An Enchanted Mexican Evening at El Encanto

The dish before me is called Arte, topped with a 2×4-inch piece of edible paper printed with a colorful abstract by noted Mexican artist Olga Hernandez. Her work on Saatchi Art goes for tens of thousands of dollars, and I’m going to consume it. Beneath it lies a base of jocoque (think Mexican labneh, made from goat’s milk) and a fine dice of jacube (cactus), watermelon, pecans, and beans. 

On the taste buds, it all adds up to, well, art — sweet, salty, savory, silky, surprising. This is just course number two of six at an edition of El Encanto’s Culinary Series, bringing renowned chefs in for special evenings. On October 11, that meant a visit from Rodrigo Rivera-Río of Koli. The dinner saved us a trip to Monterrey, Mexico, but delivered all the glory of his Michelin-starred restaurant. What’s clear: Rebel Hotel Company, the new management since the sale of the resort from Belmond, is doing their best to uphold the storied thoughts we have of a property as well-heeled as El Encanto. It doesn’t hurt that while dining on the veranda you get to watch owls sweep into the nearby trees as the night’s entertainment.

Rivera-Río was offering a variation of Koli’s current tasting menu, Pragmático. Each plate had its story to tell, and the hope was, if Google Translate can be trusted: “to create an exceptional organoleptic experience.” That is, taste doesn’t just hit you via the tongue, but via all your organs. For instance, you were instructed to eat course one, Mar y Tierra, with your fingers, little bites, one a ball of atropellado — dried beef particular to Monterrey — given a bit of a roll in ash (Koli likes ash) with a dollop of caviar atop. Think deep and delicious. The other, a tuna infladita — sashimi-grade fish mixed with some creamy goat cheese, wrapped in just enough of a tortilla-like crust, and fried to crunchiness. Clichéd surf and turf got a kick in the you-know-what with these balls.

Each plate brought more wonder without becoming too precious or weird for novelty’s sake. The fish course, dubbed Naturaleza, starred Santa Barbara sea bass, skin crackly crisp in a small pool of coconut cream, gloriously opalescent, and doused with a green sauce the server called a mole, but was much lighter on its feet than most, vivid with cilantro and hoja santa (a complexly flavored Mexican herb bringing notes of everything from anise to pepper to eucalyptus). A brunoise of cucumber popped as much as caviar eggs might.

In addition to the culinary delights, the evening also offered an optional wine pairing curated by Wero Cham of Vinos Boutique. Cham’s pours — all from Mexican producers, naturally — heightened chef Rivera-Río’s flavors thrillingly, right down to the final wine, a 2018 Casa Vegil Fuji Brut from Querétaro that could pass for Champagne. Its yeasty bubbles brightened one’s palate for the delightful Leche de Cabra dessert — a goat-milk yogurt quenelle atop a teensy pavlova/meringue cookie, sprinkled with flower buds and astride three different sauces.

While this amazing dinner was a one-of-a-kind, the next El Encanto Culinary Series event will feature Chefs David Castro Hussong and Maribel Aldaco Silva of Fauna, on Saturday, December 13. Their spot in Valle de Guadalupe has been recognized as one of the best restaurants in Latin America in World’s 50 Best list. See elencanto.com.