Fresh from Mexico

Whether it's meeting a need to menu the authentic taste of Mexican cuisine or to satisfy a hunger for "fresh" year round, Mexican produce is a key ingredient in American foodservice.

By Deborah Grossman

"We serve local, seasonal produce" is a popular phrase on restaurant menus. But the desire to serve locally grown produce year-round in all parts of the country is a dream for many. As Anthony Lamas, owner of Seviche, a nuevoLatino restaurant in Louisville, Ky., observes, "It snows here in winter, and getting sun-ripened, local produce is just not possible."

Given that 20% of the growing fields in America are snow-covered in the winter, many chefs are without local produce for part of the year, says Robert Schueller, director of public relations for Melissa's World Variety Produce in Los Angeles. "Mexico has the land, the growing conditions and the weather to provide much of our produce, especially from November to April," he says.

The first rail car of Mexican produce crossed the border at Nogales, Ariz., in 1904 with melons from the Sonora region bound for Colorado. Trucks began hauling produce on the same route in 1950. Since NAFTA took effect in 1994, the volume of Mexican produce on warehouse shelves has boomed.

Local or imported?

Mexico is the largest exporter of produce to the United States and last year sent 7 billion pounds of pro-duce here, about 25% of the nation's vegetable consumption in the winter. That included a growing amount of organic produce, according to data from the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, a large family-grower's trade organization in Nogales.

"When I used to place a produce order, maybe one or two cases in 10 were from Mexico. But now, those numbers are more like four to six cases," says Robert Lia of P6 restaurant and lounge in Westlake Village, Calif.

Many chefs, often as a matter of principle rather than economics, search for locally grown products to support the philosophy of sustainable agriculture and avoidance of fossil-fuel usage in transportation.

Rick Bayless, chef/owner of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo in Chicago, supports local farms both philosophically and financially by investing in their facilities. Yet even his chefs can't source everything from the Chicago area.

Brian Enyart, managing chef, notes that some products, such as avocados and dried chiles from domestic sources, weren't fitting the bill for their Mexican-inspired kitchens. "We asked ourselves, what can we do to get better products? We now buy them from Michi, a co-op of farmers and ranchers in Michoacán, Mexico. Michi is a fair-trade company, giving the farmers a much-improved living wage."

Though some chefs, like Enyart, are knowledgeable about the regionality of Mexican produce, many aren't familiar with the various states in the country. They may not know that their plum tomatoes, peppers and eggplant were grown in the Culiacán area, near Mazatlan in the state of Sinaloa, or whether their grapes, asparagus and melons grew in the Sonora or Baja regions.

As the volume of trade from many Mexican states has increased, so has government scrutiny of food safety. The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Protection group now oversees both border control and antiterrorism efforts and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

"We don't have concerns about food safety from the melons, papayas, lettuce, squash and tomatoes we receive from Mexico, and neither do our customers," says Michael Rusconi, executive chef of Lon's at the Hermosa Inn in Scottsdale, Ariz. "The bottom line is always to build a trusting relationship with purveyors."

Quality rising

Lia of P6 has strong opinions about some Mexican products. "I wouldn't eat a Mexican oyster. I'm scared of warm-water shellfish," he says. "But I don't see a difference in lettuce, broccoli and tomatoes between in-season, local products from Ventura County and out-of-season produce from Mexico. The hearts of romaine arrive in such pristine condition, it's as if I bought them down the street. The quality is so close we wouldn't know it's from Mexico unless we see it on the box."

Noting the overall improvement in quality consistency of Mexican asparagus, pineapples, avocados, plantains, coconuts and tamarinds at the Wine Spectator restaurant at Greystone in St. Helena, Calif., executive chef James Corwell says, "From cabbage, leafy greens, herbs, onions and garlic to tomatoes and peppers, the produce is trucked in so quickly, it just tastes fresh. Mexicans value their produce. A dessert in Mexico is often a perfectly ripe piece of fruit."

The growth in casual chains, such as Orlando, Fla.-based Darden Restaurants, Inc., has led to keen focus on sourcing from Mexico. The 125 locations of Darden's Smokey Bones Barbeque & Grill source tomatoes, cilantro, green onions and basil from Mexico. "These products meet our high product requirements, so we are satisfied with their overall quality," says company spokesperson Joe Chabus.

For some chefs, quality is related to one particular item from Mexico. Susan Goss, chef/owner of West Town Tavern in Chicago, doesn't pay much attention to the provenance of her produce as long as the quality is good. But when it comes to avocados, she is "adamant" that her Hass avocados are from Mexico. "There is no compromise here. Hass Mexican avocados have a better texture, are consistent in size and have perfect flesh with no cracking, as occurs in lesser-quality products."

During Super Bowl season, Goss created two dips-avocado with feta, cherry tomatoes, thyme, lemon juice and olive oil; and another with white beans, black olives, basil, truffle oil, champagne vinegar and olive oil. The chef menus smoked pork tenderloin with couscous, olive/caper relish and Hass avocado butter. For dessert Goss serves poppy-seed pound cake with blood-orange compote and Hass-avocado ice cream.

Looking south in winter and summer

In winter, Goss rates local hothouse tomatoes as a "negative 10." Her winter staples include Mexican plum tomatoes.

During Louisville's cold months, Lamas at Seviche relies on more produce from Mexico when local items aren't available from Indiana or Tennessee. The Los Angeles native is relieved about the increased availability of Mexican produce in Louisville in the last few years.

One might think that sun-drenched Scottsdale doesn't depend on Mexico for produce in the summer. "Sure, I like regionally produced food as much as any chef. But for us, Mexico is closer than Chile, and closer than the Bay Area or Florida. Our summers are so humid, tomatoes from Mexico taste so much better," says Rusconi from Lon's, which specializes in artful American cuisine.

Though Rusconi gets much produce from California's San Joaquin Valley, the area doesn't produce much in winter. From squash to leaf lettuce, tomatoes and peppers, the chef turns to Mexico for his Hermosa salad and his pecan-grilled vegetable/mushroom tortellini with yellow squash and zucchini.

The issue of availability is clearly on the minds of chain operators such as Mitch Smith, director of supply chain at Oakbrook, Ill.-based McDonald's. "The preference at McDonald's is to purchase produce domestically and, where possible, locally," he says. "That said, we are using very limited produce from Mexico-mostly in the winter season as supplement and contingency to the U.S. supply. This includes tomatoes and some iceberg lettuce. We also use red grapes for a short period of time during the year, from Northern Mexico."

To keep up with year-round demand for its fruit 'n yogurt parfaits, McDonald's sources strawberries from both Mexico and the United States.

The real deal

The issue of matching as many indigenous ingredients as feasible to a cuisine is critical to many chefs. At the Wine Spectator restaurant at Greystone, Corwell believes strongly that authentic products create authentic flavors. The chef wraps fish in hoja santa, a large leaf with a floral scent and delicate texture. For a popular appetizer, he layers Mexican pickled red jalapeños atop beef tartare, and stuffs piquillo peppers with queso fresco, creating mini chiles rellenos.

Only fresh, hot chiles from Mexico are chopped in Lamas' kitchen at Seviche. His vegetarian ceviche (he uses the South American spelling for the restaurant's name) is comprised of all Mexican produce-jícama and cucumber with grape tomatoes-and Black Sea salt. Even his Mojitos feature Mexican oregano and mint.

"Using authentic ingredients differentiates us from other Mexican-themed restaurants in Louisville," says Lamas. "You just can't beat the flavor of so much Mexican produce. It's the tropical sunshine and the terroir that makes these tomatoes so red and the avocados so delicious. I love these flavors, and so do our customers."

Deborah Grossman is based in Pleasanton, Calif.

Food Safety, a Priority

Mexico has raised its food safety and standards to compete with the rest of the world. Produce exported from Mexico is grown to the same food-safety standards as those in the United States. Larger growers are certified through third-party American laboratories regarding process safeguards, sanitation and health standards. Quality control is a high priority for Mexican growers, and some use international standards.

Of the many farming variables, high-quality water is critical for irrigation, employee hygiene, cleaning produce in the packing facilities and pre-cooling before shipping. Most facilities have their own water-filtration systems.

At farms such as Agricola ESPA in Culiacán, in the state of Sinaloa, a DuPont water-processing system provides clean water for all operations. To ensure effective rinsing, tomatoes, peppers and other produce are sprayed with chlorine dioxide, a safe chemical that degrades into sodium chlorine, or table salt. This process eliminates bacteria, mold and fungus.

Mexican produce is tested by the Food and Drug Administration at a rate nine times higher than for U.S. produce, and includes physical examinations and tests for microbial contamination and pesticide residue.

To support CAADES, the grower organizations similar to U.S. Farm Bureaus, a research facility has been built in Culiacán that studies the best food-safety process controls, toxicology, nutrition and pest-management systems. Much of the research is done in collaboration with American institutions.