The ever-extraordinary Taco Maria does it again: Jonathan Gold has named our very own Chef Carlos Salgado Los Angeles Times 2018 Restaurant of the Year. The announcement was made at the kickoff event for this year’s Food Bowl, a month-long celebration of everything culinary – with this quote from Gold summing up Taco Maria perfectly.
No restaurant in years may have had quite the impact that Taco María and its chef Carlos Salgado have had on the Southern California scene. The restaurant, which serves tasting menus of Salgado’s Mexican-influenced cooking, is at the center of a culinary movement that seems to grow in importance each year. By regarding tortillas with a seriousness familiar to any fanatical French baker, by using perfect seasonal produce and by treating regional Mexican dishes with both imagination and respect, Salgado has propelled California-Mexican cooking into the jet stream of abstracted modernist cuisine.
Congratulations to Chef Salgado and the Taco Maria crew. Keep up the desmadre!
Cynthia Rebolledo covers anything and everything food, culture and spirits.