Any visitor to Spain knows that tapas are hugely popular, and that the concept spread to American restaurants many decades ago. Why? Because sometimes a menu rich with selections designed to be passed among diners – often called shared plates or small plates instead of tapas — is just right for a restaurant. One Mexican restaurant that excels in shared plates is Chilam Balam in Chicago.
Publisher Ed Avis interviewed Executive Chef Natalie Oswald about Chilam Balam’s success with the concept.
Chef Natalie Oswald
Why did you decide to have a menu focused on shared plates?
Our space is really small, and the kitchen is even smaller. And we only have two people working in the kitchen on any given night. So, it just makes more sense. And with shareable plates, you kind of put the dishes up as they come in. With traditional service, everybody has to work together to put the dishes out at the same time, and we don't really have the space that is conducive to something like that.
How do you define a shareable plate versus an entree?
Shareable plates don't always have to be a complete whole meal in one dish. You can get your starch over here with this vegetable-focused plate. You can get your meat over here with this meat-focused plate. It makes it so that people with dietary restrictions can still eat together and share their food. And everybody can try like a little bit of everything.
How do you determine how much food to put on each plate?
You try to keep it, you know, on the smaller side, because you want people to try it and to be able to try as many things as possible. And that keeps it cost effective.
How often do you change the menu at Chilam Balam?
Constantly. Because we no longer print menus, we can just change it whenever we want. And it's really nice, because when you are picking out produce or anything for that matter, these days, nothing is a given. So, you can just kind of go in and edit it as you go.
Some of our regular customers will see on Instagram that we have something that they really want to try, and they know they have to get in right away if they want to.
Tell me about your process for deciding what to menu.
I don't know that there is a process! I would say a lot of studying, a little bit of creativity, and then desperation (laughs). But I feel like that pressure kind of works the best. I need to change a dish next week and I have no idea what it's going to be, but somehow at the last second you come up with something and it's great. I learned a long time ago that the longer you spend trying to create a dish and perfecting it, the diners don't react the same way to it. When you spend so much time you overthink every part of the dish and it just doesn't work out as well, whereas when you just kind of try to go with whatever comes to you, [it often works out].
And now that we have a digital menu instead of a printed menu that we have to commit to, if something didn't work out that night, the next night we can change it right away.
How many items on the menu are on it always versus those that you change out?
Nine or 10 dishes are always there, and five or six get changed up. But every weekend we have a tortilla dish and every weekend we have a different fish dish. During the week we don't have tortillas anymore just because staffing is different than it was pre-pandemic. And we try to only have fish on the weekends or days that we know it's going to be really busy because it's such a high-priced item. And we want to make sure that we sell all of it so that it can be as fresh as possible.
So, you are making your tortillas in-house?
Yes. We make them fresh here by hand. And it's only for that day. We don't want to compromise our quality, so that's why we only have them on certain days.
Are you creating all the recipes yourself or does do other staff contribute to that effort?
There's no limit to contributions (laughs). I have the final say, but everybody is free to contribute whatever idea they want. Sometimes I solicit ideas. You know, it is a Mexican restaurant and Mexican focus, but there are definitely other cultures that can influence dishes.
What influences you personally in terms of the menu?
Talking to people, eating, reading. I read a lot. Talking to family. Like if you go to a family dinner and somebody cooks something, there's always at least one interesting component [to a dish] that somebody made that's memorable for you and that you can take and then use in one of your dishes.
SIDEBAR: Shared Plates: A Win for Everyone
Customers: Guests enjoy the opportunity to try more dishes.
Servers: Wait staff can bring dishes out intermittently, eliminating the issue of guests being upset if everything they’ve ordered doesn’t come out hot and ready all at once.
Kitchen Staff: Chefs and prep cooks can experiment with new dishes without having to spend time preparing full, plated entrées.