Have you ever had a food that when you have it, you crave it. And you don’t have any clue how to make it. Even if you watch the chef… having been a food guy, then chef and restaurateur, you tend to think you know everything about food. And the truth is you know a lot. Seasoning secrets, spices in the dishes, the special instructions on how to salt and pepper food in a way most folks as home chefs are not willing or accustomed to. Then they always marvel at the question, “Why does your version taste so much better than mine?”
Well, I am here to say that Chief’s food is, for me, off the charts. He makes this family recipe for bean soup. I have had a lot of soups; my wife is a soup fiend. So, we try soup and tacos wherever we go. It could be 100 degrees, and we are eating soup and gorging on the latest taco trend. But boy, oh boy, Chief’s Bean Soup is a mystery to me. I’ve even got the recipe and follow it to the letter (okay sort of, no chef does it the same way twice), while mine is good… Let’s say Chief’s is lunar. It’s out of this world. It’s every good memory of your mom, Abuela, or life rolled into a soup. A simple bean soup, to be accurate.
There are lots of food trucks and there are great ones. But there are a whole lot of mediocre ones that set bad examples. Chief’s is one of the best. And dammit, he is the nicest guy too.
Maybe that is the secret in his food…