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Mexican Cuisine – Photo Source:

10 of the Most Famous Mexican Chefs

The history of Mexican cuisine and cooking techniques is long and divergent. It dates back several thousand years and it is an essential part of Mexican culture, pride, social structure, and popular traditions.

According to popular belief, Mexican cuisine and cooking techniques originated from ancient Mayan Indians, where traditionally, all dishes were prepared using locally available ingredients and the cooking method was also indigenous.

Today, Mexican cuisine has evolved to become one the most popular cuisines in the world, thanks to the dedication of top Mexican chefs who have revolutionized the country’s traditional gastronomy and taken it far and beyond Mexico’s borders.

Over the last few decades, top Mexican chefs have emerged in the world of culinary business and their influence is being felt across the globe. In this article let’s look at some of the most famous Mexican chefs.

1. Enrique Olvera 

Pujol Restaurant – Photo Source:

Arguably the most decorated and the most famous of all Mexican chefs in the world today, Enrique Olvera is the head chef and owner legendary Mexican haute cuisine, Pujol restaurant, located in the leafy suburban neighborhood of Mexico City.

 Known for his unique rich Mexican cuisines, Olvera trained at the Culinary Institute of America, before he founded his own restaurant in 2000 with the vision to showcase Mexican rich culinary skills.

His restaurant is currently ranked 9th in the world according to the 2021 annual The World’s 50 Best Restaurants listing. He also oversees the onboard menu in business class of the airline Aeromexico and he made an appearance in Season 12 of MasterChef UK.

2. Silvana Salcido Esparza

Barrio Caf̩ Gran Reserva РPhoto Source:

Born in a family of cooks and bakers, Silvana Salcido Esparza is one of the most famous Mexican chefs and the owner of the popular Barrio Café in downtown Phoenix in the United States.

She was first trained on how to cook by her grandmother before she attended Scottsdale Culinary Institute to learn more about the cooking business. She later traveled to Mexico where she spent time with the locals and learned more about their techniques for preparing traditional Mexican cuisine.

Esparza has successfully combined traditional and modern Mexican cooking techniques together with incorporating Mexican and American culture to come up with what is recognized by some as the best Mexican cuisine in the United State and beyond.

3. Eduardo García

Founder and owner of two popular Mexico restaurants Máximo Bistrot and Lalo, Eduardo García is considered one of the top Mexican chefs. He was introduced into the kitchen at the age of 8 when his parents started to give him simple cooking tasks such as preparing chicken soups and vegetables.

Garcia honed his cooking skills at Atlanta restaurant Brasserie Le Coze under re-known French, before he met a famous Mexican chef famous Enrique Olvera, with whom he worked for three years. He later opened his own restaurant Máximo Bistrot which has since risen to one of the top restaurants in Mexico City and received a number of awards.

Garcia is known for his innovative Mexican cuisine prepared with fresh ingredients brought in directly from local farmers which promoted the William Reed Business Media to rank Máximo Bistrot as one of Latin America’s 50 best restaurants of 2015.

4. Wes Avila

Wes Avila is one of the most famous Mexican Chefs and the owner of the popular Guerrilla Tacos which is located in Los Angeles. He started his restaurant on a street cart in 2012 and later operated a food truck before moving into permanent premises in 2018.

Wes Avila had trained in some of best culinary schools, cooked alongside the best chefs in the world, and widely traveled around the world to horn his cooking skills before he found his own style and started his own restaurant.

Despite his interesting and successful story, he continues to work on combining modern food flavors with classic street food which makes his cuisine unique and special.

5. Gabriela Cámara 

Named Time‘s Most Influential People in 2020, Gabriela Cámara is one of the most famous Mexican chefs and owner of Contamar restaurant in Mexico City and Cala restaurant in San Francisco. She also holds shares in Capicúa, Barracuda Diner, and MeroToro restaurants, all in Mexico City.

Camara Published her cookbook entitled my Mexico kitchen in 2019 and her two restaurants were featured in a Netflix documentary in 2019. She also has a masterclass course in which she teaches viewers how to cook Mexican foods and has twice been a James Beard Foundation award semifinalist, in 2017 and 2019.

6. Martha Ortiz 

Best known for her role as a Judge on the television cooking competition Top Chef Mexico, Martha Ortiz is a famous Mexican chef and the owner of the Dulce Patria in the Las Alcobas hotel in Mexico City and Ella Canta within the InterContinental London Park Lane in London, England.

She opened her first restaurant in Mexico City in 2003 with a vision to showcase food flavors and cooking styles from all over Mexico, including unique cuisines like mole sauce from Oaxaca and machaca from the north of the country.

Ortiz opened her second restaurant within the InterContinental London Park Lane in London, England in 2017. The menu includes signature Mexican dishes with ingredients directly imported from Mexico to ensure authenticity.

7. Zarela Martínez

Zarela Martinez – Photo Source:

Well known for her food radio program cooking in Mexican from A to Z which she co-hosts with her son on Heritage Radio Network, Zarela Martínez is a famous Mexican chef based in New York City.  She was also the owner of Zerela restaurant in New York, which she opened in 1987, and is credited as the pioneer of regional Mexican cuisine in New York City.

Martinez is also an author and has been instrumental in introducing Americans to authentic Mexican food through her writings. Additionally, she has organized food festivals in New York City and given cooking lessons, demonstrations, and lectures on Mexican cuisine and culture.

Although she is not actively involved in actual cooking these days due to Parkinson’s Disease, triggered by an accident she was involved in, she remains one of the most influential and famous Mexican Chefs.

8. Josefina Velázquez 

Recognized as the pioneer of Mexican gastronomy and an entrepreneur of Mexican cuisine, Josefina Velázquez remains one of the most famous Mexican chefs even after more than 50 years after her death.

She began her career by publishing Mexican cooking recipes in a local magazine that primarily focussed on home cooking and giving guidelines to women about how to start a small home food business. 

Velázquez is even more famous for her cooking classes where she taught and inspired some of the world’s best chefs including the founder of Rosa Mexicano’s chain of restaurants Josefina Howard, British food writer Diana Kennedy, and re-known American chef Rick Bayless.

9. Ramírez Degollado

ElBajio Restaurant – Photo Source

Although she never trained as a chef and simply identifies herself as a cook, Carmen Ramírez Degollado is an internationally recognized expert on traditional Mexican food. She has given culinary demonstrations at special cooking events and even taught classes on Mexican cooking at the Culinary Institute of America.

In her own words, Ramirez admits she is obsessed with the preservation of Mexican traditional cuisine which she says is more than a list of typical dishes from the country. She has also traveled throughout Mexico and abroad to teach and present traditional Mexican cooking and she is the head of the El Bajío restaurant located in Mexico City.

In recognition of her achievement, she was awarded a Five Star Diamond Award from the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences for the El Bajío restaurant in 1998, the La Llave Empresarial award from AMAIT and ABASTUR in 2006 and 2008, and the CANIRAC entrepreneur prize in 2009.

10. Rosalia Chay Chu

Different from other chefs who head or own restaurants, Rosalia Chay Chu, Cooks and serves her cuisine from her house where she hosts ten to twelve guests at a time. She is popular for her authentic Mayan dishes that date back to 400 AD.

Chay learned to cook Mayan traditional food at the age of 8 and has dedicated all her life to the development and promotion of authentic Mayan cuisine. Booking for a two-and-a-half-hour weekend meal at her house can done by e-mail, and the meal ingredients are naturally cultivated on her family’s ancestral land.