Robert Meitzer, CEC, AAC, Executive Chef of Forest Lake Club
Robert Meitzer, CEC, AAC, Executive Chef of Forest Lake Club (Columbia, S.C.), says carnitas tacos, a dish inspired by his childhood and early culinary career in Colorado, remain one of his favorite dishes to make.
“As a kid in Colorado, you’re exposed to some of the best New Mexican cuisine in the country and don’t even realize it,” he says. “You realize it as you get older and a restaurant tries to give you a fried tortilla and calls it a sopapilla.”
From age 14, Meitzer says, as a young cook in Denver, he learned everything he could from his Hispanic coworkers and friends.
Now, to Meitzer, August means chile harvest, when the streets are filled with the smell of roasted chiles, and slow-cooked and fried pork carnitas and green chiles are abundant.
“We would turn those two magical items into burritos, tacos, enchiladas, chile rellenos, tortas,” he says, “and whatever else we could find to stuff and smother.”
