Behind The Kitchen
Behind the Kitchen at Xochi: A Day in Oaxaca, Plated in Houston
5am masa, hand-pressed tortillas, and seven moles simmering in copper. We spent 14 hours inside Hugo Ortega's flagship.
By Marisol Castillo· 10 min read
The kitchen at Xochi wakes up before the city does.
At 5:12am, sous chef Mariela Cruz is already grinding nixtamalized corn on a volcanic-stone metate. By 6, the first batch of mole negro has been simmering for ninety minutes — and it has another four hours to go.
We spent fourteen hours inside Hugo Ortega's Downtown flagship to understand what it actually takes to keep an Oaxacan kitchen running at this level, every day, for a decade.
The answer involves 11 distinct chiles, three generations of family recipes, and a chocolate room that has its own dedicated humidifier.