Chef Ivy Stark punches up the flavor at El Toro Blanco in New York City. Now she's sharing a few of her favorite crowd-pleasing dishes, just in time for Cinco de Mayo.
Stark made a name for herself running the kitchen at Manhattan's Mexican hot spot Dos Caminos for six years and has now taken her skills to the more intimate West Village spot, where she lightened up the menu with her unique and flavorful Baja-style cuisine.
She shared these three fast and easy traditional Mexican recipes for guacamole, carne asada tacos and tuna tostadas.
In order to make restaurant quality guacamole at home, Stark shared two important tips.
"There's two little secrets, first and most importantly is that you have a ripe avocado," Stark said today on "GMA."
"Secondly -- if you don't have a mortar and pestle, you have to grind it together with the grinder so you release the oils of all of the onion and the chili and flavor so when you add the avocado in and toss it together you have all that flavor going through it rather than throwing everything in a bowl and mixing it," she explained.
Get her step-by-step guacamole recipe here.
Check out El Toro Blanco's light and fresh Baja-inspired tuna tostada recipe.
Make a batch of carne asada tacos with this recipe.