Espagueti and the Authentic: A Chef’s Quest to Bring Real Honduran Cuisine to Denver

by John Broening

A few years ago, my wife and I befriended a Chinese couple, recent immigrants to this country who had anglicized their names to Winston and Cynthia. They were committed to becoming good Americans, and we were happy to answer their many questions about the mysteries of American culture. In return, they invited us out for what they promised us was an authentic Chinese meal, at Star Kitchen on Federal.

We sat down with them at the table. The waitress handed us English language menus. Winston declined these and told her that we would all be ordering from the Chinese menu. There was a sharp exchange in Cantonese. The waitress looked at us in exasperated disbelief and shook her head as she wrote down the order.

We ate a long succession of completely unfamiliar dishes: a big pile of fried duck jaws glazed with XO sauce; a big pile of tiny whole fried fish bursting with their egg sacks; pork intestines the size and shape of pappardelle swimming in a fermented black bean broth.

Chefs talk a lot a…