Curtis Stone’s Latest Restaurant Is Mixing His Household’s Cooking Traditions With the Yucatán’s

Opening a restaurant in Mexico’s Riviera Maya wasn’t an apparent subsequent step for Curtis Stone. In spite of everything, the acclaimed Australian chef is squarely settled in Los Angeles, the place he owns and runs the Michelin-starred Gwen and, beforehand, Maude. However when the Belmond lodges crew approached him about opening a restaurant on a resort they had been refurbishing on this sizzling spot simply south of Cancun, he felt a right away connection.  

“[Belmond] actually needed to enhance it — however hold its pure attraction,” he says of the resort, which was beforehand a non-public residence. It’s a departure from most of the close by seashores, the place giant lodges have shot up shortly and pushed a celebration scene full with daytime DJs. However what actually caught Stone’s consideration was the open hearth that performed a central characteristic of the kitchen the place his restaurant would go. Whereas it’s a longstanding Mayan culinary custom, live-fire cooking runs in Stone’s household, too.

“My granny had a giant hearth at their farmhouse [in Victoria]; it’s what she cooked on and it’s what heated the home,” he says. “Once I walked into that home I smelled the fireplace, and that’s a really particular odor to me.”

Stone already faucets into that cooking custom at Gwen, however he cherished the thought of doing it via the lens of Mexico’s personal traditions — and culinary strengths. “Mexico is in the midst of an incredible meals revolution,” he says. “And it’s taking place for good cause. The components right here? It’s unbelievable — it’s like a playground.”

He named the restaurant Woodend, after the city in Victoria the place the household farmhouse is, after which labored together with his crew to construct a menu that, he says, is slightly like “writing a love letter” to the realm.

“I’m actually into telling tales via dishes,” Stone says. “And right here, we’re embracing the Mayan tradition, we’re embracing the components — however we’re nonetheless cooking in a approach that may be very genuine to us.” 

An amuse bouche of chilled tomato consommé with balls of melon and cucumber evokes the sensation of leaping into a neighborhood cenote to go swimming on a sizzling day. The “Mayan rice” is completed risotto-style, however the central ingredient including taste is native chaya greens. Then, after all, there’s the part of the menu that’s cooked over an open flame.

“There’s an unbelievable indigenous wooden right here that we’ve acquired our arms on that’s acquired a very delicate scent,” he says. “And over it we roast stunning meats and seafood from the area.” That seafood contains bluefin tuna from Ensenada and blue prawns from Sinaloa. The prawns are grilled and paired with inexperienced mango, apple, daikon, and almond. 

“[Woodend is] not some steakhouse that we pulled out of Los Angeles or New York and simply threw down right here as a result of we thought folks is perhaps desirous about coming to my restaurant,” Stone says. “We needed to faucet into and respect the indigenous tradition.”

It explains why his partnership with Belmond is so seamless. After a full overhaul, Belmond launched Maroma, A Belmond Lodge, Riviera Maya final yr. The model has taken nice pains to supply company distinctive experiences that work in concord with the pure environment of the Yucatán. Onsite, there’s a nursery producing endemic crops in addition to sanctuaries for indigenous birds, sea turtles, and Melipona bees (a stingless species prized by the Mayans). 

On the spa — by Guerlain — you’ll be able to ebook a bee remedy and sound therapeutic session, take a category on native crops and herbs on the apothecary, or sweat it out in a temazcal. Whenever you keep at one of many 72 rooms and villas, you’ll robotically have an attendant to curate your go to, whether or not reserving your eating, yoga, meditation, and even sustainable ocean golf. 

You may also go for extra bespoke experiences like an agave spirits tasting — or a cenote go to. Swim in a single by day, come again and pattern Woodend’s homage to it that night. If Stone and his crew are writing a love letter to Riviera Maya, it’s each a sublime and real one.