Mexico, what a taste! Paris is on Veracruz time

From June 11 to 19, 2022, the ¡Qué Gusto!

brings a wind of Mexican flavors to Paris.

For this 8th edition, the spotlight is thrown on the State of Veracruz through a selection of cooks and pastry chefs who will come to cook meals with four or six hands with Parisian counterparts.

Among these, Amandine Chaignot, exceptional godmother of the 2022 edition of the festival, set off to discover this state bordering the Gulf of Mexico to discover all its culinary diversity.

The chef of the Parisian restaurant Pouliche (10th) and the Café de Luce (18th) gives us here some travel memories through this territory between land and sea.

To discover

• Stays in France: weekends, hotels and tailor-made stays from our partners

LE FIGARO - How did you find yourself sponsor of this new edition?

Amandine Chaignot

- Chef Éric Guérin, who is a very good friend, was the sponsor of the previous edition.

He simply recommended me to Ximena Velsquez, the organizer of the festival.

I immediately accepted because I was very curious to discover another Mexico.

To tell the truth, my knowledge of Mexican cuisine was until then very limited, even distorted by clichés conveyed by Tex Mex cuisine, which is in fact a totally American interpretation.

I was overwhelmed by unique products, flavors and combinations.

To my amazement, for example, I discovered another taste of corn, or that there is a Mexican variety of vanilla from the state of Veracruz.

This edition is dedicated to this state that borders the Gulf of Mexico.

To prepare for the festival, you criss-crossed this destination…

I indeed had the chance to travel with Ximena for a week in

mode to discover this State, its culture, its traditions and of course its gastronomy.

We went to three different parts with well-marked identities.

From the port of Veracruz, the journey immediately took us north to Papantla.

It is precisely there, at an altitude of 1700 meters that we harvest vanilla as well as coffee.

There is also the archaeological site of El Tajin built by the Totonac tribes from the 7th century.

We also visited a cooperative of traditional cooks,

(women of smoke).

They cook using age-old smoking techniques that date back to pre-Hispanic times.

You should know that frying was not yet known by the Totonacs.

The state government has decided to preserve this knowledge and has created a place, in a vast park, where these women give lessons to anyone wishing to discover this living heritage.

Chef Amandine Chaignot also cooked during her trip to the state of Veracruz in Mexico.

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What marked you the most in this state?

A very local and quite different cuisine depending on whether you are on the coast or in lands that quickly become mountainous.

Moreover, a volcano, the Citlaltépetl, reigns supreme over the region, it is the highest peak in Mexico!

It is also called the Pico de Orizaba, an extinct volcano which rises to 5675 m above sea level.

Above all, I felt in the population a very strong awareness of their pre-Hispanic roots, and at the same time a certain pride for the interbreeding engendered by the arrival of the Spaniards from 1519. It must be borne in mind that Veracruz was the gateway to Mexico for Cortés and his men.

There are still dishes like fish à la Veracuzana which is a perfect example of this interbreeding:

Listening to you, does this region still seem unspoiled, and ultimately little known to European travellers?

Indeed, the tourists we met were mostly Mexicans.

There aren't really any large hotel complexes, but rather charming boutique hotels like those of the Habita gruppo (Azucar and Maison Couturier).

But from a tourist point of view, the region is full of nuggets.

In the south of the state, we went to the region of Tuxtla, the cradle of the Olmec civilization.

It dates back to 1500 BC, hence the nickname mother civilization.

There are also several charming little towns such as Catemaco, San Andres… And the region is characterized by around fifteen volcanoes as well as vegetation reminiscent of the equatorial forest.

So much so that the seaside is very surprising, very wild, with this volcanic rock and some quite magnificent hidden beaches.

Or,

Inaugurated in 1986, the Museum of Anthropology in Xalapa, in the state of Veracruz in Mexico, houses one of the world's finest collections of pre-Hispanic art, and the largest dedicated to Olmec art.

Among the jewels of the museum, an extraordinary set of monumental heads.

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Inspiration for your “Parisian” cuisine?

Yes, this trip gave me several ideas.

I discovered incredible flavors of peppers when I usually have a certain reluctance for this food.

I would like to experiment with peppers that have been dried for a long time in the sun to find these very particular flavors of leather, prune... And then, I have already cooked my own mole (

) after having tasted very different ones during the trip.

Often, we have in mind this cliché of a simple salty chocolate sauce served with chicken.

In fact, there is an endless amount of recipes where everyone plays with the ingredients, making it more or less spicy, more or less intense.

For ¡Qué Gusto!

you will be the host of two big Mexican dinners?

Absolutely, I will prepare two dinners: the first with six hands with two chefs from Mexico, Erik Guerrero and pastry chef Luis Robledo.

And a second with my friend Beatriz Gonzalez who spent her childhood in Cozumel, a splendid island located opposite Cancun, and which Parisians have already known for several years with the restaurant Neva (Paris 8).

¡Qué Gusto!, Festival of Mexican Gastronomy in Paris, from June 11 to 19, festivalquegusto.com.