Pantry Files: La Tortilleria - Diana Hull & Gerardo Lopez
The team at La Tortilleria have a lot to celebrate – in addition to ten years of making and serving some of Australia’s most authentic Mexican food from the heart of Melbourne’s inner-city, La Tortilleria has been bringing fresh corn tortillas and tortilla chips to restaurants and homes around Australia since 2013. We love supporting this family-owned, Australian business that stays true to their Mexican roots using ancient recipes and methods. And we simply can’t get enough of their delicious tortillas and tortilla chips.
In this edition of Pantry Files, we were thrilled to be able to peek into the Diana and Gerardo’s pantry and hear about their journey creating what is arguably Australia’s most authentic tortillas.
Can you tell us a bit of the story behind La Tortilleria? What was the inspiration?
We started La Tortilleria back in 2013 as a response to a very simple problem: we were both missing good, authentic Mexican corn tortillas. Gerardo (being Mexican) grew up on these tortillas, and Diana (from Melbourne) had fallen in love with them while on university exchange in Mexico City. We couldn’t find any proper authentic tortillas here, made from scratch using the traditional nixtamal process which has been used by Indigenous Peoples of Mexico since around 1200B.C. All we could find were tortillas made from processed instant ‘tortilla flour’, which is a more recent, industrialised way to make tortillas that lack the nutritional value and great taste of traditional tortillas. The difference between the two is a bit like the difference between instant coffee versus a freshly-ground real coffee. Furthermore, almost all the tortillas on the market had a cocktail of preservatives and additives in them, and this is something we just did not want.
After several years wondering when someone would open a traditional Mexican Tortilleria in Australia - making healthy, wholegrain, preservative-free tortillas - we realised it had to be us! We then spent time in Mexico perfecting our knowledge of the traditional process and sourcing the right equipment, before our dream came true and La Tortilleria was born.
Image: La Tortilleria, Kensington, VIC
Were there any standout challenges that you have faced bringing Mexican food to Australia/Australians and how did you overcome them?
In the early days we had some challenges overcoming Australians misconceptions of what Mexican Food actually is. Sadly, Mexican food has been misrepresented in the Australian market, as it has been globally, primarily by companies marketing ‘Tex-Mex’ food as ‘authentic Mexican’ when they’re really quite different. Authentic Mexican isn’t as processed and fatty as Tex-Mex cuisine, and things like hard shell tacos, burritos and nachos are not really a part of traditional Mexican cuisine. While there’s nothing wrong with making great Tex-Mex or Cali-Mex food, we feel it’s important that traditional Mexican cuisine is given the acknowledgment and respect it deserves and not mislabelled as something it’s not, especially given its ancient roots and UNESCO World Heritage status.
So we invested our time and energy into educating the market about what authentic Mexican food is and just how central corn tortillas are to this culinary tradition. We did this through many great conversations with customers at local farmers’ markets, in-store tastings, on our social media channels, and with chefs and restaurant owners who embraced using our products. We feel like Australians have come a long way since we first opened our doors, and more and more people are aware of what real authentic Mexican food is and how to create it. There is still a lot of work to be done but I think there is a big momentum in Australia to recognise authentic Mexican food.
Has anything surprised you about your journey with La Tortilleria?
One thing that has surprised us is just how quickly corn tortillas become popular and how uniquely and innovatively Australians have adopted them into their diets. When we first opened it was mostly homesick Mexicans coming into our little tortillería in Kensington, but slowly curious neighbours came to see what we were doing, and they got hooked too. More and more people came and began sharing with us all the unique and diverse ways they’ve been using them – they’re not just for Mexican food! From innovative taco fillings to gluten free bread replacements, to imaginative fusion recipes. Chicken tikka masala tacos, vegemite quesadillas, tortilla lasagnes; we’ve heard it all! The creativity never ceases to amaze us and it’s a constant reminder of how versatile and adaptable the humble tortilla can be.
Image: Tortillas being made at La Tortilleria
Is there one thing about Mexican food that you wish more Australians knew about?
That it’s actually very healthy! Authentic Mexican cuisine is grounded in a wealth of ancient wisdom of nutrition. The Indigenous Peoples of Mesoamerica (the Mayan, Aztecs, Olmecs, Zapotecs and many others) employed some ingenious ways to extract maximum health benefits from the food they ate, and these traditions live on in the cuisine today. For example, the practice of combining beans and corn together in a meal forms essential amino acids and creates a complete protein for the body. Also, by soaking their corn overnight in limewater, the Indigenous Peoples worked out that they could extract the niacin and B vitamins locked inside the corn, drastically increasing its nutritional value. This process is known as nixtamalisation and it’s the same method we use every day to make our corn tortillas and totopos (tortilla chips). These examples, and many more, show just how ingeniously healthy Mexican food is.
However Mexican food can only be considered healthy provided that these traditional practices and methods are actually followed. Nowadays there’s obviously a lot of non-healthy “Mexican food” on the market that use preservatives and additives, and more industrialised cost-cutting methods that in turn counteract these health benefits. One example of this is using instant tortilla flour instead of wholegrain corn to make corn tortillas. We all know the health benefits of eating wholegrain cereals over processed cereals, and corn tortillas are no exception to this!
Image: Tacos and salsas at La Tortilleria
How do you champion and support local, Australian farmers?
Our corn is all grown here in Australia. This was something we were adamant about from the start: we wanted an entirely locally-made product from Australian ingredients. Before we opened our business, the only corn tortillas widely available on the market were imported frozen from the US, or made here but using the processed instant tortilla-flour which is an entirely imported product. We wanted to create an alternative option for those who care about reducing their food-miles and supporting local businesses and local farmers. We’re both passionate about local food systems so this was really a key seed in our dream of starting La Tortilleria.
In the last few years, we’ve also teamed up with local Victorian farmers and local research institutes to grow new heirloom corn varieties here in Australia. We’d love to see more biodiversity in corn varieties grown in Australia as this is better for our soils, for our collective health and for preserving ancient seeds. Not to mention the amazing tortillas and tortilla chips we can make from this corn!
What is your favourite way to use your tortillas?
This is a simple one: the basic quesadilla! It’s the perfect snack. Just cheese melted into a folded tortillas (or put between two tortillas sandwich style - although this way is ‘less-Mexican’ and more ‘Tex-Mex’). It’s the Mexican equivalent of the classic toasted cheese sandwich, and is an amazing, tasty go-to when you’re really hungry and want something filling fast. We also love getting fancy with extra fillings like chorizo, truffle, wild mushrooms, last night’s dinner leftovers and more. The possibilities are endless, allowing us to cater for whatever quesadilla craving we have in the moment.
Image: La Tortilleria
What’s for dinner at home on a typical night? Do you have a go-to meal?
Tortilla soup is one of our favourites, especially in winter. It’s delicious and great to prepare beforehand and have on hand for whenever you need it. It’s basically a tomato-based broth flavoured with pasilla chiles (dried chilies are great to have stocked in the pantry), poured over fried tortilla strips and garnished with diced avocado, fresh cheese and Mexican ‘crema’. For us the taste of this soup takes us right back to Mexico.
We also love enchiladas made with corn tortillas filled with either chicken or cheese, and home made tomatillo salsa poured over the top (we put the recipe up on our website!).
What do you love to do in your spare time (if you manage to get any!)?
Apart from tortilla making, we both love yoga, hiking, and are passionate about healthy eating and getting creative in the kitchen.
Gerardo is an avid mountaineer and keen rock climber. He summited Mount Everest in 2009 and has recently returned from climbing Broadpeak in Pakistan and Huayna Potosí in Bolivia.
Diana loves to sew and has a passion for traditional weavings and embroidery. Mexico and Guatemala are perfect for this, with a plethora of different textile styles and traditions across the different Indigenous Peoples of the area. She loves traveling in Central America and learning directly from the artisans (as well as eating a lot along the way!).
What is inspiring you at the moment? Are you working on any new products for La Tortilleria?
We have just opened our second restaurant, named ‘Chilpa’, in Highett, Melbourne. Chilpa is short for Chilpayate, which in the Nahuatl language - the main language spoken by the Aztecs - means ‘little kid’.
We’re also creating some authentic Mexican salsas. We love trying out different combinations of Mexican chilli varieties to find the perfect taste. We currently have a chipotle salsa, salsa roja and a habanero salsa available at our restaurants in Melbourne, and we’re hoping to send them out to independent retailers across the country soon.
Image: Chilpa by La Tortilleria in Highett, VIC
The variety of traditional Mexican ingredients has grown immensely in Australia over the past few years. We love being surprised to find fresh tomatillos, habaneros, serranos, tunas (cactus fruit), nopales (cactus paddles), jicamas and more pop up in local markets here and there. They’re not common, but such a treat when we find them.
We’d love to see fresh huitlacoche available here in Australia. Huitlacoche is a type of truffle that grows naturally on corn. It’s a common delicacy in Mexico and tastes amazing in quesadillas and tacos. It is available canned in Australia, but canned huitlacoche is nowhere near as good as fresh!
If you had to choose, what are three ingredients that are vital to your pantry or kitchen and why?
Corn tortillas of course - because they’re healthy and you can make so many different dishes from them. They’re also great way to use up leftovers - just throw last night’s dinner into a warm tortilla and voilà, you have a new taco dish!
Chipotle Chile - because everything tastes better with some chipotle in it. It lasts a long time, so great to always have on hand. It usually comes in a tin with adobo sauce, and can be used straight out of the tin for an easy taco sauce, or made up into salsa chipotle by blending it with some grilled tomatoes and onion.
Fresh epazote growing in a pot. Epazote is one of the staple herbs of Mexican cuisine. It gives frijoles (beans) that distinctive, authentic taste, and it’s amazing in a quesadilla. You can buy it dried from specialty grocery stores, but it’s not as good as fresh. It’s very easy to grow (…a little too easy! Always plant it in a pot and be careful it doesn’t take over your garden!).
Image: Gerardo with tortillas at La Tortilleria
What was the best meal that you’ve had in the past few months?
The Kangaroo Milanese Tacos we had at the new restaurant Primo de Sanchez on Oxford Street in Sydney were amazing. Primo de Sanchez is one of the many Mexican restaurants across the country that we supply with our tortillas and tortilla chips, and the head chef Alejandro Huerta creates some amazing dishes with them. We love how these tacos so deliciously merge Australian and Mexican cuisines.
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