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FOOD n DESIGN
THE WHOLE
ENCHILADA
By CLAUDIA ALARCON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS WATERS DUNN, SUNNI HAMMER AND MARK MENJIVAR
After a long career conceiving, designing and developing
nearly 29 restaurant concepts throughout Texas, San Antonio
restaurateur Cappy Lawton set out to write a cookbook for his
eponymous restaurant. Enlisting the help from his friend, San
Antonio Express-News writer Chris Waters Dunn, Lawton started
the process of writing the cookbook in 2012. “But it wasn’t fun,”
he says. “I wanted it to be fun. In conversation with Chris, the
idea of a book about enchiladas came up. We did the research
and found that there wasn’t any book on just enchiladas available
anywhere. So we got to work.” The result is Enchiladas: Aztec to
Tex-Mex, a gorgeous and complete cookbook published by Trinity
University Press, which Lawton admits “has a more universal
appeal than a book about a restaurant.”
WATERS DUNN
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Mexican cuisine is not new to Lawton, who started traveling
to Mexico in his 20s and has continued to traverse the country
regularly with his wife Suzy. A visit to their Alamo Heights home
reveals the couple’s love for our southern neighbor: folk art on the
walls, hand-painted dinnerware on the shelves, hoja santa plants
and avocado trees in the garden. By 1997, the couple had decided
to buy and refurbish the historic La Fonda on Main, revamping
the strictly Tex-Mex menu and adding favorite regional recipes
from their travels throughout the country. Talking to Lawton, it is
obvious that he has a great love and respect for Mexico, its people
and cuisine, and working on this book was truly a labor of love.
The team set out to do some serious research for over two and
a half years to gather enchilada recipes from different regions.
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“Enchiladas are a good touchstone for
all aspects of authentic Mexican cuisine.
But the book evolved into something
deeper, including techniques, chiles,
nixtamal, rice…” says Waters Dunn.
“I was amazed at how much diversity
there is in interior Mexican cuisine. We
finally had to stop.” Lawton and Waters
Dunn had another secret weapon in
their arsenal. Renowned chef Iliana de
la Vega — former Culinary Institute
of America instructor and owner of El
Naranjo Restaurant in Austin (formerly
of Oaxaca, Mexico) — who met Waters
Dunn at the CIA and agreed to come
on board as a consultant. “Chris and I
became friends, and often talked about
Mexican food,” says the chef. “One day
he invited me to lunch at La Fonda
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to meet Cappy and talk about their
project. They were very passionate and
honest about their approach, so I agreed.”
De la Vega’s role was to keep the book authentic. She spent
hours researching recipes and history, and shared her knowledge
of ingredients, preparations and techniques. “Things like how we
cook chicken in Mexico, how we roast chiles, the spices we use,”
says the chef, who was involved with the project for about eight
months. “We started getting together every Wednesday for taste
testing. I gave my honest opinion and they were very receptive.
Things like, this is a very tasty dish, but it’s not enchiladas suizas.
Call it something else.” Lawton agrees that the process was a very
collaborative one. “We used pretty much every recipe as a special
at Fonda. We were lucky to have lots of cooks from Mexico who
helped cook, taste and improve the recipes.” Both Gabriel Ibarra,
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Executive Chef at Cappy’s, and Victor Maldonado, Executive Chef
at Fonda, had a lot to do with recipe testing and development,
contributing their own recipes to the repertoire.
Enchiladas: Aztec to Tex-Mex is organized in a way that makes
it easy for any cook to understand and follow the recipes,
whether an expert or a novice. “Chris is very meticulous and
detail-oriented,” says De la Vega. “Everything was researched,
tested and written very carefully. The recipes are factual, and are
completely doable.” Thanks to its strong historical component,
previous knowledge of Mexican cuisine is not necessary, but
careful reading is in order and definitely recommended. Waters
Dunn sees it as a miniature history of Mexico, from Precolonial
and Colonial times to the French influence of the late 19th
Century and into today.
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Part 1 is all about ingredients, describing
in detail origins, varieties and preparations
for some of the most ubiquitous necessities
of Mexican cooking. Part 2 is dedicated to
techniques. Here readers will learn how to
make tortillas, how to handle and prepare
different chiles, how to cook meats for fillings
and more. Part 3 dives into the recipes, starting
with accompaniments like salsas and toppings
before delving into the actual enchiladas, which
are divided into pork, beef, poultry, seafood
and vegetable fillings, with a short chapter
dedicated to Tex-Mex classics. Rounding out
the project are full-color photographs by Sunni
Hammer, Mark Menjivar and Waters Dunn,
which make the book visually stunning and
every recipe even more mouthwatering.
“It was a lovely experience, getting to know
them and building a friendship,” says De la
Vega. “They were very conscientious about
respecting traditions.” Waters Dunn, with a
genuine smile and a gleam in his eye, adds: “we wrote the book out
of great respect for the people of Mexico.” v
ENCHILADAS: AZTEC TO TEX-MEX
BY CAPPY LAWTON AND CHRIS WATERS DUNN, © 2015
LA FONDA ON MAIN
210.733.0621 | Lafondaonmain.com
CAPPY’S RESTAURANT
210.828.9669 | Cappysrestaurant.com
EL NARANJO
512.474.2776 | Elnaranjo-restaurant.com
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