๐ฒ๐ฝ Mexico ยท Mexican cuisine ยท b. 1976
The chef who put modern Mexican cuisine on the global fine-dining map.
Enrique Olvera is the most internationally celebrated Mexican chef of his generation. Trained at the Culinary Institute of America in New York, he returned to Mexico City in 2000 and opened Pujol, which has been continuously ranked among the world's top 50 restaurants since 2011 and reached as high as #5 globally.
Pujol's tasting menu is built around indigenous Mexican ingredients โ heirloom corn, chiles, cacao, ant eggs (escamoles), insects โ treated with the rigour and patience of fine dining. Olvera's most famous dish, the 'Mole Madre,' is a mole that has been continuously aged and re-fed for over 2,500 days, served alongside a fresh mole as a meditation on time, tradition and refinement.
He also runs Cosme and Atla in New York, which were instrumental in the 2010s American reappraisal of Mexican cooking from 'cheap weeknight food' to a cuisine deserving of serious attention.
Modern Mexican cuisine through indigenous ingredients. Olvera argues that Mexico's culinary heritage โ corn, chiles, cacao, native herbs, fermentation traditions โ is one of the world's great cuisines, equal in depth to French or Japanese, and deserves to be presented as such. His menus reject the 'taco-and-margarita' stereotype.
Two Michelin stars (Mexico Guide debut, 2024); World's 50 Best Restaurants regular.
Modern Mexican restaurant in Flatiron; cult-favourite duck carnitas.
Casual all-day Mexican restaurant in NoHo.
Original recipes we created as homages to Enrique's cooking style and signature dishes. Not direct reproductions of any copyrighted material โ these are our interpretations of the traditionsEnrique has worked with throughout their career.
These recipes from our database reflect the mexican cooking tradition that Enrique works in. They are not direct reproductions of Enrique's copyrighted recipes, but traditional dishes inspired by the same culinary heritage.
Graduates from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.
Opens Pujol in Mexico City at age 24.
Pujol enters the World's 50 Best Restaurants list for the first time.
Begins continuously simmering the 'Mole Madre' that becomes Pujol's signature dish.
Opens Cosme in New York with chef Daniela Soto-Innes.
Pujol reaches #20 on World's 50 Best โ its highest ranking to date.
Awarded two Michelin stars in the inaugural Michelin Guide Mexico.
Mole Madre is Enrique Olvera's signature dish at Pujol โ a mole sauce that has been continuously simmered and re-fed daily for over 2,500 days. It is served as a circle of aged mole around a circle of newly made mole, eaten with tortillas, as a meditation on time and tradition in Mexican cooking.
Pujol, opened by Olvera in 2000, was the first Mexican restaurant to consistently appear in the top 10 of the World's 50 Best Restaurants. It was widely credited with shifting global perception of Mexican cuisine from 'cheap weeknight food' to a serious fine-dining tradition.
Olvera trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, then worked in US restaurants before returning to Mexico to open Pujol. His cooking combines classical fine-dining technique with deep research into Mexico's indigenous food traditions.
Beyond Pujol in Mexico City, Olvera runs Cosme and Atla in New York, Damian and Ditroit in Los Angeles, and Eno (a casual all-day concept) in Mexico City. The New York openings are widely credited with reshaping how American diners view Mexican fine dining.
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