On a recent sun-soaked afternoon, two of the world’s most lauded chefs — Dominique Crenn of Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Atelier Crenn in San Francisco and Daniela Soto-Innes of Rubra in Punta Mita, Mexico — hosted a small group of guests aboard a 112-foot luxury yacht as it sailed from Montage Los Cabos to the Cabo Arch. The chefs whipped up fresh ceviche for the passengers, as Ruinart and Whispering Angel flowed, a DJ spun music and some snorkeled.
The event was part of Arte Culinaria, the Five-Star hotel’s inaugural festival celebrating Mexican culture through gastronomy. The festival, held May 22 to 24, was designed to be intimate, giving guests close contact with an impressive lineup of local and international chefs, mixologists and winemakers. (Full disclosure: Forbes Travel Guide was a partner.)
“We live in a world where people want experiences,” said Crenn, who masterminded the festival with the Montage team. “Intimacy is very important nowadays because I think we have lost the idea of coming together.”
Arte Culinaria kicked off on a grand lawn overlooking picturesque Santa Maria Bay with a “Welcome to Baja” walk-around dinner featuring stations showcasing Baja California Sur fare. The stars were S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy honorees Erick Bautista (of Merida’s NOL), who made octopus skewers with kosho pixtle (an aromatic paste), and Cristina Hanhausen (of Mexico City’s Momiji), who prepared kampachi crudo with passion fruit.
Other bites included Ensenada-style tacos with tender lobster chunks; fresh local oysters from a roving shucker; and Mexican-made cheeses with accompaniments like xoconostle (a sour cactus fruit) and mango chili jams. For dessert, guests enjoyed warm churros; “el coco loco,” a chilled coconut mousse that resembled a slice of the fruit; and takeaway Mexican candies like gomitas tamarindo Tajín (sweet-tart tamarind gummies) and cocadas (chewy bars of shaved coconut, akin to macaroons). Mexico City bar Baltra mixed drinks, like the fruity Permanecer Aqui (Mezcal Creyente, Cocchi Rosa, Campari, basil and strawberry).
While the opening night event served as the festival’s appetizer, “four-hands” meals, where chefs paired up to create menus, were the main course.
“It’s beautiful when you can share a kitchen with someone,” said Manu Buffara, chef-owner of Restaurant Manu in Curitiba, Brazil, and the just-opened Elemento Atlantico in Comporta, Portugal.
Buffara shared a kitchen with Richard Lee of San Francisco’s Saison to create a seasonal lunch that highlighted her comforting “rice not rice” dish — pasta cut to look like rice, swimming in a flavorful sauce and topped with crab salad — and Lee’s black cod with a thick, smoky tomato and saffron sauce that could be jarred and sold on its own.
“It’s cool to see people from two different sides of the hemisphere come together in the middle, take these ingredients, apply their techniques…and express themselves,” Lee said.
Soto-Innes, formerly of New York’s Cosme, collaborated with Jorge Vallejo of Mexico City’s Quintonil, to showcase modern Mexican haute cuisine and hospitality.
“Mexican hospitality is about feeling the love,” Soto-Innes said. “We are apapacho — a big hug.” She pointed to sobremesa, the Mexican tradition of lingering at the table long after a meal to talk, laugh and connect with others. “We like people to feel very loved and taken care of,” she said.
The plates, like Soto-Innes’ fresh scallop slices with cactus paddle and a bright lemon verbena aguachile, were enough to make guests linger. Her co-chef, Vallejo, brought an adventurous edge to the table. Known for dishes featuring escamoles, or ant larvae —served here as a delicious starter with a nutty taste and bulgur-like texture — Vallejo also proved he can take a simple salad and make it bold. Showing us a photo of Mexico City’s Chapultepec Park on his phone, he explained how the leafy trees encircling a lake inspired his delightfully spicy greens — arugula, mustard and mizuna arranged like a wreath. Edible purple flowers stood in for the park’s jacarandas, with a lake of sikil pak (pumpkin seed sauce) in the center.
Famed Mexico City bar Handshake Speakeasy also gave another reason to hang around after dinner: a smooth Matcha Yuzu cocktail with Bushmills whiskey, matcha tea, vanilla and yuzu.
For a French-influenced four-hands lunch, Crenn partnered with chef Julien Royer of Singapore’s Odette. Crenn used callo de hacha, sweet scallops from the Sea of Cortez, paired with fermented carrots and a zingy ginger and local citrus sauce. Royer’s melt-in-your-mouth langoustine dumpling — one of his signature dishes, it’s served in a pool of leek fondue and crowned with shiso — was one of the festival’s most memorable bites. “We try to do our best to bring a little bit of beauty in the world through food and cuisine,” Royer said.
The food-filled weekend offered other culinary diversions. Royer hosted a decadent Kaviari caviar-filled breakfast with Krug champagne in one of the hotel’s villas. Handshake Speakeasy, Licorería Limantour and Baltra took over the hotel’s Mezcal’s bar one evening. And winemaker Jesse Katz of Sonoma, California’s Aperture Cellars led a tasting of his coveted Collage bottles and Montage Estate, a new private wine collection featured at all Montage and Pendry properties using grapes grown at Montage Healdsburg. “You got a tasting of my favorite wines from my career,” Katz told attendees.
Other tastings at the festival spotlighted Dom Pérignon, limited-edition tequilas and pairings of Château d’Yquem and blue cheese.
Montage Los Cabos also enlisted Phoenix-based Mexican artist Gennaro Garcia to create a live painting unveiled at the final dinner. Garcia also led a class on the hotel’s main lawn, where guests painted while sipping Situ mezcals.
The final dinner, Ember & Sea, was another walkaround affair, this time along the beach. An asado-style grill with meats, pineapple and vegetables hanging over a fire previewed the night’s menu. Royer’s stall turned out juicy wagyu with kohlrabi, and Crenn grilled an addictive fennel kraut-topped shrimp hot dog that was so good that you forget that it’s meatless (the link still had a great snap). And another stall served Cabo’s prized chocolate clams, a local species named for its brown shell.
Pioneering Mexico City bar Licorería Limantour kept the festivities going with cocktails like the refreshing margarita al pastor, made with Tequila Reserva de la Familia Plata, Cointreau, a pineapple-forward “taco mix” and lime.
The festival’s final evening closed at the Five-Star spa, whose tranquil pool deck transformed into the official afterparty, complete with a DJ. A hot chocolate bar with flavors like dulce de leche and raspberry lent a cozy feel, while the dessert station had a carnival theme with sweets presented on mini Ferris wheels and cones of cotton candy.
If all goes according to plan, the festival will return next year. Marco Ortlam, managing director of Montage Los Cabos, said, “I hope this is going to be the beginning of a wonderful tradition…the beginning of something very special for years to come.”
Crenn said that the festival can help reveal the remarkable depth of Baja California Sur’s culinary landscape. “There is a richness here that people need to discover.”
