t Cochinito , Chef Travis Dickinson and his team explore the Aztec and Spaniard nobilities , not through social structure , but within their shared ability to find perfection in rustic flavors and textures . Take elote , a corn dish never meant to be deconstructed or turned into molecular cuisine . Chef Travis understands that elote is about finding corn ’ s perfect crunch , and appreciates the beauty of this seemingly simple ingredient , preparing it in a way that celebrates its sacred origin .
Though he ’ s exploring a culture-based cuisine outside of his heritage , Chef Travis never oversteps , and what the team at Cochinito is doing speaks for itself . Their cuisine is an homage , a study on the metonymic universalism of food traditions . French cassoulet , Brazilian feijoada , Senegalese maffe , or American meatloaf were invented generations ago by grandmothers and probably not all that different from the nonna who cooked posole or elote for the first time . That doesn ’ t just speak to our palate , but to our soul — to the core of what makes us humans . Chef Travis and his team looked deep into the roots of these beautiful and rich culinary traditions and , in paying homage to nonnas and abuelos , they have composed dishes in a way that has not been done before .
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