SAN FRANCISCO (AP) 鈥� After an eight-year wait, the historic third that chef and co-owner Val Cant煤 and his team at San Francisco’s craved is theirs. It’s a first for any Mexican restaurant worldwide. So it’s understandable he and his 40-person staff have more swagger.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been just really rewarding to see the team kind of like, carry a little bit more confidence in their step,鈥� Cant煤 told The Associated Press. 鈥淢aybe I鈥檝e got some new confidence too.鈥�
The feat caps a trajectory that began with Cantu getting his first star right out of the gate when Californios opened in 2015. He got a second one in 2018. At a June ceremony in San Diego, Cant煤, with his wife Carolyn by his side, received his third star and a crisp white Michelin chef’s jacket.
The accolade feels like validation not just for Californios but for the notion that Mexican food in Mexico and across the diaspora can be an elevated experience. Similar to fine dining , Mexican American restaurants have dealt with criticism for daring to charge more and offering tasting menus. Meanwhile, few bat an eye at French and Japanese restaurants with similar prices.
Shoot for the Michelin stars
The Michelin Guide, started in 1889 by French brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin, created a star-ranking system in the 1920s. Today, the guide has ratings for over 40,000 restaurants. To evaluate a restaurant, Michelin sends inspectors to dine anonymously. The inspectors said Californios ascended the ranks because it has never been 鈥渁fraid to cross borders鈥� on the plate, according to Michelin鈥檚 website.
From the first bite, Californios patrons experience the Texas-born Cant煤’s blend of Mexican culture with California ingredients. He starts a meal with a sope, a small hand-formed masa cake made with white corn and beans from a farm in nearby Santa Rosa. Then, with a spatula, caviar made in partnership with a Sacramento sturgeon farm is carefully placed on top.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just really, really delicious and kind of feels like a warm hug,鈥� Cant煤 said. 鈥淚t feels comforting.鈥�
Michelin inspectors agreed.
Californios deserved a three-star promotion, one of five inspectors said, for dishes consistently 鈥渆xecuted with such precision, refinement and clarity without losing the Mexican identity 鈥� things like kombu or the matsukasa yaki fish taco.鈥�
Sometimes Cant煤 and his team would try to guess if a diner could be an inspector. That turned out to be a good reminder that 鈥渆very guest gets the same quality of presentation and hospitality,鈥� the chef said.
Mexican food’s growing recognition comes as immigration enforcement gets harsher
In the past few years, Michelin has starred a number of Mexican restaurants including a 10-by-10 foot (3-by-3 meter) . The growing recognition comes at a precarious time for immigration enforcement policies and the treatment of immigrants 鈥� even those in the U.S. legally.
Not someone who seeks to inject politics into food, Cant煤 could not ignore constant headlines about federal immigration operations 鈥� some of which have resulted in deaths including a and a earlier this month. Immigrants are 鈥渢he backbone of all these dish pits and kitchens,鈥� says Cant煤. He has shown support through gestures. In March, he collaborated on an 鈥渁nti-ICE鈥� fundraising dinner.
鈥淭he culinary world is like a huge supporter of immigrants and the need for immigrants and the need to treat people with respect,鈥� Cant煤 said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard for me to say much more.鈥�
Being in a blue state, Cant煤 is certain most of Californios鈥� diners share that sentiment.
Gustavo Arellano, a food writer and journalist who鈥檚 also Mexican American, believes the cuisine鈥檚 popularity really helps humanize the immigration debate.
鈥淵ou see this especially like in small Southern towns where the rhetoric is 鈥業鈥檓 against illegal immigrants. I don鈥檛 want too many Mexicans,’鈥� Arellano said. 鈥淏ut, then they look at the Mexican restaurant in town and they鈥檙e like 鈥榃ell, not them.鈥欌��
Californios shows Mexican food is just as worthy of fine dining
Growing up, Cant煤 watched his father and uncle in Texas run a Mexican restaurant and tortilleria. As a chef working at high-end establishments in Austin and San Francisco, he found himself asking, 鈥淲hy is no one doing Mexican cuisine and treating it with like extreme care?鈥�
Inspired by the Bay Area, he settled on the name Californios. It’s a nod to descendants of Spanish and Mexican settlers who settled in the 1700s and 1800s in what would become California.
Californios started with a $57 four-course tasting menu. The pushback was immediate.
鈥淭here was ton of like, 鈥楾his is not Mexican cuisine,鈥欌�� Cant煤 said. 鈥淓ven from our families, you know, trying to explain a contemporary cuisine to a lot of people is totally foreign because people kind of think that cuisine exists in a cookbook and that it doesn鈥檛 change.鈥�
Californios is at the forefront of what some call 鈥渁lta California鈥� cuisine, where the children of Mexican immigrants or immigrants themselves use classical chef training with Mexican flavors. The term refers to the former Spanish province north of Baja California; Arellano describes it as an 鈥渋deology鈥� that originated in California and has spread across the U.S.
Raised flavor profiles and prices ultimately raise skepticism. Arellano argues people think this way partly because they’re trying to keep Mexican food in a box.
鈥淭here’s always going to be a knee-jerk reaction,鈥� Arellano said. 鈥淚t goes to this myth that Mexican food should be cheap because Mexicans, all of us are supposedly working class that cannot afford higher-end stuff. That’s classist.鈥�
Cant煤 plans to keep bringing attention to his Mexican-California brand of fine dining. A cookbook is in the works.
鈥淢exican cuisine is one of the most diverse and complex cuisines in the world,鈥� Cant煤 said, 鈥渁nd there鈥檚 countless Mexican immigrants in the United States and Latin immigrants who have their own ideas and concepts of what things can be.鈥�
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Tang reported from Phoenix.
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