MORELIA, MEXICO — A group of U.S. chefs and food writers spent several days in Mexico over the Memorial Day weekend being immersed in Mexican cuisine, with a special focus on using avocados in a variety of dishes.

The culinary tour was sponsored by Avocados From Mexico and was held in conjunction with Morelia en Boca, one of the more important food and wine events in Mexico.

Morelia en Boca, which is held in this picturesque city Iliana De La Vega (right), an expert in Mexican cuisine, points out some Mexican fruit to Darryl Mickler, senior director of culinary innovation for Chili's. (Photo by Tim Linden)in central Mexico, features dozens of upscale food booths, including wines from Napa, Mezcal from all over Mexico and, of course, avocados from Mexico. There are also continuous cooking demonstrations featuring well known chefs from all over Mexico, and even some from the United States.

Jackie Bohmer, marketing director for Avocados From Mexico, said the goal in sponsoring the tour was to give these chefs and U.S. food writers “a positive Mexican culinary experience so that they can learn about Mexican cooking and see how Mexican avocados can be utilized at every meal.”

She said the idea is to expose the chefs to new ideas that might inspire them when they go back home and are writing new menus or experimenting with new ideas.

“Last year, we brought down the chef from Applebee’s and now Applebee’s is using more avocados on their menu,” said Bohmer. “We expect that we were one of the catalysts for that.”

She said that one of this year’s participants — Taco Mac Sports Grill, headquartered in Alpharetta, GA — is planning to expand its use of fresh Mexican avocados this year, and presumably this trip was used to consider potential menu items that might work.

Taco Mac Corporate Chef Christian Messier said the chain of 28 casual dining restaurants in Georgia and North Carolina is in the process of upgrading the food side of its menu, including a switch from a frozen avocado product to fresh avocados.

“We have always been known for our craft beers and we serve 75 to 100 in each location,” said Messier. “But now we are upgrading our food. It was great talking to Iliana De La Vega. I learned a lot.”

Chef De La Vega, who owns a Mexican restaurant in Austin, TX, called El Naranjo, was the tour’s Mexican culinary expert. She took the group through an open market one morning and then prepared lunch using many of the ingredients bought that morning.

Of course, Mexican avocados were a big part of every dish, including an avocado salsa that Messier said could be the basis of a similar dish in his chain at some point in the future.

Messier said other concepts explored during the cooking demonstrations he witnessed might also yield results.

For example, he is now thinking about using Roma tomatoes rather than the 5x6 round ones that Taco Mac typically uses for salsa recipes.  

De La Vega said Roma tomatoes have less water content and make for a better salsa and greater yield per pound.

“I was lying awake last night wondering if we could switch to that that type of tomato in our operation,” said Messier.

Another guest was Darryl Mickler, senior director of culinary innovation of the Chili’s chain of restaurants. Bohmer said that after spending several days here, she would not be surprised if Chili’s considers using more avocados in its recipes, such as adding an avocado burger to its menu.

“It’s not just about Mexican cuisine, but rather showing these chefs that the avocado is very versatile,” said Bohmer.

Of course, Mexican avocados have been the main impetus in an avocado usage boom in the United States over the past several years.

It was only a little more than five years ago that Mexico sent about 500 million pounds of the green fruit to the U.S. marketplace. In the fiscal year that ends June 30, Bohmer said 1 billion pounds of Mexican avocados will have been shipped to the United States.

That doubling of volume in such a short time period may well be unprecedented in the U.S. fresh produce business.

Neel Sahni, a corporate chef who wears the title of research and development manager for the Qdoba chain of fast-casual Mexican restaurants in the United States, also came on the tour to discover new uses for avocados. He said Qdoba already uses about 7.5 million pounds of avocados annually in its 650 outlets located in 44 different states. Each restaurant makes its guacamole fresh every day, but Sahni said he was looking for other ideas that the company might be able to incorporate on to its menus.

“It was great watching what Iliana did in making her guacamole,” he said. “I’ll take what I learned here and see if we can make it work for our operations.”

Sahni said that is a difficult task, as each of the firm’s hundreds of restaurants has the exact same menu and must make each dish the same.  He must account for the tastes of consumers from coast to coast, which makes it difficult to change tried and true recipes. Nonetheless, he said the trip has given him some new ideas to think about.

Another chef on the culinary tour was John Brand who is executive chef for two Omni hotels in San Antonio, TX, and also an area executive chef working on special projects for the chain. He said inspiration was what he was looking for when he signed up for the event.

“As a company, we want to stay ahead of the curve on trends and I wanted to see other ways we might be able to incorporate avocados onto our menu,” he said.

During the trip he witnessed many different recipes that used avocados in both traditional and non-traditional ways, such as a sauce with a lemon meringue dessert and a different sauce paired with lamb. It was also featured with jicama in an appetizer and in a warm avocado soup.  

“I’ve made gazpacho with avocados, but I have never had avocados in a warm soup,” said Brand.  “It was very good.”

Might this recipe or a variation of it show up on an Omni menu sometime? Perhaps.

This is exactly the type of inspiration Bohmer hoped to generate in hosting the tour. She said again the idea is to get chefs — and ultimately consumers — thinking about using avocados in new ways.

She said the growth in the avocado category has been amazing, but to keep it growing, traditional uses of avocados need to be expanded.

“It’s great that restaurants offer guacamole, but we want to get them beyond what I call the guacamole strategy,” she said.