This is a transcript of an episode of Sparked—a series from Gastro Obscura exploring how one special bite can change an entire life.
Gaby El Jibaro: It looks easy, but to be doing 800 to a thousand pinchos a week…
Hey, I’m Chef Gaby, and this is my truck.
This is basically second Puerto Rico over here. Kissimmee, Puerto Rico, not Kissimmee, Florida. What inspired me to do what I’m doing right now? I love pinchos. I love chicken on steak over there in Puerto Rico. I cook some good chicken kebabs, but over there, they’re the god of chicken kebabs.
Producer: And what are we making today?
Gaby: Basically, I’m making papas jibaras. Papas jibaras is loaded fries, basically.
I’m gonna start doing the kebabs. Chicken kebabs. Already got it here. Marinate it. The marinade? Garlic, honey powder, cumin. That’s the main ingredients on it. Garlic…we use a lot of garlic in Puerto Rico. Garlic is like the god of flavors, you know? So marinate about two days, a day, but not the same day. It can’t be the same day. Won’t get that flavor that you want.
I used to go eat pinchos around—they’ll put it in the fryer, they’ll put it in the flat top….no, bro. Put it in the grill! Give it that char flavor. Give it that original flavor that you’re looking for.
I grew up in Bayamo, San Juan. It’s the city basically, and my grandma basically inspired me. She always be—was selling pasteles. It’s like a Puerto Rican tamale. I wanted to do something similar, and I started this.
I’m gonna start the cheese sauce right now. These are garlic shallots, so I’m basically putting butter so I can make a root. I’m rendering it down, saute in it. The aroma…you smell it? Yeah. I’m gonna start doing the fries and sweet plantains. Do a little salt. Everything gets salt and pepper.
Two years ago I started this. This was basically a boat. It was flat. I started with no roof, and then the customers kept on coming, kept on coming, and I had to do something about it. You know obviously a roof, when in Florida it rains a lot. From there, I just kept going.
Us Puerto Rican—we’re very proud with where we’re from, you know? From our culture. It’s a small island. So to do what we doing in another place, and people knowing about it? It means a lot.
Finish the cheese sauce right now. Milk is the root. It’s the root right here. Flour and the seasoning that put the shallots, garlic. Add the milk, and then add the cheese. Let it melt. If you cook it too long, it’s gonna break, and it won’t taste right. You gotta cook it in a time.
Salt, pepper obviously. You don’t want no bland cheese sauce. Yeah, this is cheese sauce right here. It’s blending the cheese, everything together. I don’t want no lumps on my cheese sauce—no graininess, like some have.
Now I’m gonna start cutting the meat. Fries, layer of fries, layer of fries. Small gouda and gruyere cheese. So you can chop it up a little bit. Barbecue sauce, now your ketchup, garlic aioli. And if you want a sweet, savory better way to—you know—you could add sweet plantains or bacon to it. So it tastes like smoky, sweet, savory, crunchy. It’s something else. Something else. Papas jibaras.
This is how it should taste: sweet, savory, cheesy. Mmm. Smoky. This is why I wanted to bring this to Kissimmee. Puerto Rican flavor. Cooking to me is a passion, you know? I love what I’m bringing to the people, and the people love what I bring to them, you know? So that inspired me to do better, to do more. And basically, yeah…that’s it.
