I fell in love with Chef Cristina Martínez, a Mexican immigrant currently living in Philadelphia, while watching the first episode of season five of Chef’s Table on Netflix.

Martínez left her home to come to the United States to escape a violent and oppressive husband and to earn a living to pay for school for her daughter. This determined chef arrived in search of a better life with a deep knowledge of Mexican traditions and cuisine but without a visa or green card. As an undocumented immigrant, she faced a difficult passage into the country and financial, employment and legal hardships. She cannot return to Mexico to see her daughter because she would not be allowed to re-enter the United States. The US government will not allow her daughter to visit her mother in the United States. The separation of family seems unnecessarily cruel and punitive to me.

After settling in Philadelphia, she worked in area kitchens where she met her future husband, Benjamin Miller. When her boss fired her upon learning her undocumented immigrant status, she began making and selling lamb barbacoa from her home on Sundays to friends and fans of her cooking. For Martínez, barbacoa represents quality time spent with family and loved ones over a special and comforting meal. Her business quickly outgrew her small apartment. She and her husband later opened a restaurant in South Philly which earned national acclaim from Bon Appétit. The magazine placed South Philly Barbacoa at #6 in their top ten new restaurants in the nation for 2016. I regret missing an opportunity to sample her barbacoa during my visit to Philadelphia earlier this year.

Many restaurateurs practice a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy when it comes to immigration status and employing workers. Martínez uses her compelling story to publicize the plight of immigrant workers in the restaurant industry. Her restaurant connects food, family, and community in ways which call attention to the current untenable immigration policy of the United States. She says “I believe food has a lot of power . . . through food  . . . . we can find home.”

She inspires me to advocate for sensible immigration policy reform and continue to support organizations like Latino Memphis, a local non-profit which engages in advocacy and education for the Latino community in the Midsouth.

Chef Martínez also moved me to experiment with lamb barbacoa in my home kitchen with family and friends. On a Sunday morning, I did not have time to properly marinate the lamb or source maguey leaves from an agave plant for wrapping the meat like Martínez and her family would do. My attempt fell short of her skills and family traditions in Mexico, but we deeply enjoyed recreating a version of this delicious treat within a short time frame.

I considered Martínez’s process as explained in the Chef’s Table episode along with other sources for the following recipe. With no access to a pit to smoke the meat, I used a Camerons stovetop smoker to make a spicy and smokey leg of lamb for tacos (see other recipes using this smoker). I substituted banana leaves for the maguey leaves as a shortcut since maguey leaves require extra preparation to make them pliable enough to wrap the meat.

I served the lamb barbacoa with a homemade salsa verde, pickled red onions, sliced avocado, fresh cilantro and lime wedges. Save extra salsa verde for leftovers or for your scrambled eggs with breakfast (so good!).

My version of barbacoa received good reviews at our table, but I noticed differences. The meat was tender and juicy but drier than what I recall from the Chef’s Table video. Traditional barbacoa involves use of steam as a cooking agent compared to dryer Southern barbecue methods. In the future, I plan to marinate the lamb for 24 hours in orange juice, garlic, peppers and other spices before smoking and steaming. I also hope to source and prepare maguey leaves for the barbacoa to add the bitter flavor that Martínez describes in her method.