johndan

Possibly apocryphal, but many sources say that the Frito Pie recipe originates with Daisy Doolin, Elmer Doolin's mother. Elmer launched Frito using a patent he purchased from a Mexican man who had created a machine that made extruded masa chips he sold at beaches in Mexico (so maybe GlorifiedRice's guess about masa is correct). I read the story in a Tex-Mex cookbook years ago, but NPR has the story here: http://www.npr.org/2007/10/18/15377830/the-birth-of-the-frito. NPR's source for this is the Frito-Lay archives, so take with a grain of salt. I think I originally heard the story from an old El Paso Chile Company cookbook (where it was the head note for their version of Frito pie). - Johndan

I like the overall concept. An experienced cook can probably emulate a lot of what these places do with good planning once a week or month (with a day of doing prep cook work, then freezing or fridging the ingredients), but think of it as training wheels: Once these people get comfortable with the experience, they'll start to realize that they're actually cooking, and maybe they'll start trying out recipes on their own. (I really like the Community Kitchen idea, though, that CaliPoutine mentioned upthread. Knowing people around you who know how to cook is immsensely powerful, and probably even better at getting people to start cooking on their own.) - Johndan

Maybe I missed an earlier post, but there are also "salt potatoes" from upstate NY. They're sold in restaurants and grocery stores (where you can buy them raw in the produce section, with salt packet included). Basically, they're just boiled potatoes, but with an extreme amount of salt in the boiling water. I think the standard measure is about a 1/4 pound of salt per pound of new potatoes. (The bags we buy usually have 5 # of potatoes and 1-1/4 # of salt.) I've seen recipes that describe the amount of salt as "add salt to cooking water until no more will dissolve." After cooking, the potatoes have a full, somewhat delicate flavor--not exceptionally salty (similar, I guess, to other brined foods prepared well).