“Mexican delicacies begins with corn,” says Isabel Coss, the co-chef of Washington D.C. restaurant Pascual, one in all Eater’s Greatest New Eating places of 2024. The day at Pascual additionally begins with this constructing block of Mexican delicacies, as Coss and the restaurant’s morning staff take the corn cooked the night earlier than and grind it into masa for use for tortillas, tlayudas, tetelas, and flautas.
Coss is from Mexico Metropolis, and the restaurant she heads with chef Matt Conroy is instantly impressed by her hometown. Nevertheless, it additionally attracts a few of its strategies from Oaxaca — to imitate that area’s underground hearth pits, the staff grills agave leaves and provides them to the restaurant’s personal wood-fired fireplace. Atop the flame, they cook dinner dishes like partially deboned hen golden chickens and al pastor, for the al pastor taco — the one taco on the menu. “It’s mainly a shawarma that’s made with pork,” Coss says of the rotating spit of pork and pineapple.
Teaming up has confirmed to be a profitable mixture for Coss and Conroy, who’re married and likewise work collectively at acclaimed D.C. restaurant Lutèce, the place Conroy is chef and Coss pastry chef. “Your associate is the individual you admire essentially the most so why would I not?” Coss says.
“We get to bounce concepts off of one another and what her robust factors are are in all probability my weaknesses and vice versa,” provides Conroy.
Watch the newest episode of Mise en Place to see how Coss, Conroy, and their staff put together for an evening of service at their award-winning, destination-worthy restaurant.