Cookbooks We Love: With ‘Amá,’ Josef Centeno takes us home to San Antonio, liberating Tex-Mex along the way
Amá: A Modern Tex-Mex Kitchen by Josef Centeno and Betty Hallock, Photographs by Ben Fuller, 2019, Chronicle Books, $29.95
Backgrounder: Just after his Japanese-and-Italian-inspired Los Angeles restaurant Orsa & Winston was named Restaurant of the Year by the Los Angeles Times in the summer of 2020, chef Josef Centeno had to close two other acclaimed restaurants, Bäco Mercat and Amacita, due to COVID-19. The San Antonio, Texas native — one of the most highly acclaimed chefs in the U.S. — continues to serve his modern Tex-Mex cooking at Bar Amá, from which this exuberant book gets its name. As forward-looking Tex-Mex is a rare thing indeed (most of what is served in Tex-Mex restaurants around the U.S., including in Texas, is hopelessly stuck in time), we were excited to discover and cook Centeno’s modern takes.
This is Centeno’s second book; his first, Bäco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles, was published in 2017. Both were co-written with his partner Betty Hallock, a former deputy Food editor at the Los Angeles Times. (Full disclosure: Betty and I worked closely together when I was Food editor at the Times.)
Amá’s Broccolini Torrada with Aged Cheddar and Lime
Why we love it: The modern dishes, like Broccolini Torrada with Aged Cheddar and Lime, which has been on the menu at Bar Amá from the start (“and will always be on the menu”), are smartly delicious, bold and fabulous in flavor. And the soulful traditional dishes — such as Carne Guisada, eaten as breakfast tacos with Centeno’s Tía Carmen’s Flour Tortillas — are simply smashing. They are dishes we’ll come back to again and again.
Carne Guisada from ‘Amá: A Modern Tex-Mex Kitchen’
You’ve gotta try this: At Bar Amá, Centeno lightens his guacamole with an unusual ingredient — grated celery. Odd as it sounds, it’s wonderful (don’t tell the guacamole police!). Chopped red onion makes a snappy garnish.
Amá’s guacamole, garnished with chopped red onion, gets a lift from grated celery.
Tiny complaints: Closer editing would have been appreciated. The caraway seeds you toast for those albondigas never get incorporated; we had to guess what to do with the tepin or arbol chiles destined for the torrada and the serrano for the guac (we stemmed, seeded and chopped them).
Still wanna cook: Hoja Santa Vinaigrette (if we can get our hands on fresh hoja santa); Anchovy Butter-Roasted Red Onions; Charred Green Onion Crema; Migas; Mama Grande’s Chicken Soup (with brown rice, scallions and cilantro); Chile Shrimp Ceviche (with grapefruit and watercress); Lamb Birria; Puffed Tacos (if we can get our hands on fresh masa from nixtamal); Nachos Compuestas; Borracho Beans; La Piña (a cocktail made with mezcal, pineapple, cilantro and serrano chile).