Josefina Santacruz, chef
This Mexican chef brought a thousand tastes back from her world travels, flavours often unknown to her compatriots. At her two restaurants, Chilangos enjoy Middle Eastern and Asian dishes, all served in keeping with her watchwords: taste and simplicity.
As she weaves through the alleyways cramped with fruit stalls and taco stands, Josefina Santacruz makes no secret of her enthusiasm: “Not only do Mexico City’s markets sell incredible foods, they exude this fabulous energy.” With a con- tagious smile, this chef, who runs two restaurants, Paprika and Sesāmē, is a refreshing breeze blowing across the chilango culinary landscape thanks to her focus on faraway flavours. For Josefina serves Asian and Middle Eastern dishes — free of clichés and gim- micks — in the land of the taco. “No more ‘fusion’ cuisine — to me, it’s more like ‘confusion’. I want to serve authentic cuisine, inspired by what you buy in the street!” she exclaims. Still, while the streets of Mexico City are steeped in the fragrance of grilled meat and tortillas, the capital is not particularly open to other foreign fare. After a variety of expe- riences abroad, Josefina returned to Mexico City, determined to awaken her compatriots’ taste buds. “My watchwords are ‘simple, good and affordable’. International restaurants here are either very expen- sive or very low-end,” she reports. The chef deftly juggles her daily responsibilities at the two locations, travelling from the Far East to North Africa along a culinary spice route. And on this journey of taste, coffee is never far off: “I can’t start the day without a cup, lightened with milk. At 11 in the morning, when I leave Sesāmē to go to Paprika, I always take a cup of Arpeggio along with me,” she says. Her recipes hail from other lands — Thai curry, falafel — but her mind- set is entirely rooted in her homeland. “Chefs have to come down off their pedestals and understand that cooking is first and foremost about sharing a happy, enjoyable moment with those we love. I see myself in the expression “sharing is caring” — that’s a very Mexican sentiment. At home, we enjoy those moments of family togetherness. And that’s what I want in my restaurants.” Come and get it!
“I want a feeling of family togetherness in my restaurants”
