Mexico’s New Cuisine

Mexico's contemporary chefs have become adept at orchestrating chiles of varying heats. A century ago an American chemist, Wilbur Scoville, developed a scale to measure capsaicin, which gives chiles their fieriness. The hottest? Habanero, followed by chipotle. Pasilla, ancho and poblano are much milder.

The daughter of a painter, Martha Ortiz of Aguila y Sol in Mexico City expresses her artistic temperament through her whimsical menus. She will use gold leaf or rose petals in a dessert or sprinkle a guacamole with pomegranate seeds and ricotta cheese to create the colours of the Mexican flag.

Alicia Gironella De'Angeli's menu at El Tajin in the district of Coyoacan is a window on authentic recipes. A lobbyer for nutritional issues, Gironella promotes the country's indigenous diet. "The combination of corn, beans, chiles, squash and herbs was a perfect nutritional balance."

Mayan ingredients such as black beans and chocolate can be found on the menus of today's avant-garde chefs. Moles—complex chile-based sauces, usually for turkey or chicken—famously use chocolate, as shown here in pork loin medallions in amarillo mole from Aguila y Sol.

Whether at the gigantic markets of La Merced or on the pavements of any barrio, you'll find traditional snacks. The most frenetic and fascinating of Mexico City's markets, La Merced's gigantic halls sprawl over an entire city block. The colourful market is lively from 6:00 am until 6:00 pm every day.

Just like on its menus, Mexico City serves up an intriguing mélange of old and new. The contrast of the Catedral Metropolitana, the oldest cathedral in the Americas, to the contemporary flair of Aguila y Sol, gives exciting expression to this cultural duality.