Anticipation was on the menu for pretty much anyone who walked by Joel Diviu’s set-up at Zócalo, the food truck park in Walker’s Point.
Diviu is the chef and owner behind La Mano De Dios, meaning "the hand of God." It’s a soccer reference; Diviu comes from a family of fútbol fanatics. But there was something transcendent about the way Diviu, an Argentinian-born chef, tended to the flames, in this hours-long wood-fired barbecue tradition, known as the asado.
No doubt, it was a feast for the eyes: a wide metal table where several low fires burned. A New York strip stretched on a cross spit leaned into the flames, while racks of ribs and sausages crackled on a grill. Whole vegetables smoldered on the embers: entire heads of cabbages, bell peppers, eggplant. A mountain of onions sat at the foot of one small fire, their skins charring to black.
Diviu used a shovel to tend to the coals, moving them to direct the heat and control the pace of cooking. This food takes time. The chef started in the late morning, and since then, people who walked by took one whiff and asked whether they could order. Come back around 1, he told them. One passerby, who was there for a bagel at the vendor next door, promised she’d return for lunch.
Diviu ran the pop-up at Zócalo through the summer. He joins Lake Effect, along with his girlfriend, Marissa Tapia.
