‘It’s a pain in the arse, it doesn’t make sense from a business perspective and costs us a lot of money, but it’s important,’ says Chris Whitney as he feeds corn kernels into a whirring, clanging monster of a machine. It’s just one of many processes needed to create and turn masa (corn dough) into Mexican tortillas – something most of us take for granted in the UK, thinking of them as little more than a vehicle for getting taco filling from a plate into our mouths. But while the vast majority of corn tortillas out there are pre-made, defrosted or even bulked out with wheat, those that come out of the kitchen at Breddos Tacos in Clerkenwell, London, are a completely different beast.
Chris is one half of the duo behind Breddos Tacos and tends to look after the operational side of things, while co-founder Nud Dudhia is the mastermind behind the food-truck-turned-restaurant’s incredible menu. But while Nud is a walking encyclopaedia when it comes to the food of Mexico, Chris is the ‘masa guru’, ensuring each tortilla has the right texture and taste before it hits the pass.
‘It takes a certain kind of person to take that sort of job on,’ says Nud. ‘It’s not easy and you have to have a lot of patience to work with the machines because they keep breaking. Every day something goes wrong, and it’s never something small – it also tends to happen like thirty-five seconds before service and no one knows how to fix it.’
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Nixtamalization: how to make a proper tortilla
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