Frontera Grill
Mexican restaurant · Chicopee ·
Tableside guacamole, fresh tortillas, and mariachi bands
Tableside guacamole, fresh tortillas, and mariachi bands
"The restaurant’s principal tamalera, María García, is a 25-year veteran who applies traditions taught by her grandmother in Guerrero — including kneading water into the masa until it has the right consistency — and adapts those methods to the restaurant’s flavors and volume, ramping up production as the holidays approach with help from other staff. Ahead of the holidays the restaurant orders about 120 pounds of masa per week (versus 20 to 40 pounds in a non-holiday week) to fuel both in-service tamales and thousands of additional tamales sold to customers via an online retail platform between Thanksgiving and Christmas. García prepares batches that staff can steam in an industrial steamer — prepping batches of 100 so they can cook in 40 minutes — and approaches the work as a labor of love. “My mother and grandmother loved to make tamales so much, and every holiday, I’d watch and begin to help them little by little,” García explains in Spanish. Culinary director Zach Steen marvels at her output: “I would love to tell you the story of María toiling over the steamer, but honestly, she’s so amazing,” and recounts that when he tells her, “Okay, María, it’s Goldbelly season. I have 150 orders the next few weeks, and she just goes, ‘Okay, no problem.’” Food writer and chef Rick Bayless has called her a “wizard.”" - Ella Cerón
"One of the flagship restaurants led by a celebrity chef who has publicly advocated replacing tipping with a 20 percent service charge; the chef argues this shift is long overdue and would create more sustainable livelihoods for staff, and reports that customers have largely been supportive of the change despite industry worries about backlash." - Naomi Waxman
"When she was first hired there in 2001 the executive chef warned her, “Don’t get pregnant.” Over the next five years she rose from line cook to sous chef before leaving; she believes the restaurant would have found a way to keep her if she had become pregnant, but the incident illustrates the pressure and scrutiny women face in professional kitchens." - Naomi Tomky
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