In the Kitchen with The Elephant Walk’s Nyep and Nadsa De Monteiro (1/3)

If food is the soul of a country, Longteine (“Nyep”) De Monteiro, along with her daughter Nadsa and family have dedicated their lives to keeping the “soul” of their beloved homeland of Cambodia alive. The founders of perhaps the first Cambodian Restaurant in the modern western world, the De Monteiro’s have overcome the threat of genocide and hard-ships in new lands to become the successful owners of highly ac-claimed restaurants in the Boston area. In addition, Longteine, the matriarch of the De Monteiro family, along with her colleague Katherine Neustadt, has written a cookbook of particular historical significance, in an effort to pre-serve in print the culinary lifeline of the Cambodian people. Serving duel Cambodian and French cuisines of their heritage, Nyep and Nadsa are Executive Chefs and professionals of the highest order. The menu offerings contain many items you don't find anywhere else; you don't even find them in Cambodia now. The cui-sine in Cambodia now has been greatly influenced by Thai cuisine. Longteine has realized that “all the people who now live in Phnom Penh have more or less been living in refugee camps and that is why they haven't learned these cuisines. For me personally it is very painful to see this happen. That is why I have (had) to make an effort to write it all down in a cookbook. It is going to be a legacy for the next generation because the cuisine is now gone.” Authentic Cambodian cuisine is best de-scribed as less salty than Vietnamese food, less sweet than Thai, and subtler than both. Cambodian dishes feature a rich interweaving of cultural influences and fresh, light flavors. Elephant Walk: Romantic Reminders of a Bygone Era The name Elephant Walk, as in the Elizabeth Taylor Hollywood movie classic, was ultimately chosen because of its euphonic evocation of the romance of a bygone era in South-east Asia when Cambodian and French culture were intertwined. The Elephant Walk family of restaurants was founded in 1991 in Somerville, Massachusetts, and has grown to include a third, Carambola. The two Elephant Walk restaurants serve complete menus of both Cambodian and French Cuisine that includes both traditional and original dishes created by their chefs, the mother-daughter team of Longteine and Nadsa de Monteiro. Not trendy "fusion" restaurants serving a forced amalgam of disparate culinary traditions, The Elephant Walks' Cambodian and French dishes coexist discretely and naturally on a single menu as the authentic culinary expres-sion of the De Monteiro family legacy. The Elephant Walk was, when it opened in 1991 and remains today, the only Cambodian restaurant in Greater Boston. While most fine dining restaurants offer a single vegetarian entree, they have always offered a large se-lection of vegetarian and/or vegan menu items. In addition, the wine lists at all three locations have won numerous awards from Wine Spectator Magazine. The Elephant Walk has been praised for its unique cuisine by such publications as Esquire, the New York Times, USA Today, and Travel & Leisure. In recent years The Elephant Walk has been voted "Best Vegetarian" by both the editors and the readers of CitySearch.com. Born to Cook