Alex Stupak Doesn’t Believe In The ‘Deep Importance’ Of Food

 

You know who doesn’t take himself, his food, or the restaurant industry too seriously? Alex Stupak. You know who still manages to come off sounding like a twinge like Marcel Vigneron? (Note: We at The Braiser are not Marcel fangirls and do not condone his foam-sanity.) Alex Stupak! What gives? The former wd~50 pastry chef took a lot of heat for leaving his shmancy position at the palais du modernist cuisine in favor of opening up his own Mexican restaurants — with zero experience or personal connection to Mexican cuisine. But Alex isn’t sweating the small stuff. Or…any of the stuff.

“I love what I’m doing, but I’m also a nihilist in that I don’t believe in the deep importance of it,” he told Serious Eats of working as a chef. “It’s food, and it’s not even food in terms of nourishing the masses. We’re restaurants; we’re in the entertainment industry.

Okay, well admitting the restaurant industry is an exercise in entertainment is actually sort of refreshing coming from a chef, but are we supposed to buy that he truly doesn’t care about turning out the most delicious taco in New York? He elaborates:

“If it takes me ten or fifteen or twenty years or I never get to it, at least I’m trying to do it. Because, again, I was so inspired by these guys I worked for that I’m trying to hold myself to that standard. I’m trying to reach for something that’s very far away.”

However, while we’re busy pardoning his reach, he’s also refusing to serve “authentic” mole on the grounds that the traditional presentation would include 16 ounces of sauce and a small portion of chicken, which patrons wouldn’t enjoy. So, to be clear, he’s an uber-rebel who doesn’t care about breaking the rules of the culinary world, but he still respects the haute cuisine designation too much to plate more than a pristine spoon-pushed shmear of sauce.

That said, Alex’s tacos are very tasty.

[Serious Eats]

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