By Bill Forrester
ood is truly an immersive sensory experience. The comforting aroma of fresh-baked cookies. The taste of a perfectly cooked steak. The sizzle of bacon. A great meal is also a feast for the eyes before it’s a feast in the belly.
“Everybody eats with their eyes first,” says Eleazar Mondragon, chef at Ki’ Mexico, 3839 Gilbert Dr. in Shreveport. “That’s why I love to make something pretty that people are going to be like, ‘Wow, I don’t want to eat this.’ But at the same time, they want to destroy it.”
So, what’s the key ingredient in making a dish pretty? “Color,” Mondragon said. “We have all these beautiful vegetables that are bright in color. Or we can do pickled vegetables. I add beets so they can bring out that pink color. In the specials, I usually try to bring out color on the plate.”
Mondragon has weekend specials at Ki’ Mexico that give him the opportunity to showcase his artistic flair on the plate. “We don’t have it all the time, so I can take the time instead of doing it every day,” he said. “If it was on the regular menu, it wouldn’t be the same because I wouldn’t get as inspired.”
He said he finds that inspiration often when he travels. “Every place I travel I find inspiration,” he said. “I take the flavors and try new ingredients and incorporate them into my plates. When I travel to Mexico, I always go to a different state and look at their traditional dishes. I like Ireland, and Spain. I just try different ingredients and stuff that I like to play with.”
One of Mondragon’s personal favorites he has created is lamb chops with a sweet potato puree and pickled fennel with an orange sauce. Another is a green mole sauce with duck. “I love to play with the ingredients, the colors and flavors,” he said. “That’s what makes it pretty.”
And while he enjoys creating aesthetically pleasing presentations, as a chef he says it all comes down to how the food tastes. “That’s my main purpose, that everybody enjoys the flavors of it,” he said. “That’s my main focus, that people enjoy everything. Flavor for me is more important than presentation. I always try to do both, but flavor is my main thing.”
That is both a science and an art, he said. “There are different things that make a dish good — sweet, savory, spicy. I like to combine all of those together. It always comes out with good flavor because I try to balance them all.”
Take, for example, Ki’ Mexico’s special hamburgers. “A lot of the burgers are really good. They have beautiful colors, and the flavor is amazing…I like to add cheeses that people don’t like, like blue cheese or goat cheese. In the end, whenever you try it all at once, I have heard people say, ‘I didn’t like blue cheese, but I love it here.’” The formula is apparently working. “It’s very popular. We sell out 60 hamburgers in an hour and a half,” Mondragon said.
Like any artist, Mondragon constantly creates, searching for his next masterpiece. “It’s challenging because I have to make next week’s special better than this week’s,” he said. “But I like to challenge myself.”