KCRW and Gustavo's Great Tortilla Tournament 2024 Corn and Flour Winners!
On a cold Saturday morning…somewhere in Los Angeles…the KCRW and Gustavo’s Great #TortillaTournament team filed into the casita of Good Food with Evan Kleiman’s titular host for our solemn task at hand:
Who would we pick as the best corn and flour tortillas in Southern California? And which champion would take home the Golden Tortilla?
This year’s iteration was more sprawling than ever. We started with our 32-tortilla San Diego Invitational, whose winners went on to the general 64-tortilla — 32 corn, 32 flour — sports-style tournament. We explained why #TortillaTournament started so late this year — i.e., me — then went through Round One and Round Two, thereby finding our Suave 16.
Here was our Eso 8, and then our Fuerte Four: Chabelita’s and Mitla Cafe for corn, Casa De Bandini and Heritage BBQ for flour.
Usually, we’d decide in front of an audience with freshly made tortillas. This time, we were going to eat them almost-fresh: one day old for flour, made that morning for corn. I would have the important task of heating them on Evan’s two comales, while she, KCRW chingona Connie Alvarez and tortilla scout Sean Vukan — filling in the spot of Eater LA chingona Mona Holmes, who had to bow out at the last second but did her judging task well — waited and talked.
Enough exposition: on to the results!
Corn Category
#3 Chabelita’s vs. #3 Mitla Cafe
This was the first Fuerte Four appearance for two spots that have made it into the Suave 16 every year they have competed. The former, a tiny Pacoima cenaduria — general Mexican food — next to a car mechanic, hit the comal first and immediately impressed with its heavy corn flavor, two-ply thick fluffiness, and spectacular rolling capabilities. But as I enjoyed my bite, I noticed something linger at the very end:
Bitterness. A tad, but it was still there.
Bitterness in corn tortillas means one of two things: the presence of preservatives in the masa, or too much cal used in the masa during the nixtamalación process. It must’ve been the latter for Chabelita’s this time around, because I had never detected bitterness in their corn tortillas in the four years they’ve been in the tournament.
Bitterness in corn tortillas is usually a disqualifying factor for me, I told Evan, Connie, and Sean as they tore up their tortillas into gobbable bits (I was the only roller in the group, it turns out). They were so impressed by Chabelita’s earthiness that they just didn’t care. Besides, Mitla still needed to step up to the comal and do its thing.
Mitla, of course, is the San Bernardino institution that’s been feeding eaters off the old Route 66 for nearly 90 years now. Cousin owners Michael Montaño and Steven Oquendo are so good-humored about their previous #TortillaTournament losses that they always post hilariously sad memes on Instagram about them. All this went through my mind as I saw the Mitla tortillas before me: not as yellow as I remember them, and not as big.
They were delicious, and I still sided with Mitla at first because there was no bitterness at the end, unlike Chabelita’s. But Evan and Connie argued that Mitla had better flavor, better texture and the Chabelita’s bitterness was almost superfluous. Sean agreed with them, leaving me the odd vote out. As the namesake of Gustavo’s Great #TortillaTournament, I wield my possible veto over any winners chosen by other judges at any point in the competition with fury and vengance…but not today, Satan.
2024 KCRW and Gustavo’s Great #TortillaTournament Corn Winner: Chabelita’s.
Pacoima, represent! The San Fernando Valley makes it into the #TortillaTournament finale for the first time. And Mitla? At least the meme you’ll put up in defeat will be funny, right? Right??? Here’s the video Good Food producer Elina Shatkin shot of our deliberations — good times!
Flour Category
#1 Heritage BBQ vs. #5 Casa De Bandini
Heritage makes their tortillas by special order only, but they’re so fabulous in their tallow-ness that they were easily the flour champions last year, losing to the late, great Taco María. The handmade creations of Eric Linares breezed through my bracket, with its only real match a scrap-biter against supermarket mini-chain Super A Foods and their sugar-powered flour tortillas. Their reward: a history-maker in Casa De Bandini.
Casa De Bandini looks like an El Torito clone from the outside, and even inside. But their tortillas — made at a dedicated station — transcend their tourist trappings. The restaurant made history multiple times over in its first #TortillaTournament waltz: They were just the second-ever tortilla maker to have their corn and flour entries in the Suave 16, the first to have them both in the Eso 8 — and Casa De Bandini made history by being the first-ever San Diego County contestant in the Fuerte Four.
They went on the comal first, the resultant sizzle almost as loud and beckoning as a waterfall. We judges scarfed down Casa De Bandini’s speckled beauties and tried to figure out what fat (or, as I will call forever, the binding agent — screw science) they used: lard? Butter? Beyond rich…and then came Heritage.
Evan and Connie loved their small, thick tortillas…too much. “This is more of a meal than a tortilla” the both of them said differently — a daft remark, given that we were eating a tortilla. Then the conversation started going into calling Heritage’s creation a “brotilla” — although I didn’t say that!
Chaos! Evan and Connie voted for Casa De Bandini; Sean and I voted for Heritage BBQ. I guess the “brotilla” label was real! A tie — first ever in Fuerte Four history!
Usually, we have a celebrity judge as our tie breaker. This time, we had someone even better: Elina. I went back to the stove to heat up a Casa De Bandini and Heritage tortilla for her, and she ate them fresh off the comal.
Like us, she loved Casa De Bandini’s tortilla. Then came Heritage. She cocked back her neck and gobbled it up like a baby bird eating a worm. Without hesitation, she said Heritage was better. Don’t believe me? Follow Good Food on Instagram and wait for that video to drop!
Winner: Heritage BBQ
I agree with Evan: This year’s #TortillaTournament was the most competitive ever. Mitla Cafe made a great tortilla that just couldn’t overcome Chabelita’s and its tiniest-bit bitter corn tortilla. And Casa De Bandini’s flour tortilla could beat — and did! — any tortilla in Southern California proper…except Heritage.
Fuerte Four Final
#1 Heritage BBQ vs. #3 Chabelita’s
After we picked our corn and flour winners, we immediately moved on to the finale. Oh, what a finale…but you’re going to have to wait for that while we forge the Golden Tortilla trophy. Winner will be announced over at the KCRW Insider newsletter soon, so sign up TODAY. Happy eating!