LAS VEGAS — Many Mexican restaurants in Las Vegas serve ready-to-wear corn tortillas, pulled straight from the package. Others send out semi-custom versions, made using purchased masa dough. Only a tiny handful offer couture tortillas, fashioned in house from imported heirloom corn that’s boiled, milled, formed into dough, pressed and griddled.
At Milpa, his restaurant on South Durango Drive, chef-owner DJ Flores has become one of the city’s leading champions and practitioners of this traditional method, shaping his masa into tortillas, tamales, tetelas (stuffed triangles), tostadas and more.
In 2016, while working a stage (an internship, pronounced stahj) at Quintonil, the Mexico City restaurant named among the world’s 50 best, the fresh blue corn tortillas served at staff meals delivered an epiphany, the chef said.
