At Quintonil, one of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, Jorge Vallejo aims to reflect Mexico through its products, offering deeply personal interpretations of the culinary traditions that ground him. His seasonally driven cuisine makes ample use of local vegetables, fruits, and other plant-based flavors that have turned Quintonil into a destination restaurant for diners from around the globe.

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.

Huauzontles with Chiapas Cuadro Cheese, Quinoa and Tomato Sofrito Ragout

60 minutes cook/prep

Tomato sofrito
1.5kg Guaje tomatoes (peeled and poached)
225g white onion
1/2 habanero chilli pepper
200g chiapas cuadro cheese
30g vegetable oil

Huauzontle Clouds
2 egg whites
2g baking powder
1g salt
10g Huauzontle grains, stripped of leaves and stems
2g flour
500g vegetable oil for frying

Black quinoa
80g cooked black quinoa

Huauzontles with Chiapas Cuadro Cheese, Quinoa and Tomato Sofrito Ragout

Tomato Sofrito
1) Heat the oil to the smoking point, and sauté the habanero pepper. 2) Process the tomato and onion in a blender; add a cooking mold with the oil and the habanero pepper. 3) Cook until the salsa loses its acidity and changes color. 4) Remove from heat, remove the chili pepper and add crumbled cuadro cheese; process in a Vitamix until the salsa takes on a creamy consistency. 5) Pass through a fine-mesh sieve and keep refrigerated.: Huauzontle Clouds
1) Beat the egg whites as well as the salt and baking powder with a whisk. 2) Coat the huauzontle grains in flour and fold them into beaten egg whites. Use a spoon to carve out “clouds” and fry them in the oil at 160 degrees celsius. 3) Spread over an absorbent-paper-lined baking sheet and dry in the oven at 100 degrees celsius for 15 minutes, at 0% humidity.: Black quinoa
1) Cook quinoa in boiling water for 15 minutes. Season with salt and olive oil. 50 g quinoa to 175 g water suggested: Assemble
1) Spread a pool (80g) of tomato sofrito onto 8 plates. 2) Add blanched huauzontle seeds. 3) Add the quinoa and sprinkle with cuadro cheese (160g). 4) Place huauzontle clouds (6 per plate) in between the green seeds and the quinoa.