Simply translated, masa — the foundation for every perfect tortilla, tostada, tamale, pozole, arepa and gordita — means dough. It unites North and South America, defying any one cultural identity.

At about midnight each weekday, a group of five men and women arrives at the darkened restaurant doors of Sobre Masa in Brooklyn and performs a sacred art of transformation. Heirloom corn—hundreds of ...

Peer inside a Latin American kitchen, and you will most likely find some kind of flat top on the stove, stoic and ready for fire. Whether they were passed down for generations, thrifted, or purchased ...