To Truly Understand Oaxacan Food, Go to the Source

Ahead of a London Restaurant series with Acme Fire Cult, Tollington's and Hausu this October, roaming festival and event series Beat Hotel paired up with Ilegal Mezcal to bring three London chefs to Oaxaca. There, they met local chef Rodolfo Castellanos to experience one of the world’s most fascinating culinary destinations firsthand.

“Oaxaca has an outstanding number of Indigenous groups, dialects and communities,” says Oaxacan chef Rodolfo Castellanos. “What enriches the variety and ways ingredients are used here, is that everything originates in these communities, not just as dishes, but as part of traditions - processions, weddings, funerals. A celebration of life, and even of death.” Ahead of a London restaurant series that celebrates the feelings and flavours of Mexican cooking, Rodolfo is touring three London chefs through Oaxaca’s central market, Central de Abasto.

Andrew Clarke of Acme Fire Cult, Ed McIlroy of Tollington’s and Holly Middleton-Joseph of Hausu have travelled to Oaxaca to meet and cook with Rodolfo, spending a day understanding the nuances, significance and applications of local ingredients, before bringing their learnings to Beat Hotel’s London Restaurant series, which will take place across the three London restaurants with bespoke Mexican-inspired menus paired with music and Ilegal mezcal.

“Nothing will compare to being in Oaxaca to absorb it the way it's lived,” says Rodolfo, whose restaurant, Origen, is considered one of the finest in the city. “But for those who are trying, the thing to do is come and get to know the ingredients in depth.”

After chatting with local vendors, the group returned to Rodolfo’s kitchen with bags stacked with corn, limes, tomatillos, and a variety of chilis; the core ingredient of Oaxaca’s emblematic moles. “Walking through open markets is an assault on the senses sometimes - but a good one,” says Ed. “Tasting things like local herbs that don’t exist at home and having a conversation with a cook who works day in day out with these alien ingredients is like a crash course in local culinary history.”

The core ethos that runs through Oaxaca’s food and its emblematic mezcal production is a deep respect and understanding of the land.

“Everything has a process that feeds back into the same virtuous circle of creation around what the land gives you,” says Rodolfo, explaining how the region’s rich and abundant ingredients are approached as a “close analogy with the land, with coexistence, with the cycles of nature.”

In the kitchens, the group prepare mole and soups, while sampling the smoky hand-crafted flavours of Ilegal’s mezcal varieties. “What I enjoyed most was his squash and corn soup,” says Ed. “All of the ingredients - besides the chicken broth - come from the same field, where corn is planted alongside squash and the herbs used to bring fragrance into the finished product cover the cornfields.”

While London’s thirst for mezcal is booming, and taquerias are an increasing presence across the city’s high streets, there’s been a wider conversation on how food is represented outside of its home country - especially concerning the rapid globalisation of Mexican cuisine. The London chefs’ dialogue with Rodolfo is part of a quest to approach culinary collaborations with respect, knowledge and passion.

“I take inspiration from food I have eaten all around the world, I think the key is to reference rather than imitate,” says Ed. “You don’t have to be bound by tradition, but you should understand and respect it before you start fucking around with it,” adds Andrew.

Each chef involved sees the sharing of food - from table to technique - as a vital and enriching exchange of culture. “You can only truly grasp what the true meaning is of the cuisine when you taste it first hand. Travelling is all about immersing yourself into the cultures of others,” says Holly, a point which is echoed by Andrew:

“There’s no substitute for actually being somewhere -  eating the food, seeing how people cook, going to markets and talking to the people who have grown up with that food culture. I’ve been cooking for almost 30 years and I’m still constantly learning. Travelling reminds you how little you know, which I think is really healthy.”

Rodolfo is equally enthusiastic about what lessons the chefs will bring from Oaxaca to London’s tables for the Beat Hotel series. Beyond the flavour and technique, though, the most important thing he hopes to share is that deep-rooted Oaxacan relationship between food and being: “What I think will leave its mark on them is the connection between the people and their surroundings, and that they carry it with them in their hearts.”

Beat Hotel and Ilegal Mezcal’s London series runs from 13-16 October. The four-day programme culminates in Peckham’s The Carpet Shop, with sets by Coco María, John Gómez and Ri Mistry. Book tickets here.