Jorge Vallejo is one of Mexico’s leading progressive chefs. His restaurant Quintonil is currently placed at 22 on the World’s 50 Best List. A native of Mexico City, he graduated from the Centro Culinario de Mexico Ambrosia and began his career in the kitchens of Princess Cruises’ liners, before returning to Mexico to work at Pujol.

He then took on the position of corporate chef at Grupo Habita, where he oversaw kitchens at the Condesadf, Habita and Distrito Capital hotels and was executive chef of Restaurante Diana at The St Regis hotel. He spent time in René Redzepi’s kitchen at Noma before opening Quintonil with wife Alejandra Flores (who runs front of house) in 2012.

Quintonil’s black painted frontage stands out on the tree-lined street in the upmarket Polanco district of Mexico City. Inside, the elegant yet relaxed dining room has a natural feel with light wood panelling, exposed wood table tops, mirrors and greenery, a nod to the chef’s passion for vegetables, herbs and greens.

Vallejo uses locally sourced Mexican ingredients, some from the restaurant’s own rooftop garden, to create vibrant dishes such as the signature avocado tartar, made with ant larvae and Mexican herb chips. Vallejo employs his encyclopaedic knowledge of Mexican cuisine to reinvent traditional dishes so that salbute, the puffed deep-fried tortilla usually topped with chicken and avocado, is instead stuffed with glazed mushrooms in agave honey, fresh corn kernels and ‘chile mixe’ salt.

One of the chef’s own favourite dishes on Quintonil’s 11-course tasting menu is his take on the classic dish of huazontles (a wild green native to Mexico) that he serves with cheese from the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, tomato salsa and habanero chilli. “It incorporates excellent Mexican ingredients but also reflects an interest in new techniques and simply, the way I want to cook something,” Vallejo told eater.com.

In 2014, FOUR Magazine named Vallejo a World Rising Star and he won Best Plate Presentation at the Gourmet Awards. He has een named Chef of the Year by GQ magazine and has received Millesime México Best Restaurant prize. Vallejo was invited by The Best Chef, an organization promoting new global culinary talents, to cook a dinner for the world’s 100 best chefs in Lyon and he has appeared at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and Madrid Fusion.