MEXICO CITY (AP) â Quintonil is not your typical Mexican restaurant.
Clients book tables months in advance to celebrate special occasions. The list ranked it as the most acclaimed venue in the country in 2024 â and No. 7 worldwide. But once in a while something unexpected happens: food brings guests to tears.
âWe have hosted people who have wept over a ,â said chef Jorge Vallejo, who founded in Mexico City in March 2012.
He intentionally chose traditional for the menu â insects and other pre-Hispanic delicacies included. Priced at 4,950 pesos ($250 US) per person, it evokes the nostalgia of home and the history of the homeland.
The tamale â which translates from the Nahuatl language as âwrappedâ â is a delicacy made of steamed corn dough. It can be filled with savory or sweet ingredients â such as pork meat and pineapple â and topped with sauce.
Official records show that around 500 varieties of tamales can be found in Mexico. And according to a publication of Samuel Villela, ethnologist from the National School of Anthropology and History, Nahua communities used them for .
Most of Vallejoâs clientele are foreigners attracted by the awarded to Quintonil last year. Others are nationals who spent decades living abroad or Americans of Mexican descent in search of a taste from their ancestry.
âThey come to visit their families and feel shaken by the flavors that remind them who they are,â the chef said. âItâs like coming back to their roots.â
Providing that experience is what motivated him to open Quintonil 13 years ago. He first thought of his 11-table restaurant as a âfonda,â as Mexicans call popular food venues offering homemade dishes.
âI didnât think I would own a restaurant like Quintonil nor did I aspire to that,â Vallejo said. âWhat Iâve tried to do is to learn from Mexico and show the best of it.â
He took his first job in a place resembling a fonda, where he and his mom used to have lunch. He then studied culinary arts.
For a while, he worked on a cruise line, peeling crabs and coordinating the logistics to feed thousands of clients. Back in Mexico, he met his wife and business partner at Pujol, run by famed chef Enrique Olvera. They founded Quintonil a few years later and their mission has not changed: Weâll tell our countryâs tales through food.
âWe all have a life story,â Vallejo said. âI try to interpret that and transform it into stories we can share at Quintonil.â
Traveling is part of his routine. He meets with colleagues to exchange anecdotes and contacts, but also encounters local farmers and spends time in remote communities to understand how food and tradition intertwine.
âIn Mexico, we have ecosystems and ingredients that donât exist anywhere else,â Vallejo said. âAnd our recipes, our traditions, are deeply rooted in society.â
His menu at Quintonil often incorporates insects, treasured since pre-Hispanic times.
Ancient documents describe how the Mexica were once established in the Chapultepec Hill. Its name comes from âchapulĂn,â a type of grasshopper that Mexicans currently enjoy from street vendors or at popular bars known as âcantinas.â
âIn Mexico City, we have âescamolesâ season,â Vallejo said, referring to an edible larvae the Aztec people ate. âBut in Oaxaca, we can find the âchicatanaâ ants. In Tlaxcala, âcocopachesâ (a leaf-footed bug) and in Guerrero, they have insects of their own.â
Alexandra BretĂłn, a food enthusiast who has visited Quintonil several times and reviews restaurants in her blog feels that Vallejoâs contribution to Mexican gastronomy is invaluable.
âHe has elevated Mexican ingredients,â BretĂłn said. âMy memories of Quintonil are of dishes where herbs, insects and vegetables are taken seriously in dishes with great technique.â
During her last visit in February, she tasted a delicious tamale filled with duck. Her second favorite was a taco, which can be found at thousands of food spots, but Vallejo somehow transforms into an experience.
âWhat we do here are not just beautiful plates,â said Geraldine RodrĂguez, Quintonil's sous chef. âWe aim to nourish people, to show what Mexico is.â
There was a time, she said, when fine dining was synonymous of foie gras and lobster. But Quintonil chose another path.
âWe have an ancestral cuisine that comes from our grandmothers,â RodrĂguez said. âSo we respect those recipes and add the chefâs touch.â
The taco experience highlighted by BretĂłn is among those efforts. Several ingredients â insects, for instance â are offered in plates for clients to wrap in tortillas.
âThrough that interaction, that ritual that we Mexicans own, we watch clients wondering if theyâre grabbing the taco in a proper way,â RodrĂguez said. âBut we always tell them we just want them to feel at home.â
Working long shifts and aiming for perfection is not an easy task for the 60 people working at Quintonil.
RodrĂguez can spend up to four hours selecting a handful of sprouts to decorate a plate. Other near-invisible, almost ritualistic tasks are performed daily. One of them is brushing the âmilpa,â a textile that hangs from the terrace and was named after Mesoamerican fields where crops are grown.
In the end itâs all worth it, RodrĂguez said, because Quintonil provides clients with moments that evoke special memories.
She, too, has seen Vallejoâs clients cry over food. One of them was her dad. It was his 50th birthday, she said, and while she was not an employee of Quintonil at the time, Vallejo greeted her warmly.
The menu of the day included âhuauzontles," a green plant commonly cooked as a bun-shaped delicacy dipped in sauce. It also bears history, as Aztec communities ate it and used it to perform religious rites.
Quintonilâs recipe added stir-fry tomato and a local cheese. âWhen he ate it, he started crying and said they reminded him of my grandma,â RodrĂguez said. âI had never seen my dad cry over a plate.â
Vallejo has often expressed joy for the recognition that Quintonil has achieved. But in his view, a chefâs true success is measured by what he make his clients feel.
âMexican cuisine is a connection to the land, to the ingredients,â he said. âItâs a series of elements that produce not an emotion, but a feeling. And for me, thereâs nothing more amazing than provoking that.â
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APâs with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
MarĂa Teresa HernĂĄndez, The Associated Press
