"Telling the story of masa is hugely important for chef Emmanuel Chavez and his partner Megan Maul, who launched Tatemó in Houston back in 2019. Initially, they conceived Tatemó as a fine dining restaurant and were about to sign a lease downtown when the pandemic hit. They pivoted, and Chavez started focusing on making nixtamal, grinding it—using a comically modest hand-mill at first—and doing pop-up dinners."