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Kuwait Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Kuwait Times
Tale of love, passion behind Mexico's ‘boundary-pushing' Quintonil
Behind the growing international success of a Mexican restaurant named one of world's best is a love story between two gourmets with a passion for blending traditional and contemporary flavors. Quintonil, which opened in 2012 in the upscale Mexico City neighborhood of Polanco, already boasted two Michelin stars. Now it is also ranked number three by the Michelin Guide's British rival, 'The World's 50 Best Restaurants,' which praised its 'boundary-pushing' cuisine. 'Focused on fresh, local ingredients and traditional Mexican flavors and techniques weaved into modern preparations, it is fast becoming a classic,' it said. Named after an aromatic plant from the southern state of Oaxaca, Quintonil stands behind only Maido in Lima and Asador Etxebarri in Spain in the list. At the reception, Alejandra Flores -- one half of the charismatic couple behind Quintonil -- gives a taste of the hospitality and kindness for which Mexicans are known. 'I truly believe in the saying, 'He who does not live to serve does not serve to live,'' she said. Service 'must be a dance' or even an 'embrace,' added Flores, who studied hospitality management in Switzerland. Intimate, not ostentatious In the two small dining rooms, next to a counter seating area that opens onto the kitchen, around a dozen tables receive customers from around the world. It is in this setting -- more intimate than ostentatious -- that Quintonil has gradually gained global recognition, much like Mexico City, which is attracting an increasing number of visitors from the United States and Europe. Understated, like his restaurant, head chef Jorge Vallejo used to work on cruise ships before returning to Mexico City where he joined another renowned restaurant, Pujol. Chefs work in the kitchen at Quintonil restaurant in Mexico City. Head Chef Jorge Vallejo poses for a photo at Quintonil restaurant in Mexico City.--AFP photos A chef prepares ribeye steak cuts at Quintonil restaurant. A chef slices a fish in the kitchen at Quintonil restaurant. Chefs work in the kitchen at Quintonil restaurant. It was there that he met Flores, his wife. Located a few streets away, Pujol has long been the benchmark for new Mexican gastronomy. In 2022, 'The World's 50 Best Restaurants' ranked chef Enrique Olvera's establishment fifth, while Quintonil was in ninth place. The student has since overtaken his teacher, but feels a debt of gratitude: Pujol's elevation of Mexican cuisine to another level has inspired others, Vallejo said. 'Twenty years ago, people knew very little about what Mexican gastronomy really is as we know it today,' he added. Today, more foreigners are familiar with a diverse cuisine that ranges from street tacos to fine dining, in both cases using local products such as corn and tomatoes. 'Close to my heart' Quintonil combines seasonal ingredients -- in July it was asparagus, carrots, and mushrooms -- with traditional Mexican staples, such as mole, a sauce made with spices and cocoa. 'Right now, a dish that's close to my heart is vegetable mole. We prepare it with asparagus,' enthused Vallejo, happy that his discovery allows for a lighter sauce. Quintonil's ingredients are '98 percent Mexican,' including the wines. The exceptions are caviar, one type of fish, and olive oil, said Vallejo, who favors local sources. 'I have a good friend whose family grows white beans' in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, he said. Quintonil has mastered the art of blending traditional Mexican flavors with contemporary cuisine, according to the '50 Best' list, citing the example of 'tamales of duck pibil with elote cream,' a corn-based sauce. The award has been decided since 2002 by more than a thousand 'culinary experts,' including chefs, specialist journalists and restaurant owners. While French chefs question its legitimacy, accusing it of opacity, in the case of Quintonil the verdict seems unanimous. According to the Michelin Guide, Quintonil's tasting menu is 'constantly evolving' with 'delights such as crab and shards of blue corn tostada arranged with a vivid pipian verde enhanced with untraditional elements like galangal, lemongrass, and makrut lime.' Quintonil's cuisine 'is an enticing melding of excellent local product, impressive execution, and great creativity to produce refined compositions,' it said.—AFP
Forbes
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Basque Cuisine Has A Japanese Soul At This Wildly Creative Restaurant
Chef Tetsuro Maeda in front of Txispa Mandrágora Fotógrafos Tetsuro Maeda is a man of eccentric stories. The chef of Txispa will casually mention a trip he made to Hokkaido, when, by the way, he was a top-ranked professional snowboarder in Japan. Driving around Spain's Basque Country near Axpe, he'll point out the route he followed when he spent ten years commuting by horseback to his job at Asador Etxebarri. Even simple conversations often spark to life with an unexpected detail. Perhaps that's why his restaurant, just up the hill from his former longtime workplace, Etxebarri, is called Txispa—the Basque word for 'spark.' The easiest way to sum up the restaurant is to imagine what Japanese cooking could have looked like 300 years ago, but made in the Basque Country with ingredients that thrive there. But that description sounds more like a thought exercise than an unforgettable meal. And Txispa is certainly unforgettable. In fact, there's something ineffable about the whole thing, something that can't be explained with a formula. There's a spark, a flicker of magic that's alchemical rather than analytical. As the cover page of the keepsake menu explains, 'Txispa is not just a name; it is the Txispa that transforms.' The road leading to Txispa Courtesy of the restaurant It continues with more insight into Maeda's journey. 'My teacher used to say: 'Txispa is missing,' reminding us that every dish needs that essence that elevates it. This is why we cook with passion, at the foot of the majestic mountains, deeply connected to the land where each dish reflects our authentic connection and the beauty in the simple.' Along with the snowboards and the saddles, that journey to the culinary big leagues followed a similarly unconventional path. In 2011, he bought a ticket to Spain using money he'd earned as a pharmaceutical guinea pig; an acquaintance in Japan had told him about an internship opportunity at the Michelin-starred Alameda in Hondarribia. This was the height of San Sebastian's reign as the European city with the most Michelin stars per capita—an era of relentless invention, experimentation and cerebral modernist cuisine. Maeda loved the artistry but found himself transported on a day off, when he went for lunch in Axpe. Chef Bittor Arginzoniz's legendary Etxebarri is the antithesis of all that—a fire kitchen where the grill is the centerpiece and the ingredients are pristine, where the ideas are simple and elemental, where the experience is almost primal: protein meets flame. Our lizard brains awaken. Maeda's certainly did. Aged and seared golden-eye snapper with perfectly crisp skin and lettuce Courtesy of the restaurant He learned enough Spanish to hit up Arginzoniz for a volunteer position, waited a year for it to come through, and then spent a decade at Etxebarri, where he lived in a former shepherds' shelter and rode that borrowed horse to work, even as he gained recognition as the grill master's most skilled apprentice and eventually became second in command. 'Etxebarri was the grill, nothing more,' he remembers. 'I loved it.' Now he's traded his horse for a Tesla, built a proper home for his family, and taken center stage in a restaurant of his own—one where he could be fully Japanese, not just trying to be Basque. It's the grill and a little more. Txispa opened in 2023 about 500 yards up the hill from Etxebarri in a gorgeous old stone caserío, or rural house with land for vegetable gardens. Maeda was drawn in particular to this one, which dates from the 18th century, because of the two mature cherry trees on the grounds. (Their fruits show up in the desserts.) Along with renovating the house into a seven-table, open-plan dining room with the kitchen—and especially its fancy Josper Basque grills—on display in one corner, he also worked with an agronomic engineer to recover about 2.5 acres of vegetable gardens, where he's planted shiso and mizuna alongside the Basque peppers and potatoes. Txispa occupies an 18th-century stone farmhouse Courtesy of the resturant That shiso is a detail that reflects Maeda's distinctive vision. The chef is proudly Japanese, something that shines through from start to finish, even as he's taking his place in a much larger, global fire dining movement. 'Fusion cuisine' sometimes gets a bad rap—gimmicks like biryani pizza, or al pastor sushi rolls deserve it—but Txispa is a blending of gastronomic cultures. It's not just one traditional, recognizable thing. It's a Japanese chef cooking Japanese cuisine with Basque ingredients, and all with the perspective of a 21st-century restaurateur but the constraints of a very different era—one with no DHL or FedEx. It's fair to say it's elemental Basque cuisine refracted through a Japanese lens. Or to describe it as Japanese food made in the Basque Country. A recent group of international diners called it Spanish kaiseki, a description Maeda quite liked. And whatever it is, it's very good, earning Txispa a Michelin star and a spot on the World's 50 Best extended list less than two years after opening. Basque sushi with fermented red peppers and rice crackers Courtesy of the restaurant Lunch—and the restaurant is open only for lunch, as Maeda considers the view of the stunning Axpe valley an essential part of the experience—begins, as so much fine dining does these days, in the kitchen. In late spring, the first bites were from a small wooden box of garden-fresh teardrop pea pods, which diners opened with their hands and ate straight from their shells—an appreciation of seasonal purity that felt rigorously Japanese. From there, he presents what may be his most emblematic dish, a sliver of lightly seared tuna tataki with fermented tomato water, red pepper and onion, all on top of a thin rice cracker. The fermented vegetables bring the acid taste that would normally come from the vinegar in sushi rice, while the preparation is also part of the traditional Basque dish marmitako (tuna stew). He calls it Euskal sushi, using the native-language word for the region. The rest of the menu unfolds in about ten reasonable courses, all served to every table at once, with Maeda standing in the center of the dining room and explaining what's going on. After a while, guests are invited back into the kitchen to watch the main event: Maeda team raising, lowering and tilting the racks above the coals on the grill, carefully executing a choreography between the proteins of the Galician beef and the flames that transform it. Maeda at the grill Courtesy of the restaurant Along the way, the dishes appear to have a strong Japanese DNA: Prawns are presented with nukasuke (pickles). Eel is served kabayaki- style (butterflied and grilled in a sweet soy-sauce-based glaze). A dollop of caviar rests atop creamy tofu in a tiny hexagonal pot. Corn and beef tongue are paired with koji (a fermented product that's often based on soybeans). Many of the ceramics are imported from the chef's native Kanazawa. And here's where it gets interesting. Soybeans don't grow in the Basque Country. And while Maeda doesn't follow any kilometer zero dogma and allows himself to import some of the best of the best, like the unadorned, ember-cooked scarlet prawns from the Mediterranean, he's decided not to take the easy way out on the Japanese ingredients. (Remember his guiding image of a Japanese cook being plunked down in 18th-century Spain.) The team makes their versions of tofu, miso, soy sauce and other Japanese staples using chickpeas, various beans and other native crops. It's labor-intensive, but it's part of what provides the spark. 'The fresh things have to be fresh. Bringing in soy sauce doesn't make sense,' he says, emphasizing again the importance of Txispa's emotional terroir. 'A big theme is the happiness I have about living here.' MORE FROM FORBES Forbes This Maverick British Chef Is Rewriting The Rules Of Fine Dining By Ann Abel Forbes This Wildly Creative Restaurant Turns Campfire Cooking Into Fine Dining By Ann Abel Forbes How One Of Munich's Top Chefs Is Using Gastronomy As Cultural Diplomacy By Ann Abel
Time Out
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
The Spanish restaurant named second-best in the world in 2025
Time Out knows a thing or two about whipping up a list of the best cities in the world for food, but the best restaurants? That's World's 50 Best 's bag, and their ranking for 2025's most outstanding places to eat has just landed. The 50-strong roundup was unveiled at a ceremony in Turin last week, and you can have a look at the full, mouth-watering ranking here. And while a Lima restaurant might have taken the crown, almost half of the spots were claimed by European restaurants. The first of these, which claimed second place, was Asador Etxebarri, a stunning restaurant nestled in the lush Basque village of Atxondo. It's around a 30-minute drive from Bilbao and less than an hour from San Sebastian, but this restaurant is a destination in its own right. About Asador Etxebarri, World's 50 Best said: 'Food enthusiasts travel from all over the world to experience the culinary masterpieces created by chef Bittor Arguinzoniz. With the help of a little fire, he transforms simple ingredients like milk and beef into extraordinary and unforgettable dishes.' Three other Spanish restaurants, Diverxo in Madrid, Elkano in Getaria and Enigma in Barcelona, also made the top 50 roundup. Elsewhere in Europe, restaurants in Denmark, Italy, Portugal and the UK, among others, made the list. Read on for all the European entries, and have a look at the full top 50 roundup here. The 23 European restaurants that made it into the World's 50 Best list for 2025 Asador Etxebarri, Atxondo, Spain Diverxo, Madrid, Spain Alchemist, Copenhagen, Denmark Table by Bruno Verjus, Paris, France Plénitude, Paris, France Ikoyi, London, United Kingdom Lido 84, Gardone Riviera, Italy Reale, Castel di Sangro, Italy Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler, Brunico, Italy Elkano, Getaria, Spain Le Calandre, Rubano, Italy Piazza Duomo, Alba, Italy Steirereck, Vienna, Austria Enigma, Barcelona, Spain Frantzén, Stockholm, Sweden Septime, Paris, France Kadeau, Copenhagen, Denmark Belcanto, Lisbon, Portugal Uliassi, Senigallia, Italy Arpège, Paris, France Vyn, Skillinge, Sweden Kol, London, United Kingdom Jan, Munich, Germany Did you see that the best pizzerias in Europe have been crowned for 2025?
Time Out
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
3 Tokyo restaurants named in the World's 50 Best Restaurants 2025 list
Following Tokyo's strong showing in Asia's 50 Best Restaurants earlier this year, which included nine local entries, the highly anticipated World's 50 Best Restaurants 2025 list has just added several more notches to the city's culinary belt. This year's rankings were announced at a ceremony in Turin, Italy on June 19 and include three restaurants in Tokyo and one in Osaka. Taking the top spot this year is Maido in Lima, Peru. It's run by Lima-born chef Mitsuharu 'Micha' Tsumura, known for his innovative take on Nikkei cuisine which blends the ingredients of his home city with the culinary techniques of Japan, where he has his roots. Maido was followed by Asador Etxebarri in Atxondo, Spain, Mexico City's Quintonil, Madrid's Diverxo and Alchemist in Copenhagen. Tokyo's highest ranking restaurant is Sézanne, which took the seventh spot, just behind Bangkok's Gaggan. Helmed by British chef Daniel Calvert, Sézanne continues to impress with its meticulous technique-driven cuisine highlighting seasonal ingredients sourced from across Japan. Elsewhere on this year's list, Tokyo's Narisawa re-entered the list in 21st place while Osaka's La Cime came in at 44. Florilège, which has relocated to Azabudai Hills, also secured a spot on the list, coming in at 36. Check out the full list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants 2025.
Euronews
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
The World's 50 Best Restaurants 2025: Who takes the top spot - and how does Europe fare?
The World's 50 Best Restaurants has announced this year's recipients of 'The World's Best Restaurant' - one of the world's most prestigious food awards. The awards ceremony took place last night in Turin, Italy, where the crowd gathered to celebrate the top restaurants and chefs for 2025. A panel of more than 1,000 experts, split into 27 regions around the world, came together to decide on the final ranking. So, what is the World's Best Restaurant this year? The accolade went to Maido in Lima, Peru – which was placed at number 5 in the 2024 awards and now unseats last year's winner, Disfrutar in Barcelona, Spain, to the top spot. Maido's Lima-born chef Mitsuharu Tsumura cooks a fusion of Latin American and Japanese flavours, and said: 'We talk a lot about sustainability of the environment, but we rarely talk about human sustainability. I think this industry can be an example of how we can bring people together with the power of food.' Every year, the panel awards special prizes to chefs, front-of-house staff, and activists who are leading the charge in hospitality in 2025. This year's special awards went to the Best Female Chef, Pichaya 'Pam' Soontornyanakij of Potong, Bangkok and Mindy Woods in Byron Bay, winner of the Champions of Change 2025 award. The World's Best Pastry Chef award went to Parisian chef Maxime Frederic, while the Estrella Damm Chefs' Choice Award went to Alberta Adrià, head chef of Enigma in Barcelona. The highest-ranking restaurants on each continent were given a special mention. Maido, as the best restaurant in the world, takes care of South America. Incidentally, Peru was well represented in the Top 50 list, as three other Lima-based establishments joined Maido: Kjolle (9); Mérito (26); Mayta (39). Tresind Studio in Dubai (ranked number 27 in this year's awards) was named the best restaurant in the Middle East. The best restaurant in Asia is Gaggan in Bangkok, at number 6, while the best restaurant in North America is Quintonil in Mexico City (number 3). The best restaurant in Europe is Asador Etxebarri in Spain (number 2 this year and last year). Spain also has DiverXO in Madrid in the global Top 5, retaining its number 4 spot. Elsewhere in the Top 20, Denmark's Alchemist (Copenhagen) ranks number 5 and climbs three spots compared to last year; France's Paris-based Table by Bruno Verjus drops to number 8 from its number 3 ranking in 2024, and Plénitude (also in Paris) has the 14th spot this year, up four compared to last year; and the UK's Ikoyi, which was ranked 42nd in 2024, jumps up to number 15. Italy is the European country with the most restaurants in 2025's Top 20 list, with Lido 84 in Lake Garda, Reale in Castel di Sangro and Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler in Brunico all ranking 16th, 18th and 20th respectively. Here is the full Top 50 restaurant list (European entries in bold): 1. Maido, Lima, Peru 2. Asador Etxebarri, Atxondo, Spain 3. Quintonil, Mexico City, Mexico 4. DiverXO, Madrid, Spain 5. Alchemist, Copenhagen, Denmark 6. Gaggan, Bangkok, Thailand 7. Sezanne, Tokyo, Japan 8. Table by Bruno Verjus, Paris, France 9. Kjolle, Lima, Peru 10. Don Julio, Buenos Aires, Argentina 11. Wing, Hong Kong 12. Atomix, New York, USA 13. Potong, Bangkok, Thailand 14. Plénitude, Paris, France 15. Ikoyi, London, UK 16. Lido 84, Lake Garda Italy 17. Sorn, Bangkok, Thailand 18. Reale, Castel di Sangro, Italy 19. The Chairman, Hong Kong 20. Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler, Brunico, Italy 21. Narisawa, Tokyo, Japan 22. Serene, Bangkok, Thailand 23. Boragó, Santiago, Chile 24. Elkano, Getaria, Spain 25. Odette, Singapore 26. Mérito, Lima, Peru 27. Tresind Studio, Dubai, UAE 28. Lasai, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 29. Mingles, Seoul, South Korea 30. Le Du, Bangkok, Thailand 31. Le Calandre, Rubano, Italy 32. Piazza Duomo, Alba, Italy 33. Steirereck, Vienna, Austria 34. Enigma, Barcelona, Spain 35. Nusara, Bangkok, Thailand 36. Florilège, Tokyo, Japan 37. Orfali Bros, Dubai, UAE 38. Frantzen, Stockholm, Sweden 39. Mayta, Lima, Peru 40. Septime, Paris, France 41. Kadeau, Copenhagen, Denmark 42. Belcanto, Lisbon, Portugal 43. Uliassi, Senigallia, Italy 44. La Cime, Osaka, Japan 45. Arpege, Paris, France 46. Rosetta, Mexico City, Mexico 47. Vyn, Skillinge, Sweden 48. Celele, Cartagena, Colombia 49. Kol, London, UK 50. Restaurant Jan, Munich, Germany
