Page 26 - feb 2018

TGIF: THANK GOD I'M A FOODIE FOOD

The Chef

behind

the food

at

Mastero:

CHEF ELENA VEGA

In my opinion, however, the star of the show is the food prepared by Chef Elena .
After our amazing chat where my mouth was watering by the time we were done, I
had the opportunity to try several of the dishes prepared by Chef Elena . At

Maestro’s they are all about seasonality. She is a regular at the Santa Monica
Farmers market on Wednesday (my favorite as well), tasting her way through the
amazing produce and deciding what ingredients will work in her dishes for that day
or week. She told us during our visit that she does not use recipes for her dishes;

now you may be thinking, how can you ensure that something will taste good no
matter who cooks it? Well, there are a couple of ways to do this. First, her ability to
adapt recipes based on seasonal ingredients. An early season pepper or a late-
season vegetable might taste different than the same one from a different part of

the season. One week you might be using peaches, and later in the month, you
might have to switch to pears. And second, Elena trains her cooks to taste
everything, to be able to understand how to adjust quantities or even switch
ingredients completely to achieve the desired flavors.

26| TNE MAGAZINE | FEB 2018