Edible Communities: Making Tortillas in Santa Fe
"What's the dumbest idea you've ever had?" I ask Chef Nathan Mayes inside Paloma's brightly sunlit galley kitchen.
"Installing a gigantic tortilla machine I brought from Mexico in this tiny kitchen," he replies.
And the best? "Taking it out," he says with a laugh. Though the behemoth is gone, there is no shortage of fresh corn tortillas at this Santa Fe restaurant. Thanks to some smaller equipment and prep cook Angeles “The Masa Master” Guzman, Paloma makes and serves anywhere from 200 to 400 individually pressed, organic corn tortillas a night. “We make everything from scratch here,” says Mayes. “Being an artisan, to me, means you’re creating with your hands. And if you’re creating with your hands, you’re creating with your brain and with your heart.”