At Tatemó, James Beard-nominated chef Emmanuel Chavez is spotlighting heirloom maize in a Michelin-starred tasting menu that takes diners to many regions throughout Mexico. Chavez says that “tortillas are the foundation” for the 16-set tasting menu restaurant. He walks through a whole day of prep, from nixtamalizing maize in the morning for fresh masa to the last taco at the end of the meal.

First, A5 wagyu from Japan is seared for a carne asada. The meat is rested in a recado negro, a mixture of toasted spices and tortilla, before being plated with a cactus salad and a dusting of food-processed chapulines (roasted grasshoppers). “So the whole plate looks like fine dining, but when you eat it, it’s legitimately just carne asada,” Chavez says.

At the four-year-old restaurant, every dish includes maize, so the first step is grounding up the nixtamal that soaked overnight to make masa. Tortillas are sorted by color, with sweeter blue and red ones paired with fried foods and turned into tostadas. The yellow versions are used for tacos and added to thicken soups.

Seafood tostada is prepped with tuna steaks that are flattened, rolled out, and the nerves are painstakingly removed for a cleaner cut of raw fish. Perfect circles are cut out, seasoned with habanero oil, and stacked between parchment papers for service. A plantain tortilla comes next, with the starch cooked down with mole spices before being ground up in a food processor with five spice and turmeric. A faux masa forms, that can be worked into tortillas for the enmolada dish, which also includes duck carnitas and negro mole.

The house mole negro paste is made by roasting and then grinding down tomatillos, onions, more tortillas, cookies, and an array of dried peppers, including Oaxacan chile chilhuacle that Chavez calls “the A5 of chiles” because of its very earthy and smoky flavor.

A duck confit in the style of carnitas are made with cured duck legs that get a hard sear for super crispy skin and are then cooked down in orange, garlic, cinnamon, avocado leaves, Mexican Coca-Cola, and leftover duck fat from previous batches. The duck is pulled apart, tossed with more herbs and spices, and then carefully tucked into rolls that go in the freezer before being tempura fried for dinner service. Masa and tempura flours are combined for the tempura coating. The fried duck carnitas are stacked on top of the mole negro and a yogurt sauce, served alongside the plantain tortilla.

Service gets started after a quick pep talk from Chavez. Dishes swirl throughout the kitchen, including a quesadilla inspired by Mexico City has never left the menu. Masa is stuffed with huitlacoche, cheese, and an aromatic herb called epazote before being fried up and served with “fancy guacamole and crispy chicatanas (flying ants).

“Houston is not known for tasting menus,” Chavez recounts. “People want options. People want big portions. So, it definitely took us a whole to gain people’s trust.” He adds that he was inspired by chefs like Jon Yao at Kato, who built unconventional tasting menus based on their background, helping to open up diners to new cultural cuisines.

Watch the latest episode of Mise en Place to see how Chavez and his team prepare dishes that highlight cuisines from all over Mexico at Tatemó.