Masa Cooperativa, which sells its masa to chefs, opens its doors to the public

Stone-ground masa — the maize dough that’s an essential ingredient for cooking in Mexico and much of Central and South America — is the chief product created and sold by Masa Cooperativa, operating out of People’s Kitchen, a commissary at 1149 S. Ninth St. in South Philadelphia.

Local chefs buy the co-op’s masa, milled on the premises from organic Pennsylvania-grown blue corn, to turn it into tortillas, tamales, and other dishes at restaurants. “It’s the best masa I’ve ever tasted,” said chef Michael Solomonov of Zahav, who makes corn bread out of it.

Now it’s available at retail directly to the public, from 8 to 11 a.m. Sundays, along with hand-pressed tortillas, atole, and cookies. It’s a walk-up situation, though orders can be emailed.

The co-op grew out of campaigns on behalf of undocumented workers started by Ben Miller and his former wife, James Beard Award-winning chef Cristina Martinez.

Two of the five co-op members — Miller and Jennifer Lee — are American-born, while Rubén Chico, Lesly Lopez, and Carmen Guerrero are undocumented immigrants.

Lee, a law professor who leads the Sheller Center for Social Justice at Temple University, herself the daughter of immigrants, has worked with organizations seeking to advance the rights of immigrants and has represented low-wage immigrant workers who’ve been exploited. She met Miller and Martinez and, with her students, helped craft the 2017 City Council resolution that affirmed the rights of undocumented people to work in the city.

The co-op gives undocumented immigrants a way to profit from their labor legally. Miller, who grew up in Easton, likes to cite Budweiser, owned by Belgians, as an example of how foreign corporations own businesses in the United States.

Although members of the co-op who are undocumented cannot file employment papers, they may legally share quarterly dividends. The enterprises themselves created by undocumented immigrants must pay taxes, as would any other business.

“This is a proactive way to think about how folks who otherwise would be subject to employer exploitation can take ownership and own their own business and contribute work,” said Lee, who believes that such a business model can be replicated in other industries.

Miller said the co-op is partnering with local farms such as Brooke-Lee in Berks County, planting and harvesting Indigenous varieties of corn. He said the co-op’s next step was to acquire a silo for storage.

The co-op workers nixtamalize the corn with water and lime to make it workable. On a recent Sunday, Chico and a helper were feeding corn into People’s Kitchen’s stone mill. Moments later, Guerrero took the dough and rolled it into balls before handing it off to Maria Roxana Amaya Lemus, who squished the dough flat in a wooden press. Guerrero then griddled the tortillas on a flattop.

Miller took one off the pile, tucked in sautéed vegetables, and handed it over. Earthy, with a summery burst of corn flavor and a satisfying chewiness, the tortillas were unlike many you’d find even in restaurants that make their own from flour, let alone supermarkets. They’re sold for $5 a dozen.

Miller said restaurants are inherently cooperative. “I always felt like I was working in spaces that were really cooperatively developed, like the dishwasher contributes their ideas, the prep cook is contributing their ideas, but the chef gets the accolades. It’s really the whole team that works together,” Miller said. “This model provides an incentive to the people to show up and put their best [work] in there.”

Though America is a democracy, he said, “we’re still stuck in autocracy and kings and subjects.”