The Magic Alamo Cafe Tortilla Recipe

Our "magic tortilla recipe" is guarded by an elaborate structure of secrecy...each ingredient, its quantity and the order in which it is added to the mix is known to only one person, and not the same person for more than one thing. This is how it works...

The designated person for each ingredient hands his ingredient to another, blindfolded, person who does not know what that ingredient is, only how much goes in the vat.

The blindfolded measurer "measurers" his single ingredient and hands it to a dumper who dumps it in the vat in its proper order (don't ask us how a blindfolded person knows how to measure the correct amount-that's another secret best left untold).

The "vat person" is released from the pantry only after all measured ingredients have been added to the vat in the correct order to ensure he knows neither the ingredients, their measure nor the order in which they have been added. In fact, the mixer is turned on by the mixer-starter before the vat person is released from the pantry so the vat person doesn't know what ingredients, how much or in what order they were added.

Once measured and mixed, the vat is carefully emptied into 20 gallon containers from which our Tortilla Queens carefully create the little balls of tortilla dough which are pressed into tortilla flats and cooked to Alamo Cafe perfection.

In all, a total of 27 people, including understudies, are trained and ready to go at a moment's notice. The process starts at O'Dark thirty with the passing of the first ingredient to the first measurer and culminates only minutes before your steaming-hot tortillas are severed at your table.