I am not from Mexico nor are my parents from there. Before I came to California from back east, my ideas about Mexican food revolved around hard taco shells with ground beef in them. Thank goodness, my knowledge of Mexican cuisine has considerably expanded in the thirty-three years I’ve lived in southern California. It has grown to include everything from simple tacos to more fine dining fare.
I’ve always wondered about my other non-Mexican friends whose concept of Mexican food seems to be very limited. What don’t they know? But, as I found out in a recent interview, there’s a reason that many people have a very narrow view of Mexican food: tacos, burritos, and enchiladas. (Not that there’s anything wrong with those foods. There isn’t.)
Luis Navarro
Diego Isunza Kahlo
Describe Mexican Food
PalacioMagazine.com recently sat down for a discussion with Chef Luis Navarro of Long Beach-based Lola’s Mexican Cuisine and and the Social List and Mexico City-based Chef, Diego Isunza Kahlo. In this first part interview, I began the discussion with a very simple question: Describe Mexican food. I quickly found out, it was not a simple question with a simple answer.
Two Mexican Chefs who love Food
Chef Luis Navarro is owner of two Lola’s Mexican Cuisine restaurants and the Social List restaurant, all three in Long Beach. The website for Lola’s describes their history and the chef’s love affair with Mexican food.
Established in 2007, our family has always had a love affair with Mexican food. Our grandmother passed down her recipes to Lola when she was just a little girl growing up in Guadalajara Mexico. Everything made from scratch and that is exactly what you can expect here at Lola’s. We hand pick and serve quality farm to table ingredients, using only the choicest organic local meats, poultry, and sustainable seafood.
Chef Luis Navarro has dedicated his career to learning and traveling through all of Mexico’s enchanting regions, from Veracruz, Mexico City, Yucatan, Baja California, and Oaxaca studying the craft of the local cuisine, and indigenous ingredients.
Lola’s has the perfect blend of traditional and new contemporary recipes and dishes.
Our menu changes with the seasons and the availability of our ingredients.
Our mission at Lola’s is for our guests to enjoy food the way we have come to know it and love it… right from Mom’s kitchen. We know that you will savor and enjoy our recipes, brought to you from the kitchens of Mexico. Come on in, enjoy lunch or dinner in our festive main dining room or relax on our patio fresco. Either way you’re in for the ultimate taste of Mexico…. Lola’s style!
As a child he worked in the family’s catering business with his grandmother, Elsa Kahlo, who is a very well known chef and Mexican gastronomy researcher. She was responsible for several editorial and promotion projects among which is the naming of Mexican food as “Intangible heritage of humanity” by the UNESCO in 2010, thus influencing his career direction.
At the age of 12, Diego had his first Job as a waiter in the family business and four years later, he took a position as a cook at the same time that he was doing his professional musical studies. He left the family business, as well as his career as a musician, to work in remarkable traditional and fine dining restaurants among which they can be mentioned Nicos Restaurant, Pujol Restaurant, Morimoto Mexico City, and Azul Restaurantes (Azul Condesa, Azul Histórico, Azul & Oro).
Right now, he leads his own Mexican fine dining catering business as well as a restaurant consultant.
