Art Pollard. Courtesy photo
BY KIM WEISS
Art Pollard was raised in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he grew up on green and red chile, bizcochitos, posole, and panocha. Then life happened and he relocated to Seattle and then Utah, and missing his childhood cuisine, Pollard has come full circle with what he calls “the most complete New Mexico cookbook ever compiled.” With an exhaustive collection of over 1,200 recipes assembled from individuals, families, restaurants, and classic cookbooks, in ENCHANTMENT: A New Mexican Cookbook, Pollard honors the unique gastronomic traditions of Native America, Mexico, and Indigenous Latin America in this unprecedented cookbook.
Home cooks now have everything they need to master New Mexican cooking in one volume
Pollard, whose entrepreneurial bio ranges from computer scientist to artisan chocolatier combines everything one needs to create their own authentic New Mexican kitchen. Some of his favorite recipes in Enchantment are Green Chile Enchiladas which are not just incredibly good and typically New Mexican, remind him of “Tacos Green” from the Rio Grande Cafe in Espanola. And of course, in Art’s opinion, no New Mexican dinner can be properly finished without a serving of “Sopa” (bread pudding) or “Natillas” (a light custard).
While researching for ENCHANTMENT, Art Pollard reunited with people who loomed large in his childhood including some of the families of or former owners of his favorite New Mexican
restaurants.This has resulted in some amazing meals with really great food and even better
company.The cliché “There’s no place like home,” is palpable in the new cookbook. Paying
homage to one’s roots is almost always sweetest when ithappens through food.
For more information, visit https://newmexicancookbook.com
More About Art Pollard
Art Pollard is a Renaissance man. He grew up in Los Alamos near the Jemez Mountains, where he spent much of his early youth hiking and climbing in the foothills. Art spent much of the money he earned growing up at Zia Salvage, the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s official
salvage company, which allowed him to build an impressive laboratory in his parents’
basement.
Art started working on graduate research projects (nuclear fusion) at BYU and the University of
Washington as a freshman in high school. While in college, he studied Computer Science, English, Photography, and Near Eastern Archaeology while working in the physics department
designing and building equipment. After college, Art started Lextek International, a software development company and early leader in search engine technology. Art’s search technology
has been integrated into major website and software projects such as Adobe Acrobat. While
running Lextek, Art started designing and building machines to make chocolate, which eventually morphed into a new venture: Amano Artisan Chocolate, one of the first three small
artisanal chocolate makers in the United States. Amano made numerous advances in the
artisanal chocolate world and heavily influenced this fledgling industry.
Today, Amano has attained more than 200 first-place international and domestic awards for its chocolate, making Amano the most highly awarded chocolate company in the United States. Through Amano, Art has had the privilege of working with some of world’s top chefs.
A true entrepreneur, Art lives in Provo, Utah with his wife, two children, and two dogs
(whippets). After the passing of his father, Art decided to spend time focusing on the cuisine
that he grew up with, which inspired ENCHANTMENT a New Mexican Cookbook, the largest,
most complete New Mexican cookbook ever compiled.
Other interests, include traveling around the Southwest making fine art landscape
photography, and building two airplanes.