38 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JULY 2-8, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com When Chef Ben Hillan sketched out a special Fourth of July menu at Salt Wood Kitchen and Oysterette in Marina, there was one dish he considered its centerpiece: macaroni and cheese. No other dish can claim such an American heritage. The pasta was mentioned in a ditty sung by Redcoats to mock colonial militia—macaroni being 18th-century slang for a hopeless dandy. Thomas Jefferson had his enslaved chef, James Hemings, prepare mac and cheese for dinner guests. “It speaks to almost everyone,” says Alex Pailles, chef de cuisine at The Bench in Pebble Beach, where the dish is a popular item at lunch and dinner. Pailles prepares a bechamel from fontina and brings parmesan into the mix, then bakes the mac and cheese in a wood-fired oven. It’s familiar in presentation, but with elevated ingredients and technique. “It’s cream on cheese on cream— nice and velvety,” he says. At Monterey’s Tarpy’s Roadhouse, Chef Tim Uttaro will occasionally serve a special version, decked with truffles or lobster (maybe both). But on the regular menu, he also prefers a more comforting mac and cheese. That such chefs take a more recognizable approach to mac and cheese says much about its place in American culture. When the dish came to the New World, it was considered something for occasions, served for the most part at tables of the well-to-do. Recipes for pasta “pudding” appear in English food writer Hannah Glasse’s wildly popular 1747 book The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. Such was demand for the volume that it outsold all other cookbooks published in that entire century, according to the Northumberland Archives. Historians note that both George Washington and Benjamin Franklin owned copies. Jefferson—often mistakenly credited for introducing mac and cheese to America—went searching for the book, apparently in vain. Yet today we recognize instead the filling product of the industrial revolution, prized for its convenience and affordability. Pailles, for example, admits that as a child he was fond of macaroni smothered in Velveeta. “People say, ‘What can you cook for a chef?’” Hillan adds with a laugh. “I tell them, ‘You can make Kraft macaroni and cheese and I’ll be happy.’ I don’t think anyone can make it like mom used to make it.” This journey from aristocratic to commonplace made the European concept into a truly American icon. Well into the 1800s, the dish retained its luxury status—particularly in wealthy Southern homes, where recipes were passed down through generations of Blacks cooking for white families. In her 1877 cookbook Fifteen Cent Dinners for Workingmen’s Families, Juliet Corson complained about the mac and cheese gap, arguing that “It should become one of the chief foods of the people,” adding “It is one of the most wholesome and economical of foods.” Fortunately for Corson, industrialization first brought about cheese produced on a mass scale, followed by processed foods. A cheese salesman, James L. Kraft, hit on the appetizing combination of cheddar scraps, sodium phosphate and heat, receiving a patent for this easily meltable cheese product in 1916. Velveeta hit the shelves two years later. Meanwhile Kraft set to work on a sauce powder, introducing boxed dinners in 1937. The timing was important. The U.S. Army was Kraft’s first big customer in 1917. Kraft Dinners reached the market during the Great Depression. When war came again, those boxes dinged consumers just one ration point. And for the Baby Boom generation that followed, the quick meal became a staple. All the while, Black families in the South were saving the traditional fromscratch recipes, baked in ovens, from the industrial juggernaut. “They do mac and cheese right in the South,” Uttaro says. Still, he praises the versatility. For catering or events, Coastal Roots Hospitality—Tarpy’s parent company—offers build-your-own mac and cheese bars or forms prepared pasta into fritters. “I have some guests who put mac and cheese on pepperoni pizza,” Pailles says, chuckling. “I can’t mock it because it sounds delicious.” So what could be more American on the nation’s 250th anniversary? “Everyone grew up with it,” Uttaro says. “Every one of us, when we see it on a menu, we at least pause and think about it.” FIRST COURSE The mac and cheese at Tarpy’s Roadhouse in Monterey, which is plated with ribs and offered as a side dish. Chef Tim Uttaro finishes the house-made sauce with more cheese. SPLIT PERSONALITY…Coastal Taste Lounge is open in Monterey, filling the former Indian Summer space. Coastal Taste serves breakfast and lunch, closing at 2pm. At 7pm it reopens as a cocktail bar (yes, with hookahs). 220 Olivier St., Monterey. (831) 3724744, coastaltastelounge.com. GO FOURTH…Let The Crossroads Barbecue do the heavy lifting for your Fourth of July barbecue. They’re offering prepared feasts that feed five for $95. Choose two meats and three sides, with a loaf of garlic bread. Pre-orders are recommended, to be picked up July 2-5. 241 Crossroads Blvd., Carmel. (831) 250-7616, thecrossroadsbbq.com. OK TO WINE…Get over humpday with Jacks Monterey’s wine down Wednesday special: half off select bottles of wine. Enjoy with dinner, a treat or all on its own. 2 Portola Plaza, Monterey. (831) 649-4511, portolahotel.com/dining/jacks-monterey. COMING ’ROUND…Monterry Bagels & Donuts is set to open in the old Stone Creek Kitchen space in Del Rey Oaks. For those concerned about the apparent typo, the owner’s name is Terry. 465 Canyon Del Rey Blvd., Del Rey Oaks. THE ICING…Learn to give cakes a seasonal flair at Sugar Science’s Summer Soirée cake decorating class on Sunday, July 12 with two times offered: 11am-12:30pm or 1:30-3pm. Participants get to create beautiful, summery cakes with decadent buttercream frosting, learn different cake decorating techniques and get to take their masterpieces home. $70. American Legion Post 512, Dolores at 8th, Carmel. (831) 624-9941, sugarsciencebaker.com. GOOD NEIGHBORS…Two Carmel Valley nearly-neighbors are teaming up to put on a night of food and wine, and tickets are on sale now. Carmel Valley Ranch hosts a wine dinner with Tira Nanza on Thursday, July 16 at 6pm. Savor a six-course meal featuring seasonal ingredients, each paired with a Tira Nanza wine. $195; $150/members. (855) 687-7262, carmelvalleyranch. com. BRING TO A BOIL…Tickets are on sale for Joyce Winery’s sixth annual seafood boil on Saturday, July 25 at the Carmel Valley tasting room. It starts at 4pm with an oyster happy hour, followed by dinner at 5:30pm. $165; $130/members. Carmel Valley. (831) 659-2885, joycewineco.com. By Jacqueline Weixel MORSELS eatanddrink@montereycountynow.com “When we see it on a menu, we pause and think about it.” EAT + DRINK DANIEL DREIFUSS Box Out A few restaurants are true to mac and cheese’s fine dining roots, without losing the humble appeal. By Dave Faries
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