(Mexico) A modest neighborhood taqueria, whose menu offers only four types of tacos and two sauces, is one of the first Mexican restaurants to receive a star from the famous Michelin guide.
El Califa de Leon, located in the central and traditional neighborhood of San Rafael in Mexico City, is one of eighteen starred restaurants featured in the Michelin Mexico 2024 guide, the first dedicated to this Latin American country, presented Tuesday evening .
The taqueria, which has operated for more than 50 years on the busy shopping avenue of San Cosme, operates in a small space where only three or four people can stand and eat, while the taquero cooks the meats on a griddle heating and another employee prepares the corn tortillas by hand.
“This taqueria may be rudimentary and can only accommodate a handful of customers at the counter, but its creation, the Gaonera, is exceptional,” notes the Michelin Guide in a presentation note for the restaurant.
The “Gaonera” is a beef taco created in honor of the Mexican bullfighter Rodolfo Gaona, star of the fiesta brava of the first decades of the 20th century.e century, whose nickname in the arena, “El Califa de León”, also gave its name to the taqueria.
The other three tacos on the menu are the beef rib and steak, as well as the pork rib, while the two sauces are the green one, made with raw green tomatoes, and the red one, made with pasilla peppers.
“The resulting combination is elemental and pure,” adds the Michelin Guide.
Mexican restaurants awarded two Michelin stars are chef Jorge Vallejo’s Quintonil and Enrique Olvera’s Pujol, both located in Mexico City.
Of the other 15 restaurants listed in the guide with one star, four are in the Mexican capital, three in Baja California, one in Baja California Sur, two in Nuevo León, two in Oaxaca and three in State of Quintana Roo.