LA’s Cheapest Michelin-Star Meal is Served in a Food Court
“We’re located in a food court called Mercado la Paloma. This is definitely the cheapest Michelin Star meal you can get in Los Angeles.” Today Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with the chef Gilberto Cetina, owner of Holbox. America’s first Mexican Marisquería to receive a Michelin Star, Holbox serves out of a food court in Los Angeles and is the city’s cheapest Michelin meal.
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00:00Holbox is a Mexican seafood stand.
00:04We're located in a food court called Mercado La Paloma.
00:07This is definitely the cheapest Michelin star meal
00:10you can get in Los Angeles.
00:12You can get a $17 lunch special
00:14that is a ceviche meat stone and two Baja fish tacos,
00:18or you could spend $100 on sea urchins and aguachiles.
00:22We'll serve anywhere from 600 to 1,300 people in a day.
00:27Being a chef and owner of a restaurant is demanding,
00:31but I'm still cooking every day.
00:32This is something that I absolutely love.
00:34Cooking is why I do what I do.
00:41My name is Gilberto Stina.
00:42I'm the chef and owner of Holbox.
00:45We're about to get started with our day, so come on.
00:48So we're in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles,
00:52kind of the border between downtown and South LA.
00:54This building is called Mercado La Paloma,
00:56and it's home to both my restaurants,
00:58Chichen Itza, which we've had for 23 years,
01:01mom and dad and I started it,
01:03and our seven-and-a-half-year-old Holbox.
01:10So it's about 7.45 a.m.
01:12Our prep team are actually here since six.
01:15They're working on veg prep
01:16and just all the general prep of the day.
01:19First things I do when I step into the kitchen,
01:21I like to check our dryager.
01:23Our fish is in different stages of readiness to be served.
01:26We come in and we see what's ready to go,
01:28so we can start mapping out the menu for the day.
01:30We store our fish in a dryager.
01:32It's a fridge that controls temperature
01:34and humidity quite precisely.
01:35What we're looking for is to give the enzymes time
01:38to break down the proteins into amino acids,
01:41and this creates more of an umami mouthfeel,
01:43a better eating experience when you bite into the fish.
01:46When you store fish on ice, the fish stays really cold.
01:50In reality, all that moisture is what bacteria loves.
01:53So the idea is to hang the fish
01:55so any moisture that's left on it is dripping down.
01:57When we're checking the fish,
01:58what we're looking for is just enough moisture loss
02:01and the fish should feel really firm and plump.
02:04And we know that this fish is ready to cut.
02:06We're looking for dryness.
02:08We're looking for the sensation,
02:09how tacky or smooth the skin feels.
02:12We're also looking at the eyes of the fish.
02:14We want to make sure that the eyes have remained
02:16nice and clear like this.
02:18As the moisture content drops,
02:20the relative fattiness goes up.
02:22If we put this fish to the grill right now,
02:25that skin will just blister and get super, super crispy.
02:28We'll be cutting into this guy 11 days, dry-aged.
02:31So it's 8.15, our cevicheros are here,
02:34and they're going to start pulling down fish right now.
02:37Cutting fish for ceviche, for the hot kitchen,
02:40for grilling, and I'll join them.
02:46120 pound tuna.
02:48This guy, local, San Clemente Island.
02:50Beautiful fish.
02:52So we're going to get this tuna ready
02:53for bluefin tuna ceviche.
02:55We'll go through about three of these in a week.
02:58We've already cut into this guy.
02:59We used this part yesterday, this top loin.
03:01Bottom here, the belly loin,
03:03is going to be a little bit fattier.
03:05This is a medium-sized tuna,
03:06so it's medium also on the scale of fattiness,
03:09which is perfect.
03:10When they're too fatty and you mix it with the lime juice,
03:13it does this weird thing where the fat kind of congeals.
03:16So these medium fatty tunas are ideal for us.
03:20All right, so this is what we're going to work with
03:22for our lunch service today.
03:24Tail portion off here.
03:26Cut these rib bones off.
03:28As a business owner, it makes a lot more sense
03:31to buy this already processed.
03:33It's not cheaper to do this.
03:36It is cheaper to buy the fish already processed
03:40and ready to go, but you do lose something.
03:42We want to be in touch with the food that we're preparing,
03:45and we want to be executing the craft
03:47of preparing this fish,
03:48and take pride in what we're serving.
03:51These are all the parts that we got out
03:52of the belly loin of the tuna,
03:55and we're going to cut some of it down
03:57to have it ready for ceviche.
03:58You always want to make sure that we're cutting the fish
04:01at a medium to large dice.
04:04When you're working with fish like this,
04:05it's not just the flavor of it,
04:07but we want to get that nice square pieces of fish
04:11that you can really kind of sink your teeth into.
04:15All right, so let's pack this up.
04:18Tuna is cut.
04:19All the rest of the fish is working.
04:20Our deliveries are starting to come in,
04:22and we're going to go receive them
04:23and check them in the walk-in.
04:30It's 9.30.
04:31Our first fish delivery of the day came in.
04:33You know, chef, owner of Holbox,
04:35I do help the team make sure that everything
04:36is A, top quality,
04:38B, what we actually ordered,
04:40because you'd be surprised a lot of times
04:41they'll do a little switcheroos on us.
04:43These are our local abalones from Santa Barbara.
04:47We're looking for abalones attached to each other.
04:50That means that they are alive and very fresh.
04:53And then we're looking, when we run our finger down it,
04:56that it has a nice response and that it moves.
04:58So we want these abalones to be alive
05:01until the moment that we shuck them.
05:03Very happy with this.
05:05Healthy abalone, strong abalone, beautiful.
05:08Here we have our bluefin tuna that came in yesterday.
05:12Urchins in the house!
05:14This is one of two deliveries that we get every week
05:17of sea urchins from Sea Stephanie Fish
05:19from Santa Barbara and some Maine lobster,
05:21beautiful Maine lobsters.
05:23And these are going to go into our tank.
05:25With not just Mexican food, but ethnic food,
05:28this is like unwritten price cap.
05:29It should not be too expensive.
05:31And what we decided to do here at Holbox
05:33is to work with the absolute best ingredients
05:35that we can find, regardless of what the price is.
05:37And despite the setting that we're in.
05:41A lot of fish coming in, a lot of prep to do.
05:44We should be servicing about six or 700 guests today.
05:47So there's a lot of work to do.
05:52Right now it's 10 a.m.
05:53We're here in the hot kitchen.
05:55We're getting all of our prep done,
05:56cutting some vegetables,
05:58getting our banana leaves ready for different things,
06:00setting up the line.
06:01I'm going to set up the grill.
06:02So we're really ready for our customers
06:04when they come in at 1130.
06:05So this is a wood-burning grill.
06:07We use a combination of mesquite and oak.
06:10We have it with a Santa Maria style setup
06:13with this big wheel here
06:14that we can raise and lower the grates.
06:17For us, it's really important
06:18because we're cooking something that's really delicate,
06:22specifically fish and lobster.
06:23So we want to be able to control the temperature.
06:26And because when you're cooking with fire,
06:29there are no knobs that you can manipulate.
06:31We control the temperature by raising
06:33and lowering the grill surface.
06:35The bed of coals is actually built
06:36on top of construction beams.
06:38We've built these doors onto them.
06:40So as the fire starts going,
06:42it starts heating up the steel.
06:45And this becomes like a little oven.
06:48That's going to take probably about 15, 20 minutes
06:50to really get going.
06:51In the meantime, we're going to go ahead
06:53and jump on some other things.
07:01Cut some octopus.
07:03So this is our Mayan octopus.
07:06This one is incredibly soft and tender.
07:10It almost has like a cooked ham consistency to it.
07:13We poached them in liquid
07:15and then we let them cool in the poaching liquid.
07:18So right now we're cutting the smaller tentacles
07:21and pieces of tentacle for ceviche.
07:24And then the larger tentacles and better looking pieces
07:28have been separated for our taco de pulpo en su tinta.
07:32And those tentacles are to be fried up
07:34to be served on the octopus taco.
07:36So this recipe was one of my grandmother's specialties
07:39and it became one of my dad's recipes.
07:42So when we opened up Holbox,
07:43I knew this was something that had to be on the menu.
07:46We modified it a little bit to kind of suit our needs.
07:49It can be a little intimidating,
07:51octopus in a pitch black sofrito.
07:55So I thought if we offer it as a taco
07:57and make it as approachable as possible,
08:00more people will try it.
08:01And that's what happened.
08:01It actually became our top selling taco.
08:04We use deli cups as a unit of measure.
08:07It's a core, right?
08:08We just call them delis.
08:09I asked Miguel who brought the octopus,
08:11how many delis of octopus do you need today
08:14for lunch right now?
08:15He was like, oh, whatever comes out of all that.
08:16Octopus is done.
08:17So we do our eight course tasting menu,
08:20Thursdays and Fridays.
08:22And we have two seatings, six o'clock and eight o'clock.
08:25And it's really a time and a place for us to just have fun
08:30and really, really connect with the diners.
08:32It's kind of our R&D time and space.
08:35A lot of new recipes on our regular menu
08:37start off as tasting menu experiments.
08:40So the abalone, it's like one big muscle.
08:42First thing is that we got to shuck these.
08:44We're going to separate the abalone abductor muscle
08:48from the shell, just with a spoon like that.
08:52And then we're going to pull the abalone out
08:54to get all of the intestines and all the insides
08:58out in one movement.
09:01And then here's our abalone shell.
09:04It's going to be an abalone tamale.
09:06This shell is going to be filled up
09:07with our Yucatan style masa colada
09:10and then steamed together,
09:12the shell and the masa wrapped in banana leaves.
09:15So the abalones have a liver, this is it.
09:17And it's like this conically shaped organ here, it's green.
09:21And when you cook this up, it is extremely rich,
09:25filled with lipids and fat and umami.
09:27So we want to remove this without damaging it.
09:29We just pinch kind of the membrane that holds it together
09:33and we pull it off like this.
09:35So there we have one abalone liver.
09:38It's going to be the basis for an abalone liver mole
09:42that's going to be used to top this tamale.
09:45This frill here is going to be used for the stock
09:49in making abalone mole.
09:51So the next step after trimming it and cleaning it
09:54is tenderizing it.
09:55So right now the abalone is super tight
09:57because we just shucked it out of its shell
10:00and gave it a haircut, give it a few taps,
10:04and then we're going to put it off to the side
10:06to rest again.
10:07If we keep hitting this one and tenderizing it,
10:10it's so tight it will eventually break.
10:12So we have to do it kind of in stages.
10:16Do it a little bit at a time and then let it relax
10:19and then go again.
10:21And this is a marinade that we make
10:23with a vegetable sofrito and soy sauce,
10:26dry red chiles, olive oil, and lemon juice.
10:29All right, so we're going to take this to the vacuum sealer.
10:32These are going to be ready
10:33for assembling our tamales tomorrow.
10:36So it's five minutes to 11.
10:38We're getting ready to break for a family meal.
10:41We're all going to sit down and have a quick lunch
10:43before we open up at 11.30 for service.
10:52It's 11.30, we're just opening.
10:54I'm taking my position here at the ceviche bar.
10:56We got our station all ready to go.
10:57We're going to be cracking sea urchins,
10:59doing oysters, clams, cocteles, and aguachiles
11:02at this station,
11:03while the team takes care of ceviches over there
11:06and the hot kitchen is doing tacos
11:07and our wood-grilled entrees.
11:09There's two types of service here at Holbox.
11:11You either stand in line, order at the register,
11:13get a number, and then service comes to the table.
11:16The other one is you sit here at the ceviche bar.
11:19We'll take your order at the bar
11:20and you can even order with the cevicheros.
11:23So this is the Santa Barbara red sea urchin
11:26that we just received.
11:27We want to use this as quickly as we can.
11:30These are beautiful right now.
11:31They're alive and moving and thriving.
11:33We're getting rid of everything
11:34except the reproductive system,
11:37which is what we eat on a sea urchin.
11:39We know as uni,
11:41and they're actually the gonads of the urchin.
11:45And we're going to make a quick little ceviche
11:46with Baja Bay scallops.
11:50And then that's it.
11:51Scallop ceviche goes inside the urchin shell.
11:55This is a little pea sprout
11:57that we grow here in the restaurant.
12:01And a little bit of our avocado cucumber puree.
12:05We've been working at the ceviche bar for a minute.
12:07Things are calming down here.
12:09I think the rest of the team have it under control.
12:12I'm going to jump over into the hot kitchen
12:13and see what they need over there.
12:20It's around one o'clock.
12:21We've got four people on the hotline right now.
12:24One person doing tortillas and about four people on prep.
12:27Just kind of replenishing what we need
12:29and doing preparation for dinner service.
12:32So that's out.
12:33We need two to go.
12:35One, two.
12:36We're at the grill.
12:37We've got some branzinos that are cooking.
12:39We've got our order of pulpo a las brasas,
12:41which is the octopus.
12:42Some compache collards also grilling.
12:45And filete.
12:46So a lot of orders in the works.
12:48So these are all the orders
12:49as they're coming in for the hot kitchen.
12:51I'm seeing both tacos and orders for the grill
12:54so we can make sure they're coming out at the same time.
12:56We don't really need to talk a lot in the kitchen.
12:58Everybody's keeping an eye on what everybody else is doing.
13:01And we're synchronizing to make sure
13:03that the orders come out at the same time.
13:05The color of the tab on the screen
13:07is just an indication of how long the order's been in.
13:11So if an order gets to red, it means it's urgent.
13:14This is a pretty calm service.
13:15It's fast paced, but all of our tickets are black.
13:18We got it.
13:19We got it under control.
13:20We're gonna be plating one of the lighter plates,
13:23lower price points.
13:24Very popular for lunch.
13:26It's our filete al carbon.
13:27Some pico de gallo and avocado,
13:29cilantro, poblano rice, some black beans,
13:33and a little filet of a branzino.
13:35Our average ticket for lunch is $24.
13:38The Michelin star had a pretty big impact.
13:41To be honest with you,
13:41it's only been getting busier and busier every week.
13:44I don't know where this is gonna land,
13:46but you know, we are prepared
13:48and very motivated and very happy
13:50to continue serving more and more customers.
13:52So it's around two o'clock.
13:54The hot kitchen has been doing well.
13:55I think they have it all under control.
13:57In the afternoon,
13:57we still have to get more fish scaled and gutted.
14:00We have to filet more fish, steamed crabs.
14:03I think we're gonna get another round of octopus going.
14:06Really, really busy afternoon.
14:07We gotta get a lot of that stuff done
14:09before the crowds come in again for dinner.
14:11So I'm out of here.
14:13I gotta get to work.