The Rosetta world – Elena Reygadas

I may have found my kind of woman.

Elena Reygadas loves flowers, beautiful bread and dessert. A woman after my own heart.

The more I learn about her, the more I love what she has created in Mexico City.

There is the beautiful restaurant Rosetta, tucked into an old Porfirian mansion, with its plants, flowers, high ceilings and quiet, elegant rooms. There is Lardo, much more relaxed and convivial. And then there is Panadería Rosetta, where beautiful sourdough breads and pastries are made every day, and an endless line stretches outside at all hours of the day.

And then there is Bella Aurora, another of her restaurants, which Elena describes as a beautiful place filled with plants and a little more reminiscent of the Italian-influenced Rosetta of her earlier years.

Her sensibility evokes such a strong connection to nature. You see it in her dishes, in the architecture of her restaurants and in the way she talks about food.

I have learned Elena even has a fennel flower tattoo behind her ear, a little nod to her love of herbs and the flavor of anise.

She works with small producers in the chinampas of Xochimilco, where she sources seasonal vegetables, herbs and flowers. She has talked about wanting to observe and respect the cycles of nature rather than forcing ingredients to behave in ways they don't naturally want to. Her philosophy is essentially: nature has already made the combinations, so pay attention.

I love that.

And flowers aren't just decoration at Rosetta. They actually become part of the food.

When El País spent a day with Elena, they described the kitchen working with izote flowers, pápalo, watercress, mustard leaves, lemon balm, nopal and other plants. At one point, a bunch of izote flowers was brought into the dining room so the waitstaff and curious diners could see, smell and taste the flowers that were being used in a new dessert.

That is exactly the kind of cooking I find fascinating. The flower isn't just sitting prettily on top of something. You want to know what it tastes like, where it grows, what it has been used for and what else it might become.

I noticed the flowers at Rosetta immediately. Flowers everywhere. Beautiful food. And then the bread.

At both Rosetta and Lardo, you are brought the gift of freshly made bread and flatbread. Not some token little roll to fill the space before dinner, but genuinely beautiful bread that you actually want to eat. I love a restaurant that give you and offering instead of trying to charge you for every little thing.

I ate two baskets full at Rosetta, and the flat bread at Lard, so good I could have happily made a meal of the bread alone.

And that bread was part of what eventually led Elena to open Panadería Rosetta. She originally made the bread for Rosetta, but people kept asking if they could buy it to take home. Then neighboring restaurants started arriving in the mornings asking to buy it too. So, in 2012, she opened the tiny bakery a block away. It has since grown into one of Mexico City's most beloved bakeries.

People just wanted more of what she was making.

And then, of course, there are the desserts.

The hoja santa y cacao criollo blanco was so good that I wrote a whole dispatch just about how much I loved it. It truly is one of the most beautiful and delicious desserts I've eaten.

And now that I've been reading about Elena, I realize that dessert is almost a perfect expression of how she thinks.

She saw hoja santa growing around cacao plants and noticed the relationship. Rather than inventing something completely disconnected from Mexico, she followed what nature had already put together.

A leaf. Cacao. Chocolate. Texture. Aroma. And turned it into something extraordinary.

I have fallen a little bit in love with her and her food, and I think I know why.

Elena talks about cooking as a way of bringing people together. She is interested in seasons, biodiversity, small producers and letting ingredients be themselves rather than forcing them into something they aren't. Her restaurants are not just about the food on the plate. The flowers, the music, the tables, the bread and the atmosphere all matter. Even Alice Waters, writing about Elena's cookbook, described how the tables, music and flowers at Rosetta all contribute to making you feel welcomed into her world.

And perhaps that's what I am responding to. It feels like a world rather than just a restaurant. A world of flowers, bread, plants, beautiful old rooms, handmade food, Mexican ingredients and desserts that make you stop and think.

A few things I discovered about Elena Reygadas

• She didn't originally set out to become a chef. Elena studied English Literature at UNAM and even wrote her thesis on Virginia Woolf's The Waves. She says reading was her first love.
• She found cooking gradually. While studying literature, she spent her summers working in restaurants and taking cooking classes. She eventually trained at the French Culinary Institute in New York.
• She spent four years in London at Locanda Locatelli, where she learned a great deal about Italian cooking, particularly the importance of letting good ingredients speak for themselves.
• Her first restaurant, Rosetta, opened in 2010 in a beautiful old house in Roma. It was initially particularly known for handmade pasta and bread before her cooking evolved toward a much deeper focus on Mexican ingredients and seasonality.
• The bread became so popular that it needed its own life. Panadería Rosetta grew out of the bread being made for the restaurant and opened in 2012. Today the bakery makes slow-fermented sourdoughs, traditional Mexican breads, croissants, pastries and Elena's own creations such as the famous guava roll.
• She has built a whole little food world in Mexico City: Rosetta, Lardo, Café Nin, Bella Aurora, Panadería Rosetta and Salón Rosetta. There is also Mesa, a shop selling Mexican-made objects for the kitchen and table.
• She was named The World's Best Female Chef in 2023. The award was voted on by more than 1,000 international food experts.
• Rosetta entered The World's 50 Best Restaurants at No. 49 in 2023.
• Rosetta received its first Michelin star in 2024.
• She won Latin America's Best Female Chef in 2014, making her the first Mexican woman to receive the award.
• She created the Elena Reygadas Scholarship to promote equal opportunities and strengthen the leadership of Mexican women in gastronomy.

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