If you try to eat organically and avoid genetically modified ingredients, going to a restaurant can be tough. It’s one thing to buy organic at the grocery store, but that might not be as easy to do when dining out, leaving you with a tall glass of delicious water while your dining companion dives in to the rib-eye with béarnaise sauce.
El Dorado Cantina Chef Paco and Owner Darin Feinstein have heard your cries. The Mexican restaurant uses organic ingredients and GMO-free meat, produce and dairy — and tells diners which suppliers they rely on in the pages of their menu so that the information can be double checked.
How do you describe the menu to new customers?
Organic and GMO-free Mexican cuisine.
What has been the response from the public?
Overwhelmingly supportive. A majority of our customers have heard about us via social media or our marketing efforts espousing that El Dorado cares about the food that we serve to our customers.
What made you decide to offer USDA-approved organic and GMO-free food?
Your body is a delicate ecosystem. If you eat food that is filled with pesticides, hormones, steroids and other potentially poisonous products you run the risk of suffering from adverse effects of those poisons.
What is USDA-approved organic beef?
The USDA organic seal verifies that producers met animal health and welfare standards, did not use antibiotics or growth hormones, used 100 percent organic feed, and provided animals with access to the outdoors. We source our organic beef from ranchers who meet the organic standard from pasture to plate.
How did you go about selecting vendors for the restaurant?
We require USDA organic certification from all of our vendors. That’s the first step. If they don’t have the official organic certificate for their products, the conversation ends there. After verifying they are organic we research the farm and if possible speak to the owners of the farm. We source regionally when we can, although living in the desert makes that difficult. We take sourcing our vendors seriously, and have spent the better part of a year procuring the vendors we have now.
What oil do you use for frying? How does the kitchen ensure that the gluten-free menu choices stay that way?
We use a non-GMO sunflower oil at El Dorado Cantina. We also have separate utensils, pans and a separate frier for gluten-free items to prevent cross-contamination.
When you go out to a restaurant that doesn’t label its menu items as gluten-free or non-GMO, what do you look for to order?
This is why we strive for transparency here at El Dorado Cantina. If you don’t know where your food comes from, it can be very difficult to find gluten-free and non-GMO options. The way we see it, we are proud to offer these products to our customers, and we want everyone to know about it. Why wouldn’t we label our menu? Unless you are hiding something, it makes no sense for companies or restaurants to not label their food.
Chef Paco, where did you learn your skills as a chef? Was there a learning curve to adjust to the philosophy behind El Dorado Cantina?
I learned my skills as a chef from my grandmother and mother. Many of the recipes at El Dorado are based on traditional recipes passed down in my family. The biggest learning curve for me was learning how to incorporate organic and non-GMO products into these traditional dishes while still maintaining the spirit and authenticity of the cuisine.
There’s a lot of heat on the menu. Are there any health benefits to eating spicy food?
The compound that makes peppers spicy is called capsaicin. Capsaicin has anti-bacterial, anti-carcinogenic, analgesic and anti-diabetic properties and has also been shown to reduce high blood pressure. Additionally, chilies are a great source of essential minerals, antioxidants and Vitamin C. One of our favorite spicy dishes is Paco’s pozole, which we have nicknamed Mexican chicken soup. A bowl of pozole will give your immune system the jump-start it needs to fight off any bug.