Enrique Olvera discloses his future plans

It may seem that he has already done everything and that the time has come to rest on his laurels to savor the success he has achieved. Not even close, Enrique Olvera is unstoppable and he does not have any plans to do so in the near future.

It is evident that the United States has been in Olvera's sights for a long time. There, he has brought Mexican cuisine to grand new heights. No wonder Cosme , his restaurant in New York City's Flatiron District , has received all kinds of recognition since its opening along with its chef de cuisine Daniela Soto-Innes , who received a James Beard Award —the Oscar of the Food World—in 2016 . Even Barack Obama and his wife dined at Cosme before the end of his term in September 2016.

Only two years after its opening in 2014, Cosme entered The World's 50 Best Restaurants list and now Enrique Olvera is planning a second branch in Los Angeles and an expansion Atla , a more casual, affordable, accessible alternative to Cosme , located in Noho.

“Atla was born because when I lived in New York I wanted to go out and eat and there were only sandwiches or salads. So we created a menu featuring dishes that would be available in Mexico on a daily basis such as fish milanesa , very healthy mussels a la tumbada or for a ravenous whim chilaquiles and pambazos. There are Mexican dishes with a twist like oatmeal with chía seeds or salmon tostada.”

Regarding the future, Olvera discloses that already bought a place in Los Angeles “we still do not know if it will be called Cosme or not, yet it will be similar and it will also have an omakase taco bar similar to Pujol 's”, in the Arts District and next year it will be inaugurated.

“Our idea is to put down roots there and surely it will not be just one place but several, we see in Los Angeles a very nice possibility of ending the race there."

Even though his eyes are set on other latitudes, that does not mean that Enrique Olvera abandons Mexico: “The idea is that Pujol will be a restaurant that continues to exist in fifty years. Everything may be up for sale but Pujol , never, it is my son,” adding that the restaurant “started trying to be a place that people liked, then we got into a virtuous-vicious cycle of making decisions trying to be better, yet right now I feel we are in a moment of peace taking decisions based on what we like, not so formal. The references I had when we opened were foreign and now they are almost all local. Before my idols were Heston Blumenthal or Thomas Keller and now my idols are the tortilleras of Oaxaca , that has changed a lot how I work.”

sg