When fine dining is not just creative, but comfortable…

…we met chef Jose Luis Hinostroza in Tulum and had a really inspiring and unique experience at his jungle restaurant ARCA. Same as Wood Fellas, he gets inspired by our beautiful nature and this is why at ARCA they “are, especially, focused on pre-colonial Mesoamerican cuisine, techniques, and ingredients” in a jungle atmosphere. Jose Luis weaves “native seeds, grains, nuts, flora, and fauna” into his cooking. He also works with underground cooking pits known in the local Mayan culture as pibs. Meals will center around proteins and vegetables roasted nearly 2 feet below ground for up to 6 hours.
Jose Luis used to work before at Spain’s El Celler de Can Roca, and Chicago’s Alinea — both three-Michelin-star restaurants on S.Pellegrino’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

In regards to his culinary influences he shared the following...

…I don’t think somebody will be able to come here and notice that our kitchen is Mexican, but we use 100% local ingredients, only from this part of Mexico. We focus on using just what we have around us, in order to become more creative. We believe that only by substracting and by putting a limitation on what we can use, we believe that through that process we will become more creative.

So summing up he said that...

…at the end of the day beside of what we’ve created, beside that we’re fusional, our taste is something we’re focused on. We want to focus on people that really don’t experience or don’t come to eat at restaurants so often, but when they do and they choose to come to ARCA, that they get completely blown away and that kepts changing their mentality of fine dining in their minds.

Zusammenfassend sagte er noch,

… dass am Ende des Tages, mal abgesehen davon was wir geschaffen haben und ebenso, dass wir fusionale Küche sind, ist vor allem aber auch unser Geschmack essenziell. Wir wollen uns auf Menschen konzentrieren, die nicht so oft in Restaurants essen oder grundsätzlich eher nicht essen gehen, aber wenn sie es dann doch tun und sich hierbei für ARCA entscheiden, sie völlig umzuhauen und das Bild von der gehobenen Küche in ihren Köpfen zu revolutionieren.