Why Restaurant Salsa Is Always Better Than What You Make At Home

It's surprisingly easy to make homemade salsa. All you really have to do is chop or blend a variety of vegetables and season to taste. Given how simple it is, going to a restaurant and realizing its salsa is far superior to yours can be infuriating. How exactly do restaurants achieve a level of flavor that always seems to evade you? To solve the mystery, The Takeout spoke to Maycoll Calderón, executive chef at Cuna at The Standard East Village in New York.

Calderón has a simple answer to the riddle. "Restaurant salsa often tastes better because of technique, not just ingredients. In restaurants, we use direct flame, wood fire, or cast-iron heat to char the tomatoes, tomatillos, and chiles. That smokiness builds layers of flavor that you can't get from raw blending. It's rustic, but intentional," he explains. This is why home cooks often fail at imitating restaurant salsa, even when using the same ingredients.

The good news is this is very easy to fix. "Roast everything — tomatoes, tomatillos, garlic, onions, and chiles — over open heat. Blend less than you think; leave texture. And season at the end with salt and a squeeze of lime to wake everything up. Salsa should taste alive, not blended to death," Calderón recommends.

Besides using heat, bring a bit of je-ne-sais-quoi to your salsa by playing around with new ingredients. Chiles, for example, can make your salsa more flavorful. Another good tip is to skip the food processor and opt for smashing your ingredients by hand with a molcajete. These volcanic stone food processors have been used in Mexico and various Central American countries for millennia. Besides connecting to a beautiful tradition, the stones help release the oils in certain foods, adding more depth and taste to salsas. Finally, let your salsa rest for a bit before serving so that the ingredients have time to soak up each other's flavor. 

One thing Calderón believes you shouldn't worry too much about is fresh ingredients. "Salsa is more about how we handle the ingredients. At Cuna and in Mexico, we work with local farms and markets where produce comes in daily, but freshness alone doesn't make the salsa. The secret is balance: acidity, heat, sweetness, and smoke in the right proportions," he says. While freshness of ingredients isn't a dealbreaker, the salsa itself should be fresh. Avoid the fridge as much as possible so you can serve it at room temperature. Combine all these tips and you'll have people asking you how your homemade salsa tastes as good as a restaurant's.