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By Natalia Otero
The team at Tumerico Restaurant in Tucson is celebrating, as last month its chef and creator, Wendy Garcia, was nominated as a semifinalist for Best Southwest Chef at the James Beard Award.
Garcia says her path to being nominated all started with the idea of feeding people. She started making butternut squash tamales that she sold at farmers markets. She just wanted to feed people.
In 2013 she launched Tumerico on a farmer’s market table. She served traditional Mexican food, adapted with plant-based ingredients. A year later she opened the first Tumerico bricks-and-mortar restaurant, in the Sam Hughes neighborhood. And, in 2019, she expanded with another restaurant called La Chaiteria (which is not exclusively vegan).
Garcia says that today the most important thing, at both of her restaurants, is that customers feel comfortable, cared for and like family.
The Secret is the Sauces
Garcia was raised in Chihuahua, Mexico, learning in the kitchen of her grandmother and father. She has stayed in the kitchens since then, adapting her lifelong recipes to new ingredients.
“When I opened Tumerico I wanted people to try traditional recipes that I knew by heart and that my parents and grandparents passed down to me,” Garcia says. “I don't think there have been challenges with the kitchen; I love being in the kitchen creating things and serving my customers.”
Garcia says key to her success in the kitchen is her skill in making sauces.
“I always say: The secret is in the sauces!” he exclaims. “The sauces are what define one restaurant from another, something like the flavor of one, the seasoning of each chef, which makes us unique. The sauces are the personal seasoning of each restaurant, that Latin seasoning that distinguishes us and makes customers remember us when they think of Tumerico.”
The most popular dishes in Tumérico are beef tamales with chili. But for meat lovers who dare to try tacos with plant-based ingredients, Wendy recommends the al pastor tacos – made with jackfruit -- or the jackfruit carnitas.
Although today there are many products that imitate meat, Garcias does not buy products of this type. Instead, everything is made fresh from scratch, emulating meat with vegetable-based ingredients.
According to the chef, simple, whole foods are best: “I want my clients to feel good and enjoy their meals, while really getting nourishment.”
Following this same line of healthy homemade food, Tumerico’s ingredients come from local markets.
“There are many ingredients from Tucson that we can use, like the locals' favorite nopalitos, mesquite flour, prickly pear fruits. Plus, we have a great farmers market,” Garcia explains.
Garcias says every day at work is filled with enjoyment. Her passion for cooking makes every moment a new discovery. There are days when she can feel overwhelmed by the amount of work, but she always remembers her love for what she does and keeps going. Her clients are what motivate her. For them, she cooks dishes that fill them with love and satisfaction.
Although she didn't get to show this vegan food project to her father and grandmother, she is sure they would have loved it dearly.
Natalia Otero is a freelance writer based in Bogota, Colombia.