Elote Cafe featured in FrontDoors

Elote Café’s in Sedona has signature starter called the Elote, a fire-roasted corn with spicy mayo, lime and cotija cheese. This delicious recipe is found in Tastes & Treasures II. We are grateful to Chef Jeff Smedstad for sharing this recipe with us. Recently Chef was featured in FrontDoors and describes his restaurant. “The menu is inspired by food I’ve had in people’s homes and markets,” Smedstad said. “We get travelers from all over the world visiting the restaurant and it’s a great compliment when diners from Mexico say my food reminds them of home.” From FrontDoors interview, “The most popular dishes are the enchiladas, braised lamb shank with ancho chile sauce, and smoked pork cheeks with cascabel chile sauce and Smedstad’s grandmother’s corn cake. Desserts include flan, Mexican chocolate pie and pastel de elote, a sweet corn cake with dulce de leche and agave ice cream.” Tastes & Treasures available at www.HistoricalLeague.org

Elote corn dip from Elote Cafe, Sedona

Friends are coming over. Want to really impress them with a great appetizer? Try this yummy warm

dip from Tastes & Treasures II: A Storytelling Cookbook of Historic Arizona. It is a recipe from Elote Cafe in Sedona, housed in the historic Sedona Arabella Hotel. Note that the town of Sedona was named after Sedona Arabella Schnebly. Likewise Schnebly Hill Road. More history on page 40.
Of course, my girlfriends wanted the recipe and were happy to take home the new Tastes & Treasures II cookbook filled with lots more recipes and histories. Also interesting was the guys enjoyed Elote Dip even more!!

Pumpkin Flan from Elote Cafe in Sedona

Testing recipes for the new cookbook is a big part of the preparation. I am astounded to learn that some cookbooks do NOT test the recipes before printing. With Chef Leslie Christiansen at the helm, we are testing the recipes 3 times to make sure the ingredients are available and the directions are clear. She is also writing some very helpful hints to the procedures.


Here's a new dish: Pumpkin Flan tested by Kathy Holcombe. Delicious and very worthy to be in the cookbook!

Recipe tester Kathy Holcombe