Even during his days off, Raul Morales gets spotted by fans. On a recent visit to Universal Studios Hollywood, Morales, owner of Taqueria Vista Hermosa in Los Angeles, was waiting in line when he heard shouting.
“People called out ‘Chef Al Pastor! Chef Al Pastor!’” Morales said, laughing. Morales, who was born in Mexico City, came by the nickname through decades of hard work.
He’s the third generation of his family to make al pastor tacos, their fresh tortillas filled with richly seasoned pork shaved from a rotating vertical spit.
“My recipe is very special, and very old,” he said.
Yet while Morales’ family recipes go back generations, and similar spit-roasted meats like shawarma and döner have been around for hundreds of years, his tacos represent a kind of cuisine that’s as contemporary and international as it is ancient and traditional. When you thread meat onto a spinning spit to roast it, it turns out, it doesn’t stay in one place for long.
