Q. How would you describe Cafe Pasqual’s?

A. We’re a small, corner cafe. We’ve been described as a festive shoebox. Everything is house-made, organic and carefully selected ingredients from old and New Mexico, as well as Asia... and whatever other country we cook with. It’s eclectic. It’s breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week and the wine list is also sourced from our wonderful world of sustainable and organic farms.

Q. What brought you to Santa Fe originally?

A. I came to visit a friend in 1969 and I was here exactly ten minutes and I was home. I wasn’t even looking for one! In those days, everything was dirt roads, including Canyon Road. It was just so lovely. But it was almost ten years before I got back to actually live here.

Q. Now that Santa Fe is much more of a tourist mecca, how do you feel about its evolution?

A. Well, nothing stays the same. It’s still full of wonderfully eccentric people and it’s still small.

Q. How about from a restaurant perspective?

A. The diner has gotten more sophisticated. It’s a lot easier for us to access products. We were the very first restaurant in the entire Southwest to ask for whole coffee beans, back in 1979. 

Q. What are the products you seek out?

A. We are all organic. Everything -- the flour, the olive oil, the vinegar, the dairy, the produce, all the meat, every speck is certified and raised sustainably without drugs. Our wine list is the same situation, it’s 99% sustainable, with one one thing on the list that is not sustainable or organic and that’s the Veuve Clicquot Champagne. We’re very devoted to having no poisons in our food. It tastes better and it supports the small farmer and certainly in season, the local economy. And the rest of the year, when we have to go out of state, we know that we are supporting small farms that are family-run, for the most part.

Q. What percentage of your food is local?

A. Not so much percentage, but seasonally. We have the shortest growing season in the country, 90 to 120 days, depending on where in the state it’s from. Here, the first frost, that’s that. It’s usually the first week in October and the party is over until the end of May, when you can plant again.

Q. How would you recommended picking, storing and handling chiles? What should we know about using chiles in New Mexican cuisine?

A.

1. If you’re choosing fresh peppers, look for ones that are smooth and unblemished.

2. Fresh roasted peppers can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three days, or stored frozen for several months.

3. Dried peppers are best if they’re pliable and bright.

4. Best to avoid brittle, browned or yellow peppers.

5. Many loose seeds indicate age in a package of dried peppers.

6. For red chiles, we use a blend of dried chiles. We use a guajillo chile, an ancho and a de árbol, a really skinny small chile and that blends into the perfect red chile sauce.

7. For green chile, I would use an Anaheim chile, if you are not near New Mexico and can’t get our strains. Some people like pablano, but I think I would rather use pablano as an eating chile, rather than a sauce chile.

8. When roasting peppers, every bit should come in contact with the flame. They should appear cremated, ashen and blackened. Fear not!

9. New Mexican food is very different from Tex-Mex, which we call ‘border food,’ or we snidely call ‘hurtin’ chili.’ Our chile is more about the fruit and the sweetness, rather than the picante. We are not looking for the heat. We don’t use habanero, for instance.

10. The official question in New Mexico is red or green? It’s actually been voted upon by the state legislature. And the official answer includes red, green or ‘Christmas’... for those who like both.

FIND...

Q. What markets would you recommend for shopping or browsing?

A. Our farmers market in season, for sure. There are 120 vendors all together.

We use Monte Vista Organic Farm quite a bit. They have the best raspberries you’ll have in your whole life. I mean it! I’m a raspberry fanatic. Oh my god!

Chef and farmer Matt Romero has wonderful shisito peppers. At the end of the season, we get our green chiles roasted from him in an open bin.

[See details.]

Q. Any stores worth stopping in for local products?

A. The Santa Fe Cooking School -- they have a lot of New Mexican things to purchase.

And we have a gallery upstairs at Cafe Pasqual’s. We specialize in Mica Clay cookware. It’s hickory apache mica cookware that you can put directly on the flame. It’s hand-built using the ancient Jicarilla Apache Coil and Scrape method. No potter's wheel or glazes are used and the clay is 40 percent naturally occurring mica.

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EAT...

Santa Fe

Q. Where would you take a visiting chef to eat in Santa Fe?

A. The Bobcat Bite, if they’re a hamburger person.

It’s twenty minutes out of town and great for lunch.

I like Aqua Santa. I like the intimacy of the space. Brian Knox certainly cares about his plates and uses organic meats. I like that it has an outdoor area.

Max’s. It’s small. There is a new partner, Mark Connell, who is a young chef and does a tiny bit of molecular and some sous vide and certainly knows his way around a pig. He makes delicious pork-- crispy and lovely.

Shibumi. I go here to have ramen for lunch. Owned by Eric Stapleman of Trattoria Nostrani, which is next door. Nelli Maltezos is the chef at Nostrani and she has a delicate hand. Order anything she is doing. She is a consummate chef and the menu changes all the time. They have their own garden and they also able to get very late and early greens, because their garden is very sheltered in a courtyard.

I go to Vinaigrette for a salad. She has a ten-acre farm and I know it’s all organic.

I go for a the Tea House on Canyon Road for a little bite. It’s fun to be outside and it’s an old adobe house. They have shirred eggs that they steam in the espresso maker. They are so light and delicious. I don’t like scones, but they make one I like. They also do a wonderful strawberry shortcake and an excellent BLT wrap. And of course, they have every kind of tea known to man.

El Meson. It’s good for drinking and Spanish food. They have small plates and live music in their bar, called Chispa, which means sparks. He does everything from meatballs, that are the most tender thing that ever hit your mouth, to paella. Locals know about it and you need a reservation or you won’t get in, but I love eating in the bar.

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Q. Is there a breakfast place that you like?

A. Louie’s Corner -- downtown. They use organic eggs.

Cafe Pasqual’s is great for our breakfast and we serve it all day until 3 o’clock. You can get pancakes, huevos rancheros, huevos Motuleños, and stacked enchiladas with an egg on top.

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Q. For classic Southwestern?

A. The term ‘Southwestern’ was kinda made up by magazines. It covers a lot of states, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and everything on the border. So I would say more like ‘classic New Mexican.’

There’s The Shed.

Atrisco. Third generation, family-run place for New Mexican cuisine.

El Paraqua in Espanola. Second generation, family-run and they have a couple of stands around the state, as well.

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Taos

I love the Love Apple in Taos. It’s in an 1800s desanctified adobe chapel, so it’s just fabulous to be in. It’s a narrow little white-washed adobe. When there are candles glowing, it’s unparalleled as a place to be and very cool in the summer. They also have a wonderful outdoor garden where they grow their own organic vegetables out back. They really care about food.

I also like Meze in Taos. It’s small plates inspired by the Middle East.

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Albuquerque

Jennifer James 101 -- I love Jennifer James, she’s a great chef and worth stopping in to eat there. It’s Modern American and always fresh and delicious and she constantly changes up the menu.

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DRINK...

Q. What are some of the local Santa Fe watering holes?

A. Tiny’s is really local and certainly off the tourist path. If you want to catch a band, go on Friday nights.

El Farol up on Canyon Road always has music and tapas. Wonderful old wooden bar that’s been around since like the 20s. They have low captain’s chairs at the bar, instead of silly stools, and a wood floor, which is easy for dancing. It’s in the light house.

El Meson is good for drinking.

La Fonda’s Bell Tower -- It’s a secret place in the summer in Santa Fe. You have to go to the back of the hotel and take the elevator to the roof and you can see a great view from there. It’s great for sunset. Take your drink over to the adobe wall and watch the Western view and see the sun sink. It’s delightful.

The Matador for a subterranean experience at night. It opens after dark and is always an interesting younger crowd.

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Q. Where do you like to go for a Margarita?

A. It’s kind of fun to have them at Rancho De Chimayo, because they use apple cider that they make from the apples in the valley in Chimayo. That is really kind of fun. People stop and have a Chimayo Margarita.

We do a fun beer drink that I learned in Oaxaca. We take beer and you rim the glass with salt and chili powder. It’s called a Michelada and I love them. So good. We do them with or without a tomato salsa shot on the side or in it.

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Q. Do you have a favorite beer?

A. I’m not much of a beer drinker, but I like Negro Modelo and I also love Red Tail Ale -- Delicious! It’s got a sweetness and amazing depth. Really suave.

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Q. You carry New Mexican Gruet sparkling wine on your wine list. How did you decide to carry them?

A. We’ve always loved the Gruet. We were lucky that these two brothers from Champagne, France, came to New Mexico almost twenty-five years ago and started to make champagne [sparkling wine] here. They are constantly winning awards all over the world.

New Mexico, most people don’t know this, during prohibition was still allowed to grow grapes for the church for all of America. So all of the consecration wine was made here. It’s always been a wine growing region. The brothers figured out very quickly that this land is way cheaper than France and you can get a whole lot of it and also train growers to grow organically.

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Recommendations

Details of Katherine Kagel’s recommendations for where to eat, drink and shop in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos.

Recipes

- Grilled Chipotle Shrimp Tostadas

- Green Chile and Pork Stew