The Elephant Walk chefs share their history in the restaurant business and an easy family Ecuadorian−style soup recipe

Nadsa and Lonteine de Monteiro prepare French-Cambodian cuisine at Boston’s renowned The Elephant Walk. (Courtesy Nadsa de Monteiro)

How to make avocado citrus soup, Ecuadorian style

Monday, October 4, 2010
By Jon Cheng
The Tufts Daily (Tufts Univ., Medford, Massachusetts, USA)

Nadsa de Monteiro and her mother Longteine de Monteiro, chef−owners of the Massachusetts restaurant chain The Elephant Walk, claim that their family was the first to bring Cambodian cuisine to Boston when The Elephant Walk opened in 1991.

The restaurant gained renown almost immediately - Esquire Magazine named it one of America's Best New Restaurants in 1992 - but the de Monteiros attribute the restaurant's success to the decades of hardship they experienced before its establishment.

Nadsa, who oversees operations of the restaurant's three branches, said The Elephant Walk's menu, which she calls "three parts Cambodian and one part French," derives directly from her family's background.

Though she was born in Cambodia, her father's work as a diplomat and ambassador brought her to Yugoslavia, the Philippines and Taipei before her family was finally forced to take asylum in France to escape massacres brought on by the Khmer Rouge's takeover of the Cambodian government in 1975, she said. Nadsa's grandmother and uncle were among the fatalities in the country's infamous "Killing Fields" period.

It was in France where her affinity for French cuisine developed, Nadsa said, and where her mother began cooking.

"Before France, my mother has always been the ambassador's wife, so she didn't have to cook," Nadsa said, but when they moved to France, her mother taught herself how to cook in order to preserve the family's standard of living. "My sister and I, when we came home from school, had an amazing spread of food that she prepared."

Soon after her move to France, Nadsa moved again - this time to the United States to work as a travel agent - while her parents stayed in France, hoping to immigrate eventually but having been denied refugee status.

In the meantime, Longteine quickly became a skilled culinarian and decided to turn cooking into a profession. She pawned her jewelry to open up a restaurant, Amrita, which saw success during its 10−year run. After Nadsa became a naturalized citizen, Longteine and Nadsa's father were finally able to move to the United States and they left Amrita behind. Upon their reunion, Nadsa was drawn into the culinary world, "mostly by necessity and mostly by chance," she said.

"Until my parents moved here, I never cooked. Then, I got sucked into the restaurant business," Nadsa said. "So I went to get culinary training in France [under Michelin−starred chef Yves Thuris], but I also learned from eating my mother's food."

After graduating from the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts and working as sous−chef at The Elephant Walk for two years, Nadsa succeeded her mother as executive chef. From then on, the restaurant's success has been overwhelming, she said.

"We've been receiving the Best of Boston award every year for the last 10 years. Just last year we were inducted in the magazine's Hall of Fame," she said. "We have also published an ‘Elephant Walk' cookbook that is being sold in bookstores and on Amazon.com."

Once a week, Nadsa holds a Saturday morning cooking class with her mother and brother−in−law chef Gerard Lopez that usually draws in eight to 18 people.

"We've had couples, even teenagers take the class - the youngest one being nine years old and the oldest one 81 years old," she said.

Due to the establishments' proximity to nearby colleges, the classes and restaurants alike tend to attract a lot of students. But the family still strives to further spread the culture of their food to younger generations.

"Don't be afraid to taste new things; be adventurous. Hamburgers, fries and pizza aren't the only things - Boston now has tons of ethnic foods. If you're limiting your scope, that's your own problem," Nadsa said.

To help, she offers a simple recipe for a chilled avocado citrus soup, which students can easily whip up in their own kitchens (see page 3).

"This is a recipe that was inspired by one of my trips to Ecuador," Nadsa said. "I brought it back, played with it, recreated it and put it on the menu five years ago. It's just a big hit and everybody just loved it. I get requests for it all the time. Anybody can make this. If you can't make it, you're an idiot."

Elephant Walk a worthwhile venture

The Elephant Walk's decor is characterized by warm, welcoming lighting, simple decor and cozy settings. (Media Credit: Max Breistein Matza)

1/20/09
By Njideka Orjiako
The Justice (Massachusetts, USA)

Cambodian-French cuisine. If this combination sounds like heaven to you, then welcome to my world. The chance to savor two completely different cultural dishes in one meal had my taste buds zinging before I, a lover of ethnic food, even sat down. The destination for this meal? That would be The Elephant Walk, a Cambodian-French restaurant on Main Street in Waltham that would be a welcome change for students who are bold, bored or both and are looking to deviate from the usual Moody Street eateries. The warmly lit restaurant is cozy and casually elegant, with a simple decor that is more Western than Cambodian. But although the restaurant is not fancy, the food is; while the eclectic pairing of Asian and European food under one roof might seem surprising or odd without prior knowledge of Cambodia's French colonial past, it makes for a very interesting meal.

The Elephant Walk's menu is divided into sections, with separate areas devoted to original French (dishes prepared according to their chef's interpretation of French cuisine), traditional Cambodian (authentic recipes) and original Cambodian food (dishes inspired by Cambodian traditions)-the restaurant strives for authenticity in its recipes. I sampled both cuisines, first starting with the Crêpe de Canard aux Poires appetizer, a French dish consisting of a savory crêpe filled with braised duck, diced pears and scallions, with crème fraiche and a balsamic vinegar reduction as sauces. The presentation was so good it made my dinner dates jealous. Then, I ordered an original Cambodian dish called crevettes amrita for my entrée, which was a dish of sautéed shrimp with a colorful array of vegetables in a Cambodian satay sauce, served with white rice.

Although the dishes were skillfully prepared, some subtleties in flavor were lost in the shuffle. For instance, the pear in the crepe dish was diced very finely and did not really add much to the dish, as its flavor was masked by the sauces. Also, the shrimp entrée claimed to contain up to eight spices, including cumin, cardamom, galangal and star anise. However, the sugary satay sauce took center stage over the exotic spices I had looked forward to tasting. Moreover, while I like to think my dishes were such outstanding choices to have won my friends' attention, it could also just have been that their choice of saucisse grillée et ragout d'edamame was underwhelming, being a drab, brown dish of pork, rice and edamame that left them the small satisfaction of tasting better than it looked. Another friend ordered a calamari dish that she enjoyed, though, so in general, I think the dishes scored well.

Overall, my experience at The Elephant Walk was very pleasant. I enjoyed the food, the warm atmosphere and the full and lively crowd of Saturday night diners (I recommend booking a reservation to avoid the wait). Our waiter was friendly and polite, leaving my table eager to tip him well. I recommend The Elephant Walk highly-it makes an excellent choice for when you want to feel a little high-class. On the other hand, the prices encourage the high-class feeling, because although items generally don't cost more than $20 each, cheap, delicious food is available close by. Whatever the cost, the food is good, and the menu offers gluten-free and vegetarian options as well. I wish there were more actual Cambodian-French fusion dishes on the menu, though; the proprietors try to keep the two culinary genres separate so as to preserve traditional recipes. For this reason, they don't make food concessions for customers outside of changing the cut of your poultry and meat.

So, if you've never been to this locale, then consider The Elephant Walk for your next restaurant venture. Given a chance, this once-unexplored Waltham eatery could make your list of go-to, familiar favorites, and the food heaven you've been searching for could be waiting in the form of a tasty, East-meets-West meal.