Bill Smith has been the chef at Crook's Corner, a restaurant in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for nearly two decades. In 2011, Crook's Corner was honored with The James Beard Foundation's America's Classic Award - a distinction for locally owned restaurants "beloved in their regions for quality food that reflects the character of their community," according to the Foundation.
In addition to his cookbook Seasoned in the South, Smith often writes on the topic of immigrants in the professional kitchen - including recipes inspired by staff and his own travel journals from Mexico.
"In a restaurant kitchen, chances are good that your dishwasher won’t speak English as a first language. There are lots of reasons for this," says Smith.
"For starts, you can wash dishes in any language so a lack of English needn’t be a hindrance to the new arrival. I’ve been a chef for over twenty years. Here are five things to be said in favor of continuing this custom, offered in a time when people are being very snippy about these very nice people."
1. The work ethic of the new immigrant is the stuff of legend.
"I’ve never had a Mexican leave to go back home without coming up to me, shaking my hand and saying 'Thank you for the work.' They look you in the eye and they mean it. I’m tearing up writing this."
2. You get exposed to lots of great new stuff.
"Like language. A friend from Madrid once told me that in Spanish I sound like Ice T. I couldn’t have done this alone. The list of new foods stretches as far as your courage will allow. And I can’t imagine a day going by without the music of Don Omar, Prince Royce or Aventura."
3. You help children.
"Sometimes they are here with their parents, but like as not, they are back home. Where doesn’t matter really. The impact of even a low American wage on the lives of a family in the mountains of Oaxaca is huge. Some will say that these wages ought to be going to parents of American children. Perhaps, but the impact of a low American wage on the lives of a family here is quite the opposite. This is complicated."
4. Barriers come down.
"No matter how hard you resist, you will eventually be seduced by the valiant determination these people exhibit day by day. This is good because tribes are bad. We’re all in the same boat now."
5. Unless you are throwing in the towel on our future they are not really taking American jobs.
"Think about it. Do we really want our newly unemployed teachers and state government workers to start new careers cleaning hotel rooms and plucking chickens at minimum wage and without benefits? Take a minute before you answer."
And for Mexico's influence on Smith's cooking:
Sweet Potato Tamales
Makes about 60 fat finger-sized tamales
Ingredients
- 1 package dried corn husks for tamales
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 8 cups corn flour (I prefer the Maseca brand that is milled for tortillas and tamales)
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 4 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon cayenne
- 3 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 2/3 cups lard at room temperature
- 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes, washed well, peeled, and cut into a quarter-inch dice
- 3 jalapenos, seeded and diced
Cooking Directions
- Put the corn husks in warm water and weight them down with plates. Soaking makes them more pliable. Invariably some will be unusable, but one package is generally enough for this recipe. Set up your steamer, but keep the basket on your work table.
- Warm the chicken stock in a sauce pan. It doesn't need to be boiling hot. Put the Maseca and all of the dry ingredients in the bowl of mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Turn on low to mix. Increase the speed a little, then begin to feed in the lard in small bits until it is thoroughly incorporated into the corn flour. It will resemble the beginnings of pie crust.
- With the mixer on low speed, feed in half of the stock. Then carefully feed in the sweet potatoes and jalapenos. Add the last of the stock. Mix a minute more. The dough should be moist but should cling to itself instead of your fingers. If it seems to wet add a little more Maseca. If it seems dry ... you know.
- You have to eyeball each corn husk. You are looking for leaves that are at least as big as an outspread hand. Lay a leaf on the counter with the longest dimension left to right, with the pointy end on the right.
- Put a 3-inch-long cigar of dough in the center of the leaf, leaving an inch or so of leaf at the pointed end.
- Fold the point over the dough, then roll the leaf around the dough.
- Fold the fat end back over the tamale and lay it flap side down in the steamer basket.
- Fill the basket as full as you can with tamales. It can't be too crowded.
- When the basket is full, steam at full boil for an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. The tamales will be firm, but still a tad squishy.
- Let them rest for about 15 minutes. Bring them to the table in their husks. I am presently serving them with a sauce of Hellmann's mayonnaise into which we have stirred sriracha sauce and chopped cilantro.
Note: You should be able to find all of the odd ingredients at Latino grocery stores. There is one on every corner down here.
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