos and other Mexican menu standards with new ingredients and bolder flavors.

That’s the focus behind Agave, the new Mexican platform developed by AVI Fresh, the newly created healthcare and education division of Warren, Ohio-based AVI Foodsystems.

“With Agave, we’re creating fresh new flavor profiles, appetizers and beverages,” says Dawn Perry, vice president of marketing for AVI Foodsystems. “We’re taking tacos to the next level.”

It all boils down to flavor and authenticity, says John Coker, executive vice president, who spearheaded the first installation of the Agave concept at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio, where the 1965-era dining facility underwent a total renovation and upgrade last year.

“Because this is a relatively small campus, we needed a lot of flexibility,” says Coker. “Rather than having dedicated ethnic stations, we installed a massive, five-foot-long flattop grill and central island where we can prepare a number of different specialties, including Mongolian barbecue, omelets, quesadillas and fajitas, and so on. We rotate through the day parts and cuisines, and it’s surrounded by counter seating so that it becomes a focal point for the facility.”

Indeed, Mt. Union’s dining center is intended as a gathering spot for the whole community, with a Sunday brunch open to the public and special event capability for up to 600.

“Agave is fresh Mex, a la Chipotle or La Salsa,” explains Coker, invoking two popular fast casual chains. “We make our own tortillas, fresh salsas, and marinades, and we cook all our meats, quesadillas and such on the flattop grill. We’re going back to the original idea of antojitos, the handheld snacks that are part of daily life in Mexico.”

Agave’s food is designed to provide satiety through flavor, not size. “If you look at the history of Mexican food, protein was scarce, and meals were built around carbohydrates, starch and fresh produce,” notes Coker. “We use spices and our housemade marinades and salsas to provide the interest, just as they do in Mexico.”

And there’s no ground meat, but rather organic chicken, pork and lean flank steak—marinated for flavor and additional tenderness—as well as roasted vegetables and soy alternatives. At the heart of the program is the salsa bar, which features a seasonal selection of salsas made daily. Menu specialties include tacos, tostadas, burritos and grilled quesadillas, with such Agave signature fillings as pork carnitas (grilled with tomatoes, onion, cilantro and jalapeños), pollo and puerco verde (chicken or pork with tomatillos), machaca beef (grilled with onions, peppers and tomatoes), and Red River Beef (in red chili sauce).

Authentic salsas and condiments are also an important part of the strategy to keep Sodexho’s Mexican food program fresh and current. “Salsas are what make Mexican food Mexican,” says Gustavo Vega, culinary director and executive chef for Sodexho’s Corporate Services division on the West Coast.

A native of Zacatecas in the central state of Mexico, Vega knows his salsa. He says there are more than 2,000 ways to make salsa in Mexico, “but most people don’t know how to make them.”

Take the case of salsa chile Colorado, a popular smoky red salsa made from dried ancho or pasilla chiles. “You have to take the time to roast the dry chiles to bring out their nice, smoky flavor,” explains Vega.

Through its new Tierra del Sol (“land of the sun”) program, Sodexho works not only to make the salsas authentic, but to train cooks in the time-honored—and time-intensive—techniques of traditional Mexican cookery. A trip to the salsaria bar, or self-service salsa bar, is how customers can turn familiar specialties like fajitas and tacos into authentic, custom-made foods. “They can garnish their food con gusto,” as Vega puts it, “as spicy or as mild as they like.”

Salsas include traditional tomatillo, diablo, and salsa fresca, as well as fusion creations like roasted corn, mango or black bean—six or seven in all, at any given time.

The salsa bars also feature other traditional Mexican condiments, such as curtido (a pickled vegetable mixture similar to Italian giardiniera), grilled scallions, crunchy fresh radishes, lime wedges, and fresh jalapeños that are roasted and seasoned with lime juice and salt.

Putting Mexican to Work

B&I operators also embrace south-of-the-border food.

Mexican food is popular with B&I as well as college operators. Depending on the customer base, Mexican can mean anything from an occasional special to a menu staple.

“With about 75% to 80% of our population being Hispanic, we can’t get away with (only) tacos and burritos here,” says Juan Flores, sous chef of a 2,000-employee B&I location managed by Aramark in California. As a result, enchiladas, fajitas, a tostada bar, and breakfast specialties like chilaquiles and chorizo and eggs are a regular feature, according to Cory Miller, the account’s executive chef, but it’s holidays like Cinco de Mayo and frequent catering events where the team really pulls out all the stops, with specialties like sopas (fat tortilla boats with fillings on top), various ceviches and churros.

Another popular favorite is tortilla soup. “They line up before the place even opens for that,” says Miller. Flores makes it in the traditional way, first roasting his own peppers, tomatoes, garlic and onions for the base, then finishing the soup to order with shredded chicken, fresh cabbage and tortilla chips. “That keeps it fresh, with lots of texture,” explains Flores, who makes the soup in 10-gallon batches.

Encouraging customers to take food home is also a strategy that’s suitable for building sales in the corporate foodservice sector. “Guacamole is one of those typically Mexican foods that many people are intimidated about making at home,” says Bill Mitchell, senior director of national program development for Sodexho. “So we made it easy for them.”

Guacamole was one of a number of LTO ready-to-go recipe “kits” introduced in 2005 as part of the company’s Simply To Go platform. The guacamole recipe pack includes ripe avocado, fresh cilantro, onion, tomato, jalapeño and lime, plus crunchy tortilla chips, to create an authentic but easy appetizer or salad.

At Ariba, a software manufacturer in the San Francisco Bay Area, Aramark executive chef Juan Valencia—who hails from the Mexican state of Michoacán—practices his craft at a display taqueria just inside the entrance to the company’s dining facility, which is open to the public. “Everyone gravitates to this station,” says foodservice director Reid Basso. “The flavors and foods go beyond all ethnic barriers.”

The menu includes tacos, burritos, salads and nachos, as well as a special every day, which might feature enchiladas, taquitos, mole, posole (a stew based on corn hominy), pork carnitas, carne asada or a vegetarian mushroom mixture starring fresh portobellos.

For Dominic Rivera, regional operations support manager for Aramark’s B&I locations in 10 heartland states, parties and special events represent a wonderful opportunity to test customers’ “tolerance” for all kinds of ethnic foods. He often experiments with appetizers and hors d’oeuvres, believing that people are much more likely to try something new if it’s just a bite or two.

Rivera also strives to combine the familiar with the less well-known in order to stimulate trial. “If I make a lobster tostada with guacamole, chipotle pico de gallo and queso anejo, they’ll try it because they’re comfortable with the lobster and guacamole, and we will have introduced them to new things.”

Rivera, whose family comes from Leon, Mexico, likes to experiment with contemporary presentations, such as a “deconstructed scallop ceviche” in which the scallop is seared in grapeseed oil, accompanied by a fresh chayote relish and paired with a fruit “shooter” made with mango, papaya and wine.

Part of the Local Culture

At the University of Texas, Tex-Mex is as popular as burgers and pizza.

With all the Mexican food in Austin, it’s no surprise that Robert Mayberry, executive chef at the University of Texas at Austin, knows his Tex-Mex, the indigenous regional cuisine that evolved as food—and people—from northern Mexico moved into Texas and asssimilated to the local environment.

“I’ve been a Tex-Mex cook all my life. Growing up, my dad was the one that went huntin’ and fixed venison chili and enchiladas, and I’ve always loved that kind of food.

Mexican is part of the culture here in Texas, and people are used to eating it, so we don’t really have a Mexican ‘platform’ here so much as the food is sprinkled through the menu in every location. We always serve migas and chorizo and eggs at breakfast, and enchiladas, tacos, and rice and beans are always on the menu. We serve fajitas every week, and there’s always a salsa bar for the chili-heads.

I have a hotel background and cooked at Coyote Café (the groundbreaking modern Southwestern cuisine restaurant in Santa Fe), but it’s all about Tex-Mex here in Austin. Everyone eats it—we have a lot of Asian students now, and they love it, too.

I’m trying to move forward to offer more variety, though. We’re looking at adding new taco fillings like pork in green tomatillo salsa. The great thing about tacos is that the kind of fillings you can put in them is pretty much endless. Picadillo is a good one too; you can use it as a taco or gorditas filling, put it on a plate with rice and beans, or even use it as a dip with chips.

We try to make everything from scratch but it’s hard, especially with the training involved. So we’re adding more prepared foods, things that can do the hard work and we just finish them up. The number of great products available now is really helping in this regard. I looked at about 30 new ones today, including chicken mole and carnitas, and we’ve already added carne guisada, which is stewed beef in spicy gravy.

We also do some New Mexican-style dishes, and we’re using green Hatch chiles to make it more authentic. The chiles are very seasonal, but now they’re available frozen and they’re pretty good. We use them as a sauce for chicken enchiladas, and I’d also like to use them for chiles rellenos. And tamales are big, too. We make a corn and black bean tamale—we’ve got a lot of vegetarians at this point and it’s always great to find something they like.”