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Mexico City-born-and-raised Chef Alma Alcocer-Thomas has been a rising star in the Austin restaurant scene for the last 20 years. Today, she comes full circle in her latest endeavor at the helm of the kitchen of the world-renowned Fonda San Miguel.
The news that Alma Alcocer-Thomas had been replaced as the executive chef at Jeffrey’s took the Austin foodie community by surprise. After 16 years working her way to the top at one of Austin’s longtime favorite restaurants, she suddenly found herself out of a job. But as the saying goes, everything happens for a reason, and what started as a local restaurant shocker turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
After attending the Cordon Bleu academy in Paris, France, Alma moved from Mexico City to Austin with her family when she was 22 years old. The idea, in part, was to inspire her to decide what path to take in life. “I never did anything that I had planned on doing,” Alcocer says with a smile. “Instead, I got married, stayed here, and started working.” When her daughter was still a young child, Alcocer did some catering and worked as a server at a couple of places. She started working at Jeffrey’s part-time, making salads during the week, prep cooking on weekends. Eventually, her skills led her to become the sous chef to David Garrido, and upon his departure, she took over as executive chef. “One thing led to another, so 16 years later I was like wow, this is pretty crazy.” But it was definitely time for a change. “When you are in the thick of it, you don’t realize that, but now that a couple of months have passed, I think this is very healthy for me.”
On a tip from a friend she went to visit Tom Gilliland, owner of Fonda San Miguel. “We really clicked right away. We met five or six times and he encouraged me to give it a try, so here I am. It just seemed to evolve on its own,” she says of her new job at the helm on the world-renowned, landmark restaurant. On a recent conversation with her father, he asked: “Well, so you’re cooking Mexican, how do you feel about that?” “And I thought, you know? It’s almost like brand new – it’s exciting,” she admits.
But in a way, it’s not all new. Recently, long-time Fonda friend Diana Kennedy visited Austin, and of course, spent time in the kitchen. “When Mrs. Kennedy was here, she talked about different things, and as she spoke, I was thinking: “Oh yes, I remember that, and oh, I remember that too!” Alcocer says.
So back to her roots it is, and she is excited. “I really like it here, it’s very challenging, because it’s a different size restaurant,” she says of the significantly larger volume at Fonda in comparison to Jeffrey’s. “I can be a lot more creative here, I can do whatever I want for off-the-menu specials. I don’t have to think about what people are expecting because everything they expect is already on the menu that has been here all these years.” Besides, because of the restaurant’s large capacity, a special is not going to be 6 orders, but 25, even 30 on a weekend. “I not only have to make something that is Mexican and kind of upscale, but also something that the kitchen line can turn around quickly,” she says. She draws her ingredients and inspiration for these specials from the latest feature at Fonda: a gorgeous organic vegetable, fruit and herb garden planted in the fall of 2008 and maintained by gardening guru Scott Dubois of Bluegreen Project.
Because Dubois planted the garden before Chef Alcocer came on board, he planted many tried and true veggies for Austin gardens but not necessarily adaptable to the menu at Fonda San Miguel. “We used all the lettuce and spinach we harvested,” she says. “We had three-to-four cuttings of spinach out of one garden bed, and we used it to make all of our veggie chile rellenos,” she is proud to tell us. Turnips, not so easy. They had lots of them, since they are easy to grow, but unfortunately they are not widely used in Mexican cuisine. So Chef Alcocer got creative and used them in a salad with poblano peppers and apples tossed in a light dressing, topped with toasted pumpkin seeds. “It was delicious,” she says. “Not traditional Mexican, but it was delicious,” she says. Prominent in the garden right now is a bed of bright red, white and yellow stemmed Swiss chard. “I’ve been making a lot of things with it lately,” she laughs. She has made mole verde for a wine dinner, and also uses it in Fonda’s chorizo verde recipe, (“I get to work here and make chorizo!” she says enthusiastically), or simply sautéed with mushrooms as a traditional side dish served with carne asada. Beginning this summer, the new menu at Fonda will feature a seasonal garden vegetable all year round.
“Scott and I are working together now to make the right choices for the garden, learning to plant what can be used in our cooking,” she says. “We should have beets instead of turnips. I can cook with beets all day,” being that they are widely used in Mexican cuisine. When planning for the hot summer months ahead, Chef Alcocer was not crazy about Dubois’ obvious selection. “Scott asked me, “What do you think of okra? and I was like, “Mmmm, I think not. I never even heard of it until I came to the States!” she laughs. But they’ve already harvested tender nopalitos, the pads from the prickly pear cactus, which are a key ingredient in regional Mexican cooking. They have tons of radishes, which they use as a garnish on rice, so they’ll always have a home. Right now, she’s concerned about her tomatoes: “I’m keeping an eye for garden tomatoes; squirrels ate all of them at my house. I almost sat there and cried.”
Chef Alcocer has been working the famous Sunday brunch for a few weeks now. “It’s lots of fun, you get to see everybody!” she chimes. She is adding a few items, like an heirloom tomato salad, new dishes that include the garden’s bounty, and more seafood options. She loves cleaning and preparing whole fish (a skill that earned her the respect of her new all-male kitchen staff), and is currently using as much of it as she can from the Gulf, including the fantastic fresh snapper and shrimp from San Miguel Seafood. She is adding a different “ceviche of the week” to the menu, including one with scallops, spicy yellow tomato ketchup, and chopped pineapple, and a delicious ceviche verde made with green olives and raw tomatillos from the garden. “Having an alternative fish on the menu is wonderful!” she adds.
Exploring new and revisiting old flavors and tastes has been a key part of her return to her culinary roots. On her affinity for incorporating fruit into savory dishes, she says: “I love fruit, and I never think of it as something that is just … fruit. I always think you can do whatever you want with it! The way I use fruit in cooking comes from growing up in Mexico and eating it with savory spices, like mango with chile,” she says. She also loves Fonda’s melon, jícama, orange and cilantro salad, which is served during Sunday brunch.
Perhaps the most important step in rediscovering her native culinary culture came from a conversation with Diana Kennedy, who pointed out that perhaps her palate had changed after living here for 20 years. So she invited Chef Alcocer to visit her farm in Michoacan in mid-July to study with her and explore regional cuisines even further. “I am going back to Mexico in hopes of recapturing the honest, simple tastes and flavors. Diana lives in an ecologically sound working farm, so I am really excited.”
She is also feeling more active and healthy, and has started riding her bicycle to work since she lives nearby. “Some regular customers from Jeffrey’s have been in here and tell me I look so much happier, and that’s probably because I don’t have as many responsibilities,” she confides. “But little by little I am taking on more and more tasks. I just can’t help myself.”
Saffeon Sea Scallop Ceviche
Serves 6 - 8
This version of the Latin American classic has a touch of Spain, with ingredients like piquillo peppers, saffron and anchovy-stuffed olives. Faro brand olives and piquillo peppers – roasted and brined in a jar – are available at specialty food stores. Serve this ceviche with a crisp, cold, Spanish white wine.
Ingredients:
12 sea scallops, trimmed of adductor muscle
2 lemons
1 lime
1 Valencia orange
2 Tablespoons Spanish extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Spanish saffron
1 teaspoon sugar
Sea salt to taste
½ cup piquillo peppers, drained and dice
1 tomato, seeded & diced
1 serrano pepper, seeded & minced
2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
½ red onion, small dice
24 Faro olives (or any anchovy-stuffed olive), 12 diced and 12 skewered for garnish
Preparation:
In a mixing bowl, combine the zest of the lime, orange and one lemon. Add the juice from the lime, orange and both lemons. Add olive oil and ½ teaspoon of the saffron, season to taste with salt and sugar.In a pot, salt three cups of water add the remaining saffron and bring to a hard boil, add the scallops and cook for 1-to-2 minutes or until the scallops are blanched (lightly firm). Remove scallops from water, cool enough to touch, cut into pieces then place in the bowl with citrus marinade.Toss scallops in marinade to coat evenly. Refrigerate and marinate anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour.In a separate bowl, mix together the piquillo peppers, tomato, serrano, onion, parsley and the diced Faro olives. Pour the marinating scallops and mix. Serve ceviche in six martini glasses or 12 shot glasses, with a garnish of Faro olives.