DINING IMPOSSIBLE 23 – MÉXICO CITY
The globetrotting dinner party enters the mouth-watering metropolis of Mexico.
Dining Impossible has been jetting off to different parts of the world, feasting at the greatest restaurants that San Sebastián, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Piedmont, Lima, Hong Kong, Chicago and New York City have to offer.
This year, Dining Impossible take us to Mexico City for the first time, which means you’re invited to join us in a region of the world that our fun-loving feast yet only have scratched the surface of through various culinary projects.
We enter the dazzling culinary capitol of cool in the beginning of May, offering an otherworldly all-round, in-depth gastronomic experience to pleasure aficionados flying in from around the globe.
3 days – 3 of Latin America’s best restaurants – 1 great dinner party.
Thursday, May 4th – Friday, May 5th – Saturday, May 6th
12 notabilities only.
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THE MENU
Thursday, May 4th
Chapter 1 – Quintonil
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Deep in the city’s most interesting gastronomic neighbourhood, one can find Quintonil —which culinary offering asserts modern Mexican cooking’s true flavors and forms.
At the helm, diners find Jorge Vallejo – a younger Mexican chef with a series of career highlights and recognitions behind him – alongside Alejandra Flores – a long-time restaurant 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 guest, 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. The couple manage to create a unique enviroment for lovers of Mexican flavours and elegant surroundings.
The Quintonil menu is designed to strike a balance between each recipe’s nutritional value and avor harmonies. Quintonil’s is an expressive kitchen whose objective is a healthy experience that celebrates and transmits avor via a deep respect for each ingredient.
As top star dishes you can find, amongst other: ‘Sardines in green sauce with purslane, fennel and guacamole’ or a incredibly colourful dessert of ‘Mamey pannacotta, sweetened corn crumble and mamey seed ice cream’.
The bright, open space where Jorge and his wife greet and host guests is surrounded by walls coveredin a stunning leaves cascade that induces calm and peace.
Quintonil held until April 6th a ranking of #12 on The Worlds 50 Best Restaurants, now listed as #22.
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Flip the Coin – Taco Raid
Not all can be fine dining, but when it’s not, it still has to be sublime.
We’re suckers for a good taco; a handmade blue-corn tortilla filled with spit-roasted pork, caramelized onions, Queso Fresco and salsa verde. It’s the stuff dreams are made of, and in order to get an al-round good chunk of the city’s culinary DNA we hit the late night streets for a range of the best tacos in DF.
Chamorro, Carnitas, Pulpo, Pibil, Pastor – we shall have them all.
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Friday, May 5th
Chapter 2 – Biko
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A Catalan and a Basque chefs meet in México to impress the guests of one of the most coveted restaurants of the city.
A meeting of minds and cultures, that is what Biko is. Basque chefs Mikel Alonso and Bruno Oteiza, skilfully blend flavours from their homeland with Mexican ingredients. The cutting-edge technique of fellow Spanish chef Gerard Bellver, influenced by his time at El Bulli, adds another layer of complexity to the restaurant’s highly original formula.
The menu is split into two with traditional Spanish plates of bacalao and jamon contrasting with a list of highly inventive fusion dishes. Think foie gras candy floss or prawns accompanied by a powder made from their heads.
The Spanish trio create a techno-emotional cuisine, as it has often been described, where technique and surpise are key ingredients in every dish.
Fish and vegetables are abundant in the menu, where they combine Mexican and Basque traditions: ceviche, gazpacho, squid in various forms. They even manage to transform one of the most classic and weary desserts – strawberries and cream – into a light dish leaving you with the best possible feeling.
Until April 6th Biko held a ranking of #43 on The Worlds 50 Best Restaurants, now listed as #65.
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Saturday, May 6th
Chapter 3 – Pujol
Using everything from chicatana flying ants to octopus and suckling pig, Enrique Olvera, chef and owner at Pujol, brings out all the wonderful flavours of Mexico in fresh and sophisticated ways. He has managed to bring tradition to one of the highest tables in México, aplying his own unique treatment.
Enrique recently changed loctaion of the restaurant, moving it 11 blocks away from the old Pujol. As he recently said in an interview, he wanted to change scenery and give the opportunity for more guests to dine at his restaurant.
Transform the ambience of high-dining, very exclusive and only-special-ocasion restaurant that was Pujol, into a more fun and approachable place like Cosme, his very popular NYC enterprise that just entered The World’s Best Restaurant List for the first time as an impressive #40.
The tasting menu at Pujol is not the usual fixed-course type.
Highlights include the barbacoa lamb taco, which oozes juicy barbecued flavour, and the egg ‘infladita’ with grasshopper sauce. The signature Happy Ending dessert is a spiral of churros with chocolate dipping sauce and a selection of small sweet treats.
But if what you want is to sample the absolute king of dishes at Pujol, the Mole Madre is not to be missed, Mole Nuevo: a plate with a perfect circle of fresh mole sauce encased in an outer layer of mole that has been aged for – at latest count – almost 1,000 days. The contrasting flavours of the two moles make for a fascinating delve into the magic of Mexican cuisine.
Olvera does not forget about drinks, he celebrates all things Mexican and the liquid part of the menu is no different: there’s an extensive range of mescal and agave spirits as well as local and international wines, and non-alcoholic options also include the refreshing aguas frescas with mint and cucumber.
Until April 6th Pujol held a ranking of #25 on The Worlds 50 Best Restaurants, now listed as #20.
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OYSTERS PARTY
Before dinner at Pujol we throw a fabulous Saturday lunch oysters/shellfish party at La Docena.
High, low, skinny, fat, chic chicks, lovers, families, inside, outside – all having a party from 1.30pm at this one-year old buzzing corner restaurant in the heart of the artsy and bohemian Roma-quarter.
Drinks clinking, music playing, cigaretes smoked on the sidewalk – fiesta from midday to late night. Imagine a laidback but upbeat version of Balthazar in New York City, but in Mexico City and way more fun.
Fun-loving owners of La Docena, Tomás Bermudez & Alejandro de la Peña.
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DETAILS
Dining Impossible 23 – México City is the full experience.
Besides the extraordinaire dinners, it also includes receptions, oyster lunch party, street taco raid, selected transports and after parties at exclusive spots with a range of drinks, beverages and canapés.
All dinners include full wine/beer/cocktail menus predetermined with the respectful sommeliers, as well as mineral water, various taxes and gratuity.
As always the guest list remains a secret to the public and will only be shared in detail amongst the participants. Menus and wines will be served découverte, meaning presented and discovered on the night of the dinner parties as a part of the full-blown Mexican storytelling.
Price per cover is confidential. In case of interest please contact Kristian Brask Thomsen for further information at:
Thank you.
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“Billed by Forbes Magazine as “the ultimate dinner party” and by Huffington Post as “the world’s most coveted dinner tickets”; Dining Impossible is a three-day gastronomic bender organized by culinary ambassador Kristian Brask Thomsen.”
– Sydney Morning Herald.
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Hungry for more? Read this recent grand feature by VICE Magazine.
