Elyan Zamora and her family came to the United States from Mexico 28 years ago to build a better life with more opportunities. Zamora and her mother Elvira had a dream of sharing their recipes with the city of Los Angeles, which resulted in the opening of their gourmet Mexican sandwich shop, Cook’s Tortas.
This family-run oasis offers a variety of 27 different types of tortas on telera bread which is baked on site every day from a recipe developed by Elvira, Zamora and husband Edgar Cortázar. There are also a variety of side salads that include a delightful pineapple orange coconut and pastries baked in house. It’s worth it just to drop in and pick up a bag of their flaky sweet empanadas that come in strawberry cheese, Nutella cheese and dulce de leche.
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You can choose from the list of tortas to go painted on the wall like smoked salmon, cream cheese, pico de gallo and capers to a Milanese and Cajun fish. Top sellers include the Bombero, a generous stuffing of grilled beef, roasted red pepper sauce and avocado as well as personal favorite the shrimp po’boy, a saucy combination of battered shrimp, avocado, lettuce and red onion remoulade.
If you are a vegetarian, you’ll enjoy vegetarian options such as “Grilled veggie” with mayo, garlic spread, roasted bell peppers, grilled zucchini, tomato, sweet onion and grilled queso fresco.
Also worth a try is the #50 ranchito with grilled beef, chorizo, cactus salad, black beans, spicy guacamole and queso fresco.
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Zamora says:
“My mom grew up in a family with not a lot of money. They didn’t even have a fridge. So everything was always fresh because we shopped daily, a tradition we keep here. We get our produce every day, salads are made to order, our marinades and chorizo are all made in house as well as the bread.”
“Telera is a very dry, thick bread. We wanted the juices and the sauces to soak into the bread, so we developed a recipe for an artisan bread with a starter which takes about two hours from start to finish. We played around with shapes to help keep the contents inside. One of the main reasons people come to Cook’s is the bread. The guys get here at 4:30 a.m. to start the day. We refresh the starter every day so that the flavor and consistency are always the same.”
Great Grandmother’s Corn Cake is a very special menu item, a family recipe and homage to her mother, who worked as a housekeeper in Colonia Roma and discovered uncommon ingredients and techniques from her employers. In a quirky twist of fate, her father is singer-songwriter Antojio Zamora, whose ZACAZONAPAN appeared on the soundtrack of the Academy Award winning film Roma.
Zamora’s husband Cortázar concludes:
“We want to give an image of Latin America and we’re here to make things right in a great way. People think Mexican food is just tacos and street food. We want to show the gourmet side of this cuisine with a fresh and creative twist. The beauty of the food business is seeing somebody bite into one of our tortas and watch the look of joy on their faces.”
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Website: Cook’s Tortas
Phone: (323) 278-3536
Hours: Monday – Saturday: 11:00 am – 8:00 pm
Sunday: 11:00 am – 8:00 pm
Location:
Source: laweekly.com
