"I don't think most normal people would hang out in [Mexican] corn fields for a few weeks to understand the process of harvesting," says Philip Martin of Blanco Niño, a producer of authentic corn tortillas made in Ireland.
But this is something Martin has spent quite a lot of time doing in his quest to make the perfect corn tortilla.
“The relationship between food and society and culture is not separate. It’s the pivot point around everything over there. I don’t think the street food culture is like it anywhere else in the world. It’s phenomenal,” he says.
Blanco Niño’s corn tortillas go into production in March, and Martin has “an awful lot to get done” before then, including squeezing in another trip to Mexico. He wants the tortillas to be “extraordinarily better than anything out there”.
When Martin went about launching the Little Ass Burrito Bar, now in two locations in Dublin with a third coming soon, it was because he could not find a decent corn tortilla. He wanted it to be a taco bar.
“To make a taco with what’s currently available on the market is pointless. It’s not the real thing, and I didn’t want to do it,” he said. He knew what “the real thing” tasted like after his extensive travels around Mexico and California.
He focused on “making a really awesome burrito” instead, and even though the business is going well, he couldn’t get corn out of his head.
“I decided to bring my attention back to the idea of making real corn tortillas for a taco bar. The idea of a taco bar has kind of fallen away, and I doubt I’ll ever start one. I’m really into the manufacturing side of things now.”
He imported a palette of corn from the US to experiment. “I realised the process is not easy. It’s an all-natural, slow-cooked process, and it’s very intensive.”
He needed to make the business big enough to make the price point acceptable to the market. “As soon as I started talking about it, I realised it wasn’t my problem alone. It was an Irish problem, a European problem, a UK problem.”
He went to Mexico to learn as much as he could about growing and cooking corn. He went to corn mills and tortilla factories to understand the traditional production methods. The process, he says, is essential to the quality of the product.
Martin is “very much against” using preservatives or additives, and he is scientific about cooking temperatures and the way maize is cleaned and ground. All of these things “improve the taste, texture and smell” of the tortilla.
His efforts have paid off. A crowd-funding campaign last year yielded twice as much money as he was looking for (a total of £124,000) and a waiting list of customers. “An extraordinary amount of people are waiting for the product to be launched. Thirteen-hundred businesses are registered for our product in the UK, Ireland and Europe. The level of interest is phenomenal.”
Blanco Niño is a finalist in the AIB Start-up Academy. For more information, go to www.blanco-nino.com.
