Tag: Jonathan Magallanes

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Hungry Memphis

Best Bets: Guava Agua Fresca at Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana

Try a Guava Agua Fresca on a hot — or cold — day at Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana. (Credit: Jonathan Magallanes)

Well, the temperature is supposed to reach 104 degrees this week. And not just for one day, apparently.

So here’s a way to, as they say, beat the heat. Order the Guava Agua Fresca at Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana.

When I visited the restaurant the other day, Jonathan Magallanes, who is chef, manager, front-of-the-house man, and just about everything else, asked me what I wanted to drink. Then he offered me a glass of their fresh guava juice.

It’s one of the best things I’ve ever tasted. It’s extraordinary. Just the right amount of sweetness. Refreshing. All the good adjectives.

And this isn’t something you’re going to find everywhere.

I asked Magallanes how he happened to begin selling Guava Agua Fresca.

Jonathan Magallanes with a Guava Agua Fresca, as well as a tray of yellow guavas, at Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana (Credit: Michael Donahue)

“One day randomly I’m at Walmart,” he says. “Right? And I’m just cruising down the produce aisle, whatever. But I smell something. I’m like, ‘What’s that smell? I know that smell.’ And I never smell it. Never. ‘That’s guava.’ And I’ve known this ‘cause we’ve traveled and gone to Belize, and the Yucatan, and Guatemala. Down there where they have these gorgeous, little yellow guavas.”

He tasted the yellow guava in drinks or desserts while traveling. “In Mexico, all these markets that are selling fresh fruit, guava is this one-of-a-kind scent. It’s super fragrant. Sweet and tropical. Sort of has it all. Total package fruit.”

Magallanes found the store’s guava display. “Walmart had this little clamshell with six guava. They were a little past ripe, in my opinion. But that fragrance had overtaken the whole produce section.

“I took them anyway and cut them and one was great, it was delicious. And so I looked on the little clamshell (to see) where they were from. Of course, they were imported.”

He then went to the local importer and bought them in bulk. “And they were amazing. ‘Cause they were the little yellow ones. It’s not the pink one.”

Yellow ones are different, Magallanes says. “The skin is thin enough and the seed is small enough you can juice the whole fruit.

“The seed has a certain type of guava flavor. So does the skin. And the flesh. So, you get this full spectrum of guava assault. It’s sweet the way the fruit is. It’s not sweeter than that.”

He brought them back to the restaurant and began serving the guava juice with ice and a touch of lime. 

“When it’s super really ripe, it’s almost frothy or creamy. Creamy almost the way a melon is sort of creamy. Fruit that’s at peak ripeness has this luxurious quality.”

He began selling Guava Agua Fresca about a year and a half ago. “As soon as I found it in bulk and the quality was good enough.”

And, Magallanes says, “Now it’s the special juice all the time.”

Las Tortugas Deli Mexicana is at 215 South Germantown Road in Germantown, Tennessee; (901) 751-1200 

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Memphis Chefs Personalize Barbecuing: Part 1

Barbecue sushi from Poke Paradise (Photo: Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh)

If you’re a Memphis chef, chances are you’ve thought about creating some kind of barbecue. Or maybe you already have.

But what would be your “signature” barbecue? Even if the idea is still in your imagination?

Tamra Patterson, chef/owner of Chef Tam’s Underground Cafe: “If Chef Tam created her style of barbecue/meat, it would be barbecue catfish stuffed with a barbecue jambalaya. No matter what I cook, I always have to infuse my love of Cajun food and Cajun culture.”

Jonathan Magallanes, chef/owner of Las Tortugas: “My style would be twice-cooked for an extra texture. First, braised like carnitas with whole orange, bay leaf, lard, lime, and green chile. Then flash-fried in peanut oil. At Tops Bar-B-Q, I ask for extra dark meat on the sandwich. That bark and meat crust is divine. Then I would use a chipotle salsa. Pork is braised in a huge copper kettle. Chipotle, cilantro, lime, and onion for garnish. I like to do the whole rack of ribs this way, or shoulder. Crispy pork is the best pork, as it accentuates and concentrates the porcine flavor.”

Mario Grisanti, owner of Dino’s Grill: “I make my own barbecue sauce, but I make it sweet. I would make a beef brisket and smoked pork barbecue lasagna with layers of meats, mozzarella cheese, etc. Thin layers of each covered in barbecue sauce.”

Chip Dunham, chef/owner of Magnolia & May: “One of my favorite barbecue dishes I’ve created is our Tacos con Mempho. I smoke my own pork shoulder for 12 hours and serve it on two corn tortillas with American cheese melted between them, avocado salsa, and tobacco onions. At brunch, we simply just add a scrambled egg and it’s a breakfast taco. Another one of my favorites was our barbecue butternut squash sandwich. We roast butternut squash and toss it with some Memphis barbecue sauce. It’s a vegan sandwich that satisfies the biggest meat-eater.”

Kelly English, chef/owner of Restaurant Iris and The Second Line: “If I were to try to put my own fingerprints on what Memphis already does perfectly, I would play around with fermentations and chili peppers. I would also explore the traditions of barbacoa in ancient Central American and surrounding societies.”

Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh, Poke Paradise food truck owner: “I made a roll with barbecue meats a long time ago. Made with Central BBQ ribs. I made them plenty of times when I hung out with my barbecue friends. I did it in my rookie years. Inside is all rib meat topped with rib meat, barbecue crab mix, thin-sliced jalapeño, dab of sriracha, furikake, green onion.”

Armando Gagliano, Ecco on Overton Park chef/owner: “My favorite meat to smoke is pork back ribs. I keep the dry rub pretty simple: half brown sugar to a quarter adobo and a quarter salt. I smoke my ribs at 250-275 degrees using post oak wood and offset smoker. … The ribs are smoked for three hours and spritzed with orange juice and sherry vinegar every 30 minutes. After three hours, I baste with a homemade barbecue sauce that includes a lot of chipotle peppers and honey. Wrap the ribs in foil and put back on the smoker for two hours. After that, remove from the smoker and let rest in the foil for another hour. They should pull completely off the bone, but not fall apart when handled.”

FreeSol, owner of Red Bones Turkey Legs at Carolina Watershed: “I am already doing it with the turkey legs. We are smoking these legs for hours till they fall of the bone. … We [also] flavor them and stuff them.”

Ryan Trimm, chef/owner of Sunrise Memphis and 117 Prime: “Beef spare ribs are a personal favorite of mine. A nice smoke with a black pepper-based rub followed by a fruit-based sweet-and-spicy barbecue sauce is my way to go.”

And even Huey’s gets in on the act. Huey’s COO Ashley Boggs Robilio says, “Recipe created by Huey’s Midtown day crew: Huey’s world famous BBQ brisket burger. Topped with coleslaw and fried jalapeños.”

Continuing to celebrate barbecue month in Memphis, more chefs share ’que ideas in next week’s Memphis Flyer.

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Spencer McMillin, Jonathan Magallanes Join Forces for Caritas Chef Partnership Dinner

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Caritas Community Center & Cafe (formerly Caritas Village) has one simple mission: to provide quality food to the public, regardless of their ability to pay. To help carry out that mission, former head chef Spencer McMillin is bringing Jonathan Magallanes of Las Tortugas on as the featured chef in this month’s chef partnership dinner to share his Mexican delights.

“Spencer came into my restaurant and became a regular, and we became friends,” says Magallanes. “Spencer could ask me to do anything, and I would do it. He approached me and said he’d love to cook together. This was a no-brainer. I’ve known about Caritas for a while, so I think it’s just a perfect opportunity to cook some really good food.”

Michael Donahue

Jonathan Magallanes

Magallanes has spent much of his life living in both Memphis and Mexico City, and he takes culinary influences from both cities to create his own unique spins on classic Mexican dishes, like his tacos al pastor, which traditionally features a sweet and spicy combination of red chile pork and pineapple.

“I like to use juicy pomegranate in place of the pineapple and then use that with fried pork belly,” he says. “It’s marinated in sour orange, black pepper, and cinnamon. Then, instead of using cilantro, I might use chopped mint. That’s sort of a little nod to the pastor in my opinion.”

Magallanes is excited to concoct something equally delicious and unique for the dinner for Caritas.

“It’s an absolute honor and a privilege to be part of the dinner,” he says. “My main philosophy as a chef and a restaurateur is that feeding people is a privilege, period.”

Caritas Chef Partnership Dinner featuring Jonathan Magallanes, Caritas Community Center & Cafe, Thursday, February 27th, 6:30-9 p.m., $56/person (not including gratuity).

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Jonathan Magallanes: Making those flavors work

Jonathan Magallanes is a big dog rider in the kitchen. With warp speed he can whip up a mole or a salsa.

Instead of roosting in crash padding on a superslab, Magallanes is in a chef’s jacket working at breakneck speed at the stove.

An avid motorcyclist (hence the lingo), Magallanes, 42, who got his first motorcycle when he was five years old, is chef/owner with his dad, Pepe Magallanes, of Las Tortugas restaurant.

Born in Memphis but living for a while in Mexico City, Jonathan rode his little yellow 50-cylinder Yamaha, participated in Boy Scouts, practiced piano, and took karate.

Cooking sparked his interest after he made a pizza in an extracurricular cooking class at St. George’s Independent School. He remembered “preparing food being this exciting, really creative thing” when he lived in Mexico. “My dad was in the kitchen doing a million things at once and preparing food for a lot of different people. The kitchen was a fun place to be.”

Jonathan thought, “I can do this. This is something I have complete creative liberty with.”

He didn’t pursue cooking. “With so many things going on, I think it sort of went on the back burner — no pun intended — for a long time.”

He went to Mexico for a year of school when he was at Kenyon College. “We went to Africa and Greece and Western Europe. I think that trip was really where I sort of discovered this exciting world of food and exotic food. I really think I developed a love of food in a new way.”

After graduating with a business degree, Jonathan moved to Naples, Florida, where his parents lived, and got a job in sales with a paint company. He also waited tables at high-end restaurants.

His parents moved back to Memphis, where his dad opened Las Tortugas. Jonathan also returned, but he wanted Memphis to be a home base to network and do resumes.

While helping his dad at Las Tortugas, Jonathan “saw this book on Mexican cooking that was in the office and was just flipping through it. I came across a dish called Mole Verde, which is a green mole that has pumpkin seeds, and it was really exciting to me. I think the fact that it had a ton of ingredients. Then it was really up to you to make all those flavors work. It was also exotic. Sort of rustic.”

They served it as a special. “One of the first people who had it was a lady. And she said, ‘That’s one of the best moles I’ve ever had in my life.’ When she said that, it was this jolt of electricity and I felt alive in a way that, professionally, I had not really had. It was such a great feeling that I wanted to feel it again.”

He decided to go into the restaurant business with his dad, who let him “change the menu in ways that we both agreed on. I wanted to add more variety to it. Add more depth to it. Maybe add some things that people aren’t familiar with. Like moles that are done with seeds and nuts and not chocolate. I trusted my intuition. I thought that if I really liked something, people are going to like it.”

His style became dishes with a “ton of flavor” but light and colorful. “At the same time being traditional.”

In 2014, Jonathan was invited by Felicia Willett, owner of Felicia Suzanne’s restaurant, to be included in a team to cook at the James Beard House. “That was, in many ways, a career-defining experience. The friendship and respect of all your peers is what it’s all about. It keeps me motivated to do the best job that I can. And to know that you’re part of a community of people who are really trying to change how people perceive Memphis. They really are proud that they’re from Memphis. And proud that Memphis is up and coming as a food town.”

Jonathan’s contribution to that James Beard dinner was the same Mole Verde recipe he discovered in a cookbook years before. “It was really the dish that set off my culinary journey.”

Las Tortugas, 1215 S. Germantown, 751-1200

Jonathan Magallanes: Making those flavors work