Kevin Roderick at LA Observed and Anthony Bourdain of No Reservations took El Cholo to task for its supposed long-held claim of inventing nachos, one that got a fresh lease on life with the passing of longtime El Cholo waitress Carmen Rocha. From Mary Rourke's October 2008 obituary in the LA Times:
Carmen Rocha, a waitress at El Cholo Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles for many years who is credited with introducing the city to nachos, the now-ubiquitous appetizer of tortilla chips, cheese and jalapeño peppers, has died. She was 77.
She started working at the restaurant in 1959 and won a following with her warm, outgoing personality. “Carmen was wonderful, to me and to everybody,” actor Jack Nicholson, a longtime regular at El Cholo, said this week. “It’s a community loss,” he said of her death.
For a special treat Rocha sometimes went into the kitchen and made her customers an order of nachos, an item not included on the menu. She followed a recipe she learned in San Antonio, where she grew up, layering tortilla wedges, shredded cheddar cheese and slices of jalapeño pepper, warming the dish in the oven. Before long she had requests from all over the dining room and her nachos were added to the menu.
Yesterday, Roderick pointed out that Bourdain slammed Cholo's claim on his trip to the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras; supposedly, that's where it was invented by Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya in 1943. This annoyed El Cholo sufficiently to put out a nacho-defensive press release. Reports Roderick:
El Cholo says through its publicist that the claim regarding Carmen Rocha has always been that she introduced nachos to Los Angeles. "We never claimed Carmen ‘invented’ Nachos,” says owner and restaurateur Ron Salisbury in a release. “We have always stated that Carmen introduced them to the city as a special treat for her guests, and the recipe she used was based on an old family recipe she brought with her from her hometown in Texas.”
These arguments are silly, of course, because you're basically talking about a snacky dish created by the serendipity of stuff you have at hand and/or too much of at any given time. Every cuisine has them, thank God; they're often some of the best things they have to offer and take on rich lives of their own. (Indian chat, Spanish tapas, Italian antipasto, etc.) But for what it's worth, Cholo's argument holds out: Rocha was raised in San Antonio, which at 144 miles northwest is the first major city near the Piedras Negras border.
So Mrs. Rocha, rest in peace. Thanks for being LA's Christopher Columbus of cheesy tortilla chips and please know no one holds you responsible for the nuclear fluorescent goo that's often pumped onto stale rounds of deep-fried drywall.
I can't find video of Bourdain's most-recent Piedras Negras foray, but here's a visit from last year where he ate nachos' street-smart cousin, the taco. God, they look good.
Cart. The delicious restaurant created by Anthony Bourdain, where folks in outdoor courtyard are served fresh from carts manned by recent grads of all the cooking schools.
Posted by: Big Bomb | February 12, 2009 at 03:36 PM