For our Food Issue, we spoke with Cotton Hollow Kitchen's Head Chef Mario Velasquez about his culinary journey, the global influences behind his cooking, the importance of local ingredients and his passion for creating elevated comfort food.
1. How would you describe your cooking philosophy, and how has your culinary journey shaped the food you create?
My training began in Peru where I was born. I watched my mother prepare Peruvian food from a very young age, carefully selecting quality ingredients, touching them, smelling them, and finding ways to enhance their flavors. I wanted to bring those flavors to families.
Over the years, I did stints at different restaurants where I learned various cooking styles and honed my techniques. Changing our menu seasonally allows me to pull from those experiences to create unique takes on comfort dishes.
Working closely with the owners, Mark and Joanne, we chose to pay close attention to the gluten-free community. We noticed that there was a dearth of restaurants offering such dining options so we became very gluten-free friendly.
2. Cotton Hollow Kitchen is known for “upscale comfort food.” What does that phrase mean to you, and how do you balance familiar, comforting flavors with a more elevated presentation?
America is such a melting pot that we can borrow different techniques and ingredients to jazz up a dish. We embrace cultural diversity and it challenges me to recreate dishes that remind our guests of the taste of home, of memories of whichever culture they're from, but with a spin. Creating gluten-free options and making them appealing to all diners was a big challenge. We had to source local recipe substitutions and think creatively.
3. How important is sourcing local and seasonal ingredients?
Local ingredients are our primary source of menu inspiration because they grow naturally and retain their fresh flavors without much processing. We are so lucky we have so many farms in Glastonbury. It's this abundance of availability that we can constantly showcase and we can build our menus around the freshest ingredients seasonally. It also allows us to support our community of entrepreneurs and small businesses.
4. When you’re creating a new dish, where does the inspiration usually come from?
When we talk about comfort food, it is usually inspired by the flavors of our childhood and youth. Using that base, our team incorporates ideas from other cultures and experiments with different takes on a recipe. Sometimes inspiration comes from traveling and eating at other restaurants and figuring out how to elevate certain dishes and put our own stamp on them.
5. There are some wonderfully eclectic influences on the menu. How do different cuisines and cultures influence your cooking?
I’m Peruvian, and Peruvian cuisine is incredibly diverse. We draw inspiration from global flavors like Spanish, Japanese, Thai, and other Asian styles but keep a strong focus on new American. As we sit together and build our menus, we try to fuse these influences to create a unique dining experience for our guests along with familiar classics.
6. Are there Cotton Hollow dishes you feel particularly represent you as a chef or are special to you?
We work as a team here, so it’s hard to pinpoint any one dish because the menu has the input of various people. The Italian dishes represent my years under the tutelage of legends like Billy Grant, and input and refinement from Mark who owned Max Amore for 25 years. Our gluten-free menu options may be my proudest achievement. It was a learning curve when we decided to take on that menu refinement. We have had so many guests tell us that they had no idea the dish they just ate was gluten-free or that they have not had a particular dish in years because they are gluten-free. Those compliments are what make me happy as a chef.
7. How much does customer feedback influence the menu? Have you ever created or changed a dish because of something a customer said or requested?
Absolutely! Over the years, we have tweaked our menus not only based on seasonality but also based on guest feedback. We work off suggestions and ideas thrown our way, even though not every shoutout makes the cut. Sometimes a suggestion may not get a place on our menu, but it makes it on one of our tasting menu events, with a twist of course. Every opinion is extremely important because it reflects the effort and love we put into every dish. If we receive criticism, we try to refine our take of the fusion of flavors because introducing new flavors can sometimes be challenging for anyone.
8. What is the most challenging part of running a busy kitchen, and what do you want guests to understand about the work?
The biggest challenge is finding a team that can perform at a high level during very busy periods while still ensuring that every dish tastes the same every time. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have such a talented and committed culinary team. I’d also like to see more young people pursue a culinary career with passion while understanding that it is hard work and often requires 12-hour days on our feet working under fire in a hot kitchen. In the end, though, hearing a guest say. “The flavor and presentation were excellent,” makes it all worthwhile.
9. If you could order any three dishes of the menu — an appetizer, entrée and dessert — what would you choose?
Salted Beet & Burrata Salad – It showcases the local ingredients that are in season. Blackened Half Chicken with Peruvian Vegetable Rice is very special to me because it combines the familiar flavor of the blackening spice on the chicken and traditional Peruvian rice with vegetables and cilantro. Crème Brûlée – A classic, comfort dessert with global influences.
Cotton Hollow Kitchen
840 Main St., South Glastonbury
860-781-8555
cottonhollowkitchen.com
We embrace cultural diversity and it challenges me to recreate dishes that remind our guests of the taste of home.
We draw inspiration from global flavors like Spanish, Japanese, Thai, and other Asian styles but keep a strong focus on new American ... we try to fuse these influences to create a unique dining experience