Jorge Vallejo is one of Mexico’s most recognized young chefs on the culinary scene, at home and abroad, whose sold, ever-upward career path has been an unstinting labor of love and enthusiasm.
After discovering his culinary bent as a teenager, Vallejo entered the Centro Culinario de México to study Culinary Administration and Arts. A restless spirit led him to set sail with Princess Cruises in 2004, where he worked on voyages to all corners of the globe. Once back on land, he joined the team at Pujol and was later Corporate Chef at Grupo Habita, where he oversaw kitchens at the Condesadf, Habita and Distrito Capital hotels. He became Executive Chef at the St. Regis hotel’s Restaurante Diana, in 2010, before traveling to Copenhagen for a season at Noma.
2012 was a critical year. Alongside his wife Alejandra Flores, Vallejo opened Quintonil, his “life project”; the couple’s hard work and dedication earned them almost-immediate acclaim and the restaurant was a 2012 Travel+Leisure México Gourmet Awards nominee in the “Best New Restaurant” category.
That same year—in collaboration with Chefs Mauro Colagreco (from France’s Mirazur) and Virgilio Martínez (from Central, in Peru)—Vallejo started the Orígenes initiative, designed to rescue and preserve culinary products, techniques and customs in small Latin American communities.
British-based Restaurant magazine ranked Quintonil 35th in its 2015 “50 Best World’s Restaurants” listing and it jumped to twelfth place in 2016—to date, the highest position a Mexican restaurant has occupied.
