The dish before me is called Arte, topped with a 2x4-inch piece of edible paper printed with a colorful abstract by noted Mexican artist Olga Hernandez. Her work on Saatchi Art goes for tens of thousands of dollars, and I’m going to consume it. Beneath it lies a base of jocoque (think Mexican labneh, made from goat’s milk) and a fine dice of jacube (cactus), watermelon, pecans, and beans.
On the taste buds, it all adds up to, well, art — sweet, salty, savory, silky, surprising. This is just course number two of six at an edition of El Encanto’s Culinary Series, bringing renowned chefs in for special evenings. On October 11, that meant a visit from Rodrigo Rivera-Río of Koli . The dinner saved us a trip to Monterrey, Mexico, but delivered all the glory of his Michelin-starred restaurant. What’s clear: Rebel Hotel Company, the new management since the sale of the resort from Belmond, is doing their best to uphold the storied thoughts we have of a property as well-heeled as El Encanto. It doesn’t hurt that while dining on the veranda you get to watch owls sweep into the nearby trees as the night’s entertainment.
Rivera-Río was offering a variation of Koli’s current tasting menu, Pragmático. Each plate had its story to tell, and the hope was, if Google Translate can be trusted: “to create an exceptional organoleptic experience.” That is, taste doesn’t just hit you via the tongue, but via all your organs. For instance, you were instructed to eat course one, Mar y Tierra, with your fingers, little bites, one a ball of atropellado — dried beef particular to Monterrey — given a bit of a roll in ash (Koli likes ash) with a dollop of caviar atop. Think deep and delicious. The other, a tuna infladita — sashimi-grade fish mixed with some creamy goat cheese, wrapped in just enough of a tortilla-like crust, and fried to crunchiness. Clichéd surf and turf got a kick in the you-know-what with these balls.
