Travel_LeisureIndiaSouthAsia-January_2017

BEYOND

Travel Diary

Chef Michael Beary

heads to the Mexican

state of Oaxaca to

fi nd—and revive—

some of the world’s

fi nest chillies.

W

hen Michael Beary

opened Zocalito, his

Oaxacan restaurant in

Aspen, Colorado, more

than 15 years ago, he

quickly found that many of the

ingredients he needed weren’t

available in the United States. Even

in Mexico, some heritage chillies—

such as the achilito, which once

featured prominently in many

Oaxacan salsas—were nearly

impossible to fi nd. “They had

become so rare, even local chefs

were using generic substitutes,”

Beary said. So, he started making

trips to the remote Oaxacan valleys

where the terroir lends these

peppers their particular fl avour.

“My project is to get to the farmers,

so I can pay them what the

middleman would take,” said

Beary, who hopes his purchasing

power can convince growers to

keep producing traditional

peppers. He imports chillies and

other Oaxacan items like

chapulines (grasshoppers) for his

restaurant; in 2012, he launched an

online store (zocalito.com) that

makes them available to

professional and home cooks

around the world. — Kelly Bastone

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