Keeping things in perspective, as would the French writer and legendary figure of 20th Century Literature, Chef Alexander Ruiz has found in the memory those original flavors (those contributed during infancy by mothers and grandmothers) a way to develop a gastronomical avant-garde in the kitchen of the restaurant Casa Oaxaca. Ruiz is a notable Oaxacan chef distinguished throughout the country (the magazine, Dia Siete, has dedicated some pages to him), with 21 years of experience, attention towards the tourism that visits Oaxaca and developing a nouvelle cuisine or, as he calls it, Cocina Fusión (Fusion cuisine.)

He proposes to use traditional Oaxacan elements: scents and flavors such as the herbs hoja santa, pitiona,and shorobobo (that grows on Cerro Fortin), the same spices can be mingled with fish and seafood, as well as with deer or lamb. "What I do is to combine those dishes with regards to the palate that I developed as a boy, but I dare to combine it with select meats, giving it a more aesthetic presentation."

Completely aware that the Oaxacan cuisine is one the three most important in the country and one that has lasted, for the recognized chef of Casa Oaxaca is not easy to manipulate--for Ruiz the traditional cuisine resembles the architecture or Oaxacan painting: it is difficult to find new forms of expression. "A black mole must be well made, but instead of serving it with chicken or pork I serve it with duck; I do the same with the yellow, my customers try it with lamb or venison."

But it is surely so that when it comes to tradition even a tlayuda must be well made and served as tradition demands, because a tlayuda cannot be done gourmet, although for the foreign palate it already is.

One of his creations is the tacos of jícama; yes, the same vegetable we normally eat with chili and lime. Ruiz has reinterpreted it. Preparing very thin smooth slices so that they serve as tortillas do for tacos, stuffed with a paste of chapulines, huitlacoche and quesillo; lightly fried and topped with a tomato salsa and cilantro, and accompanied with guacamole and grenadine.

These innovations do not come easy. Every year Ruiz travels to other cities of the world to take courses from their kitchens and to soak up the best of each gastronomy: Berlin, Milan, Brussels, Vienna, San Sebastián.

Ruiz remembers that on his first trip to Berlin how he could not sleep the last two nights as he questioned himself how to be able to innovate in a Oaxacan kitchen. It was therefore the first menu of Casa Oaxaca was traditional and later underwent modifications: "When I returned I went to the market to buy my herbs (rosemary, basil, hoja santa) and began to develop different plates: a fish fried with olive oil, rosemary, capers and green onion, accompanied by a trimming of beets, pumpkin seed, garlic, onion, honey and sesame.

In spite of this series of innovations, the Oaxacan aromas and flavors continue to be effective in the kitchen, and it was Oaxacan diners who were the first to accept this type of proposal - later it would find allies in the kitchens of El Temple, La Biznaga, and Los Danzantes.

It assures that the niche of the moles is where it should be, while allowing to experiment with other plates-tomato marmolade with fish, capers and flor de calabaza (flower of pumpkin) or fried squid in olive oil with garlic, purple onion, Chile de árbol and hoja santa.

And although different techniques can be learned in the kitchen, for Ruiz, the ability to cook is ultimately something with which you are born. "I never follow a recipe but instead reinterpret the dish with my own ingredients my kitchen is a laboratory. I guide myself by my intuition and by my palate. The cook is like a painter or a musician who is looking for a balance of colors or a harmonic note combination. In the kitchen it is exactly the same and offers you the freedom of being able to do what you want, respecting the flavors of each ingredient."

So this is how it is with his creations, sharpened palates can appreciate purely Oaxacan ingredients, fused with elements of the Mediterranean kitchen, and perhaps more with Spanish and Italian gastronomy. The 5 recurring ingredients are: olive oil, garlic, onion, lime and oja santa.

"The most important thing that I have learned is when I am out of the country it is to feel proud of my origin and authenticity, my family and my values. Here there is a great opportunity to do things with dignity. In Europe the gastronomy (from the waiter to the chef) is a much respected profession, but here it is just a job.”

He emphasizes that the career of a chef is fashionable, but once you are in the kitchen you need to forget the glamour in order to apply all the steps in the production of the dish: a lot work and humility are necessary, because sometimes the cooking schools create princesses and a princess in a kitchen does not fit.

In spite of the fact that three times the Mexican cuisine has been rejected as Patrimonio de la Humanidad (a cultural inheritance), for Ruiz the important thing is that people continue coming to Oaxaca to try out the dishes: "To me as a cook I don’t worry whether it is an inheritance, what worries me is that there is important development within to these innovations, because when something of quality is offered everything else comes to be of consequence".

Contact:
www.casaoaxaca.com
Phone: (011-52-951) 514 41 73 from U.S.
(52-951) 514 41 73 from Europe
(01-951) 514 41 73 from Mexico
Fax: (951) 516 44 12
E-mail address: casaoax@prodigy.net.mx