In 2019, Los Angeles-based chef Andy Zambrano launched COMAL, a plant-based Mexican food pop-up. At COMAL, Zambrano has done kitchen takeovers, private his dinners, and even toured with pop-up his tours in California. But before COMAL, Zambrano started selling burritos to his friends after his own band's shows. For the latest issue, talk house leader, talked about how that punk spirit led them to their current position. The food problem is Currently available in digital and print versions.
— Annie Fell, Talkhouse Music Editor-in-Chief
At first it was just for fun. It's not necessarily to make money or anything. But at the end of every show, I often wanted to have dinner with the band and all my friends. So I thought, why not have it ready and available after the show? At that time, I had no knowledge of food costs, so I honestly think I was losing money. But for me it didn't matter. Because all that mattered was eating together and hanging out. It was tied to the punk ethos of just doing it for the sake of doing it.
The food was very simple, really just a burrito. Since I was still living with my parents, I would make large batches of burritos, roll them up, and put them in thermal bags. I ended up eating tacos too. I have an electric steam table so I heat everything up in advance and bring tortillas from the market. If you go to a Mexican market, you can buy freshly made tortillas that are already warm. Then the meat is already prepared and warmed at home, so it is hot. That was all I knew at the time. I didn't know much about it yet, so all I knew was that everyone loved tacos and burritos. It was something to eat after the show anyway.
I finally purchased the cart at the end of 2019. The original idea was a regular taco cart, like a street vendor, but it was going to be plant-based tacos. At the time I was developing this recipe, I was working at a restaurant in Los Angeles called Kitchen Mouse. And interestingly, I had become friends with a chef named Jason Wood who was also in the punk scene. People in the kitchen are always punks. The labor that goes into making food is a lot like making music. It's very practical and you have to practice to get good at it. There are other people who are going to be better at it than you, but you're still working together. -side — That's why I think the worlds overlap with each other.
So Jason and I hit it off right away. It was only when I met him that I realized that Now I want to be a chef. His career path was very similar to mine, both musically and food-wise, but he stuck with me for 10 years, so I really looked up to him. I liked Oh, there's so much more to food than just making tacos…
I've switched to a bit more sophisticated cuisine, so I don't do pop-ups at shows anymore. It's difficult because I want to do something like that, but at the same time I have an obligation to do more than serve on the show. But that's where it started and where I met chefs and cooks.
As Annie Fell told me.
