Two of the biggest names in Mayan Riviera hospitality are teaming up for an intimate garden dinner series. Through February 2, Hotel Esencia, the only Three MICHELIN Key property on this Caribbean coast of Mexico, will host chef Eric Werner of Hartwood, a Guide-favorite restaurant down the beach in Tulum, for a five-night-a-week residency.
Set in Esencia’s lush Palm Garden, with its roving peacocks and thatched-roof palapa, the five- course tasting menu is a live fire tribute to the region, with local prawns, lobster, and filet mignon passed over a central, open grill in a style that Werner has mastered in his entirely wood-burning kitchen at Hartwood.
“I am completely in love with wood-fire cooking,” Werner says. “It allows so much more interaction with the food, so much more depth of flavor.”
In a Q +A, Werner details the menu – which changes nightly – and his approach to cooking for guests at the highest end of Mexican luxury.
What was your mission going into this collaboration? It’s kind of like a Michelin superhero team-up!
We don't usually do things like this, so it was an opportunity that really arrived with perfect timing. We were excited to jump into this. Esencia has always been one of my favorite hotels – the beautiful, lush environment, the staff has always been so friendly and accommodating and super gracious, everybody's very nice up there. Over the years we've always served a lot of the Esencia guests and so this was a great opportunity to provide a little more of a curated experience, a little more of a private experience for their guests, to give me more time to go out to them, to talk to them, and to do some cooking that’s basically in front of them because we have the open fire grill and we have the oven in the kitchen there as well.
Walk us through the dinner. What's the guest experience?
It's all outdoor seating. There are peacocks around and palm trees and fruit. Everything is beautiful and green. The staff are excited. We have a couple hosts that we brought up from Hartwood that really kind of allow the guests to come in and relax and have fun. Then we get started with the five-course menu. We also have two Hartwood drinks that change throughout the night. Everybody comes together and tries to give the guests a little bit more of an exciting experience, a little more of a fun experience. And we get to know each one of the guests that come in because they're coming in on multiple nights. They usually stay in the hotel for five or six days, so we see them all the way through the week.
What are some of the mainstays on the menu and what have been some of your favorite innovations?
The whole Caribbean lobster is one of mainstays on the menu, served with yucca or we sometimes serve it with a citrus salad as well. We have three to four different types of fish on the menu that we're offering as a ceviche or as a crudo. We have a couple of steak options on the menu including a prime, which is like a filet mignon that is served with a pepita lime butter and wrapped in a banana leaf to give it a little bit more of a smokier flavor. We serve that with a roasted plátano macho, which is kind of like a sweeter but heartier tasting banana and topped with a little bit of Mayan honey and lime zest. It’s something different for the guest to have, something that they might not have had someplace else.
Tell us more about the open fire setup.
We have two grills that are all open wood-fired grills. We're using a tropical wood – it's all different woods from the forest that have already fallen, so they're already cured. And we’re cooking Mayan prawns on those grills – never frozen, brought directly from Campeche, directly up here for the event. We also serve them at Hartwood all the time. They’re a mainstay there. I wanted to integrate some of the elements of the Hartwood menu onto the menu at Esencia, while also trying to allow them to stand on their own and be unique at the same time.
We're also doing lobster and a whole fish from start to finish on the grill. We serve the whole fish with pickled, grilled tropical fruits, like a carambola, papaya, pineapple, or rambutan. It's kind of like a fruity pickle. It's really nice. And we serve that also with sikil pak, which is like a pepita mix that is kind of bright, but also well rounded.
What do you love about open fire grilling?
I've been doing it at Hartwood now for almost 15 years. I am completely in love with wood-fire cooking. It allows so much more interaction with the food, so much more depth of flavor. To me, it's the whole package. It really allows you to develop your technique with working with fire, to develop your technique with building a fire to start. Your food is interacting with the smoke, with the fire, with all these different things.
What are some of the differences between what you’re doing at Hartwood, on your home base, and what you’re doing here?
One difference between the two is that at Esencia, we're serving about 20 to 30 people an evening. This gives me an opportunity to work on a couple new recipes and present them to the Esencia guest. Also, one hour before I go into the Esencia menu, I'm able to modify or tweak the menu based on what I'm getting exactly in that moment. So that's kind of the nicer thing: It's a little bit of a smaller, tighter menu – a little more private for the Esencia guest.
You've shared that you love to stay at Esencia as a guest with your family. What’s it like being a part of an experience like this that’s really at the highest end of luxury in the area?
Not a lot can compare to it. From the moment that you get there and you're driven on the golf cart that goes down the winding path, and you're brought through the jungle, you come into a very well-curated landscape of everything that’s organic and natural and has always been there, but that’s also trimmed to perfection. All of the staff are there smiling, greeting you, and then you come down and all of the Caribbean Sea opens up in front of you with beautiful white beaches. It's breathtaking. There are few places that can equate to that, to be honest with you, and I've been down here for a long time. It's an honor to be there cooking and to work with their staff and to be in that location.
Hero image: Hotel Esencia
Thumb image: Gentlandhyers / Hartwood
