Carmel Magazine - copy

158-159 Food for Thought_Layout 1 4/24/13 3:30 PM Page 1 food for thought Haute Per uvian, Baked Ziti for Panetta, Aubergine Chef Honored B Y L A R RY H A R L A N D a more fascinatingly LOVING THE HAUTE eclectic menu than the hot, bubbling in a 500- can order quinoa, lubina Peruvian cuisine is Haute. In one sitting you year-old melting pot of (bass), mole, plantains, Spanish, African, Japan- pasilla peppers, roasted ese, Chinese and native bone marrow, cotija Quechua cultures. cheese, wild salmon Despite its worldwide quimixto, mussels Es- popularity, food from pañola, calamari with Peru barely registers a blip romesco, or crab and on our local food scene. huitlacoche enchiladas. The only restaurant really Haute Enchilada, 7902 attempting this cuisine is Moss Landing Rd., Moss The Haute Enchilada in Landing. 831/633-5843 Moss Landing, whose SAUCE FOR owner Kim Solano gains THE BOSS inspiration from world Julia Child left a travels and her own artis- career with the Office of "My menu is definitely precursor to the CIA) at tic whimsy. Strategic Services (the inspired by my travels to many places in age 38 to enroll at Le the Cordon Bleu in France. world, including Peru," So when Seaside's Photo: Kelli Uldall Solano says. Star t with Peruvian causa, a seasoned mashed-potato terrine often stuffed with tuna, Haute Enchilada owner Kim Solano prepares one of the few Peruvian menus, including the potato terrine causa dish, in the Monterey County foodie scene. egg, shrimp or avocado and topped with a spicy Peruvian sauce called ají. Solano's version includes layers of saffron-infused potato and causa configuration but adding Hollandaise, crumbles of bacon, and two sunny-side eggs. For a light snack, try Peruvian ceviche, with red beet-infused potato topped with garlic succulent dried tomato cream sauce. For breakfast, she cilantro-lime mixture. prawns, and nested in a pool of roasted, sunserves a Peruvian Bird's Nest, using the same 158 C ARMEL shrimp, tender octopus and Lee Mangone left her job as a nurse last year at age 38 to open a prepared Italian foods business—traveling to Tuscany to hone her skills—it wasn't exactly unprecedented. But it still seemed crazy. Now eight months into her venture, Peruvian corn "cooked" in an avocado- Mangone's business, Il Mio Cognome ("My No other restaurant in Monterey County has father Vincent, who passed on his mother's culi- MAGAZINE•SPRING/SUMMER 2013 Family Name," a nod to her Italian-born, late

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