How the Authentic Taco Made a Gourmet Comeback

How the Authentic Taco Made a Gourmet Comeback

Some of America’s top chefs are obsessing as never before over getting Mexican cooking right, and the taco is their primary proving ground. Here’s where to find some of the most legit iterations this side of Mexico City

By Elizabeth G. Dunn in the Wall Street Journal

MAYBE IT WAS the Doritos Locos Taco that did it. Maybe that unholy alliance of ground beef, cheddar cheese and sour cream enveloped in a giant neon-orange Dorito shell was too much for chefs to bear. Whatever the cause, gastronomy’s top echelon has plunged into a state of intense taco-consciousness.

It’s not limited to the New World. In Copenhagen, René Redzepi has taken a break from foraging reindeer lichen to help Rosio Sanchez, formerly his sous-chef at Noma—currently ranked number one on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list—to open the taco shop Hija de Sanchez. Albert Adrià, following his modernist exploits at El Bulli alongside his brother Ferran, opened a taqueria last year in Barcelona called Niño Viejo. Still, the taco fixation does seem particularly acute stateside. From New York to Nashville, American chefs are waking up to authentic Mexican cuisine, with a particular focus on the humble foldable street snack.

 “Tacos are the one Mexican foodstuff we are all vehemently opinionated about,” said Alex Stupak, an alumnus of high-end modernist restaurants WD-50 in New York and Alinea in Chicago, who has committed himself since 2011 to serving up versions at Empellón Cocina and Empellón Taqueria in New York. Last fall, Mr. Stupak opened Empellón Al Pastor, a counter-service operation dedicated to his favorite taco.

This latest wave of American taco-mania has roots that go back decades. But until recently, tacos north of the border were going through what might be called their baroque period. We have been gorging on the likes of corn tortillas stuffed with Korean barbecue and chili soy slaw at Kogi trucks in Los Angeles, chasu pork tacos with hoisin sauce at East Side King in Austin and mushroom tacos with cashews and kale at ABC Cocina in New York. Then there is the aforementioned Doritos Locos, Taco Bell’s runaway hit, which stretched the definition of the dish to its breaking point. (The debate over whether Tex-Mex tacos—a subset currently spreading like Texas kudzu across New York’s restaurant scene—qualify as legitimate Mexican food is thorny enough to warrant a story of its own.)

Sean Brock, the mastermind behind McCrady’s and Husk in Charleston, S.C., and Nashville, is another prominent gringo chef who has taken up the quest for taco authenticity. In studying the foods of Mexico, he found similarities to those of his native American South: Both diets are based on corn, beans and rice, and are intensely regional. At Minero in Charleston, Mr. Brock serves green-chorizo tacos with potatoes and grilled onions, steak tacos with heirloom chilies and classic tacos al pastor made with spit-roasted pork, among other iterations. Mr. Brock designed his menu with the zeal of a convert, reading dozens of books and taking eating odysseys in Mexico, then hitting the test kitchen to recreate the flavors outside their indigenous context.