Margot Castañeda de la Cruz

Ignacio Urquiza

VATEL Magazine • November 2025

Canoas: la montaña donde se cocina identidad

A feature on a mountain kitchen in Canoas where traditional cook Socorro Magaña preserves Colima’s ancestral flavors through local ingredients and dishes shaped by identity and memory.

Ignacio Urquiza

VATEL Magazine • November 2025

Komunal en Colima: Cocina en evolución

A feature on Komunal, a restaurant rooted in volcanic landscapes and a contemporary approach that blends product-driven cooking with the region’s deep, diverse food traditions.

Ignacio Urquiza

November 2025

El sol y la sal de Colima

A feature on the Cuyutlán saltworks in Colima, where sun, brine, and patient handwork turn a reflective coastal landscape into one of Mexico’s most exceptional sea salts.

Ignacio Urquiza

VATEL Magazine • November 2025

Makemake: El huerto que florece en la montaña colimense

A feature on Makemake, an agroecological garden in the mountains of Colima where community-led agriculture shape a regenerative model for the region’s culinary landscape.

Ignacio Urquiza

VATEL Magazine • November 2024

Aurora Toledo: La Zandunga

A portrait of Isthmus traditional cook Aurora Toledo, whose restaurant, Zandunga, blends creativity, femininity, joy, and a cooking style rooted in colour and community.

Ignazio Urquiza

VATEL Magazine • November 2024

Donde habita el mole

A profile of Mixtec chef Olga Cabrera, whose restaurant Tierra del Sol honors her ñuu savi heritage through a creative, women-rooted reinterpretation of Mixtec cooking.

Ignacio Urquiza

VATEL Magazine • November 2024

La Teca: Deyanira Aquino

A portrait of Isthmus traditional cook Deyanira Aquino, whose restaurant La Teca celebrates Zapotec heritage through tamales, moles, and memory-rich storytelling.

Ignacio Urquiza

VATEL Magazine • November 2024

Las quince letras del sabor

A profile of chef Celia Florián, tracing how memory and ancestry shape her restaurant Las Quince Letras—and her role as a leading voice in preserving traditional Oaxacan cooking.

Ignacio Urquiza

VATEL Magazine • November 2024

Thalía Barrios: El camino correcto

A portrait of chef Thalía Barrios, tracing how Levadura de Olla grew from her roots in rural Oaxaca into a restaurant defined by resilience, heritage, and creative intuition.

Este País • July 2021

Las cocinas fantasma: el trampolín de los restaurantes

An exploration of how ghost kitchens became a pandemic-era launchpad for restaurant entrepreneurs in Mexico, reshaping delivery, virtual branding, and the future of dining.

Food & Wine • November 2019

La sed y el hambre se curan aquí

A guide to Mexico City’s gastro-bars where bold cuisine meets bar culture, exploring how food and drink merge into one unforgettable experience.

Letras Libres • June 2017

En defensa de los cocineros anónimos

A tribute to the anonymous cooks behind Mexican cuisine—those uncredited women and men whose everyday innovations quietly shaped the nation’s culinary identity.

Margot Castañeda

VICE • January 2017

How Mexico Is Rediscovering (and Reinventing) Ancient Cacao Drinks

An exploration of how Mexico is rediscovering and re-inventing ancient cacao drinks—reviving rituals, flavour traditions, and the cultural weight of the “food of the gods.”

VICE • December 2016

Homenaje a las tortas de bacalao recalentado

A tribute to the Christmas-ritual torta de bacalao recalentado in Mexico, where family, tradition and flavor combine to make one of the season’s most enduring comfort foods.

Margot Castañeda

VICE • September 2016

Cómo tomamos café (de especialidad) en la Ciudad de México

A feature on Mexico City’s specialty-coffee scene, using brewing methods to explore how people relate to flavor, ritual, and identity.

VICE • August 2016

A Woman at the Top of the Rum World: Lorena Vásquez

A profile of Lorena Vásquez, a master blender whose craft and unconventional path have reshaped ideas about women’s roles in the spirits world.

Carlos Castillo

VICE • May 2016

The Craft and Care Behind Sola de Vega Mezcal

A portrait of two mezcal producers from Sola de Vega, Oaxaca, whose clay-still craft, wild-agave harvests, and inherited techniques reveal how mezcal is shaped by the people who make it.

Leonardo Pérez

VICE • May 2016

Inside Mexico City’s Beer-and-Shellfish Hangover Ritual

A cultural feature on how beer and shellfish stand in Mexico City became an unlikely hang-over cure—a ritual where sea-fresh flavor, cold lager, and urban tradition meet.

VICE • August 2015

How a Chicken Restaurant Saved a Schoolyard Farm from Closing

A feature about a chicken-restaurant initiative that rescued a school-yard farm in Mexico City, turning waste into education and the farm into a living project of community and food change.