Alonso Ruvalcaba Critic, Letras Libres magazine

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1 Quintonil opened in March and it is one of the truly exciting things that happened to Mexico City in Alonso Ruvalcaba Critic, Letras Libres magazine T

2 quintonil Located in Mexico City s Polanco district where the city s most interesting gastronomic proposals seem to congregate Quintonil s culinary offering asserts modern Mexican cooking s true flavors and forms. At the helm, diners find Jorge Vallejo a young Mexican chef with a series of career highlights and recognitions behind him alongside Alejandra Flores a long-time restaurants-industry veteran. Besides its contemporary take on Mexican cooking, Quintonil also advocates using products from Mexico s small agricultural producers to create cuisine that fashions a new perspective on home-style tastes. Come in a customer, leave a friend is the philosophy that encapsulates the restaurant s ultimate goal. Yet Quintonil would not have taken such a distinguished place in Mexico City s restaurant scene so quickly were it not for Jorge and Alejandra s one-of-a-kind collaboration.

3 Jorge Vallejo b. Mexico City, 1981 In recent years, Chef Jorge Vallejo s professional star has risen rapidly, and his name has been popping up ever more frequently in specialty media. Vallejo trained in Culinary Arts and Administration at the Centro Culinario de México, A.C. Ambrosía, and then went on to professional practica with Chef Santi Santamaría at Madrid s Santceloni (a Michelin two-star venue). Vallejo joined Princess Cruises in November 2004, where he worked as seafood chef de partie, main dining room galley chief, chef de partie for roasts, and soup-station chef de partie aboard the Coral Princess, Crown Princess and Star Princess as they sailed the Caribbean, the Atlantic and the Baltic as well as on passages to Alaska, South America and the Antarctic. Upon his return to Mexico in 2007, he joined the restaurant team at Pujol as the head of the Enrique Olvera catering division. In October of the same year, he was promoted to Executive Chef at Mexico City s renowned Hotel Condesa df, where he devised menus, oversaw cost-control for the hotel s various food and beverage outlets, and also supervised food-quality-related matters. He was named Grupo Habita Corporate Chef in July 2009 and managed restaurants at the Condesa df, Habita and Distrito Capital Hotels. The following year, in May 2010, Vallejo returned to Grupo Enrique Olvera to take charge of Taller Enrique Olvera, Catering Enrique Olvera and the ENO gourmet shop, as well as oversight of certain Grupo Habita hotels and as a direct support to Chef Enrique Olvera for new-project assessment. September 2010 brought an invitation to take on Executive Chef duties at the Hotel St. Regis Mexico City, where he directed Restaurante Diana until October 2011 as well as the King Cole Bar, Terraza and the hotel s private dining and banquets service. His work at Diana received rave reviews in a multitude of publications in Mexico and abroad, such as Gula, Chilango, El Universal and Luxury Travel Magazine, among others. After a brief stint in Copenhagen, at René Redzepi s Noma (voted the world s best restaurant in 2011 and 2012), Vallejo took a new path in 2012 alongside his wife, Alejandra Flores: Mexico City s Quintonil.

4 Alejandra Flores received a degree in Restaurant Management at the Centro de Estudios Superiores de San Ángel. After graduation, she went to Les Roches, Switzerland to undertake an MA in hospitality-focused Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing. She joined the Pujol team in December 2006, where she worked as Grupo Enrique Olvera Operations Director, charged with restaurant operations oversight, the Enrique Olvera catering service and Taller Enrique Olvera (TEO) workshop organization; she also provided operations support for the ENO Virreyes and ENO Polanco gourmet shop launches. In 2009 she assumed the title of Commercial Director, in charge of group businesses new-projects development as well as TEO workshop organization, planning and development, along with Pujol, TEO, Catering and Pujol private dining room events. In tandem with her husband Jorge Vallejo, Flores left Pujol in September 2010 to open Quintonil in Mexico City s Polanco district. She oversees the dining room, where she personally attends to guests, creating a warm environment that rounds out the experience that starts in the kitchen: a space that re-values everyday cooking, in an inviting and homey atmosphere. Alejandra Flores b. Mexico City, 1982

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6 Quintonil centers around the study and expression of Mexico s traditional herb varieties, manifest in the restaurant s signature salsas, dishes and presentations. Meat features on the menu, but ours is a time that stresses the value of fruits and vegetables as a source of health, wellbeing and extraordinary flavor.

7 Ingredients Each ingredient that Quintonil serves and prepares is rigorously selected with an active awareness of its origins and the way it was grown and procured, in order to meet strict quality standards as well as standards related to sustainability and responsibility with regard to local communities, producers and suppliers.

8 MenU The Quintonil menu is designed to strike a balance between each recipe s nutritional value and flavor harmonies. Quintonil s is an expressive kitchen whose objective is a healthy experience that celebrates and transmits flavor via a deep respect for each ingredient.

9 FRESH AND TOASTED MEXI- CAN QUELITE LEAVES In a quelite-stem emulsion with comal-griddled tomatoes and cotija cheese. Quelite Quelites are edible greens that have always featured in the diets of the cultures that developed in pre-hispanic Mexico. They are a simple ingredient, produced throughout nearly the entire nation, and their nutritional value exceeds that of almost all other kinds of produce.

10 HUAUZONTLE HERB With Chiapas cuadro cheese and tomato sauté.

11 TURKEY With salsifí dressing and black radishes pickled escabeche-style

12 PRESS MENTIONS APICIUS 2013 LA REVISTA 2012 Quintonil serves up important culinary roots to develop a gastronomic offering based on Mexico s ever-more appreciated homegrown ingredients. Not even three months had passed before expert critics had chosen two of their dishes as among Mexico City s ten best. FOOD AND TRAVEL 2012 CHILANGO 2012 The menu responds more to seasonal offerings than to what a recipe requires. The dishes evince an obvious sensitivity to diners wellbeing. For an even more complete experience we recommend the comida corrida: a tasting menu featuring the restaurant s very best dishes.

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