Creating a dish for Cuca always starts with something we have eaten. An amazing product, fascinating texture or even grandmas' delicious comfort food, but it always starts from an unforgettable food experience.
For example, once in Boston we ate classic Cuban corn. A simple dish of BBQ corn with butter, lime, young fresh cheese and chili powder. We were so surprised at how naturally comforting and tasty it was that we felt we had to explore its possibilities.
Step 2: BREAKDOWN
That food memory becomes a conversation to discover why it is so good, what makes it magic. This reason is then the starting point for a new dish.
So for the Cuban corn dish it was the salty soft cheese barely sticking to fresh grilled smoky juicy sweet corn, splashed with the sour kick of lime and the spicy mouth warming feeling of chili. Very messy, but very yummy.
Step 3: SIGNATURE
How can we make it ours by applying our philosophy and of course using local ingredients to create that magic and convey a product's most pure form of flavor?
Using local 50 day old baby corn the whole thing could be eaten, not just the outside kernels, because what bothered us with the classic was how difficult and messy it was to eat.
Step 4: CONSTRUCTION
The dish is slowly put together and carefully adjusted until it is both unique, powerful and balanced.
By gathering unique local versions of the traditional condiments and making a secret garlicky parsley sauce to stick well the cheese, we had our corn!
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| Cuca's Cuban Corn |