Chef Mateo Granados: “I Dream in Chocolate!”

“I'm addicted to chocolate. I dream in chocolate,” says Chef Mateo Granados, who is known for synthesizing classic cooking techniques with Latin American flavors and local ingredients.

“My grandmother would toast cacao with cinnamon, cloves and cacao toasted with flour and grind with two stones to make a paste, then put it in the a Mayan batadura ( a big piece of wood hollowed out in the center, a giant mortar and pestle),” he recalls. “She would add hot milk and more chocolate. In the morning, the women would turn and turn and turn it until the milk foamed and chocolate sank to the bottom, and then I would drink it.

Even many years later, I sometimes still have to eat chocolate to fall asleep. I prefer dark Mexican chocolate, of course.”

Chef Granados catering company, based in Healdsburg, CA, features his creative rustic yet refined cuisine. His career includes more than 17 years at some of the Bay Area’s top restaurants.

“I like cooking with chocolate because everything comes from the spiritual feeling of family. Chocolate is the food that brings people together!” he says.

His Liberty Duck Tamale with Spicy Chocolate Mole Sauce served with deep chocolate goat milk ice cream (see recipe) is an example of his imaginative blend of flavors and textures. “I always combine cold and hot. Textures are the most important thing for the palate!

Visit www.mateogranados.com

Edited by Patricia D. Sherman

©ChocolateAtlas.com

Contact us:  Editor  Webmaster