![\"Alcaravea](\"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/12669470_823022704490148_1665505517735495526_n.jpg\")
<\/a>Enrique D\u00edaz is chef and owner at Alcaravea Gourmet, a fine dining fixture in Cabo San Lucas since 2006.<\/p><\/div>\n
There are no other restaurants in Los Cabos with entrances garlanded by trained vines and flowers, with such an eclectic art collection, or that are as likely to play Edith Piaf as traditional Mexican balladeers. Alcaravea Gourmet is sui generis<\/em>, one of a kind\u2026just like its talented owner-chef.<\/p>\n I recently sat down and spoke to Chef D\u00edaz about his journey to Cabo San Lucas<\/a>, the history of Alcaravea Gourmet, and the art of creating a distinctive fine dining atmosphere.<\/p>\n Can you share a bit of your story with our readers, Chef? Where were you born? How did you become interested in cooking?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I was born in Mexico City, but when I was eight years old my dad took us to another city, because Mexico City was growing really fast at that time, and he saw the future and didn\u2019t think it was going to be the best place for us as a family. So we moved to Toluca, which at that time was still somewhat small, but is now also a big city.<\/p>\n My dad was an accountant, but he also used to love restaurants. He was passionate about the restaurant business, and he started a career in restaurant administration. He learned to cook\u2026he wasn\u2019t a chef\u2026but he learned all about food and beverage management. He studied it all, and became a specialist in helping restaurants that were not working very well.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t want to be in the business, originally. I didn\u2019t feel comfortable with it. I was thinking about studying communications. Then my dad retired, and he and my mom opened their own restaurant. I was still very young, but I started to work with them. My sisters and my whole family were involved in this restaurant. It turned out to be very successful. It was open for over 30 years in Toluca, serving really good Mexican food.<\/p>\n The first time I was in the kitchen and held a knife, I felt very comfortable. I started talking with my parents about recipes, but I wasn\u2019t serious yet. Then I went to Ensenada. I had some family there, had vacationed there, and decided to stay for awhile. What made me decide to stay was at that time I didn\u2019t speak English very well, and I was motivated to learn. But also it was a very beautiful place. It was totally different than what I knew, and I liked that. So I stayed and went to the university to learn English.<\/p>\n But I also had to work. That was my real beginning. I started working as a bus boy\u2026I wasn\u2019t fluent enough to be a waiter, and serve the many Americans that came in\u2026but eventually ended up in the kitchen. The owner was half French, half Mexican. She was a master of the kitchen, and it was through her that I started to become really passionate about quality, preparation, all of the important aspects of cooking.\u00a0 I had been passionate, too, working with my family, but it was working at this restaurant in Ensenada that I became consumed with the craft and the creative possibilities. When I returned to Mexico City, I knew I was going to become a chef.<\/p>\n You started formal culinary training?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I studied at the culinary academy, and then I had the chance to start working in hotels, and also to travel in Europe. At that time I had friends in Italy and France. I loved Europe, and discovered a passion for the different cultures. At that time, many years ago, French food was considered the standard of excellence, and so when I returned to Toluca I decided to open a French restaurant, called Francachela. The restaurant was successful, but the partnership I had formed to start the business wasn\u2019t. So I ended moving to Toronto, Canada, where once again I had an opportunity to study English.<\/p>\n Healthy, organic Mediterranean style cuisine is the specialty of the house at Alcaravea Gourmet.<\/p><\/div>\n This time I ended up working in Toronto\u2019s Little Italy. At the beginning of my career I worked for years with Italians, and that\u2019s how I learned to cook Italian food. We originally started here, at Alcaravea Gourmet, with international food and a few fusions. We had a prix fixe<\/em> menu, different every day…sort of like what we do for lunch now. For example, there would be one Mexican dish, one Spanish, one French, one Italian, etc. But people responded to the Italian food more than anything else, and that\u2019s really why it started to become such a big part of our menu.<\/p>\n How did you get from Toronto to Cabo San Lucas?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n When I spent two years in Toronto, I was married. She was Mexican also, but she had worked in Toronto before, and she helped motivate me to want to move up there. I developed a really good relationship with the owner of the restaurant where I was working, a very real friendship. So I was going to have some great opportunities.<\/p>\n But at a certain point my wife wanted to come back to M\u00e9xico. The weather up there was cold much of the time, and we had just had a child, and I think she felt a little homesick. She had studied in the tourism industry, and at that time had some friends in Cabo. They were telling her to move here. Ten years ago, of course, this place was booming. It was before the economic recession slowed everything down.<\/p>\n One day she asked me, \u201cDo you want to stay here in Toronto?\u201d I said \u201cYes, I would like to stay.\u201d Well, she wanted to leave, and of course I wasn\u2019t going to stand in the way if that was what she really wanted. I was going to support my family. I started researching Cabo and became really excited about what I learned, so we moved here in 2006.<\/p>\n How soon after moving here did you open Alcaravea Gourmet?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I had been living in Toronto, which is an expensive city, and I couldn\u2019t believe at first how expensive it was here. We were living in an expensive neighborhood when we arrived, and I was surprised how much everything cost. I\u2019d be having a taco, and be shocked at how much it cost. I went to the market, and food was a little high, but I didn\u2019t understand why dining out cost so much at that time. It was mainly taquer\u00edas<\/em> and fast food. I wanted to do something healthy, something different, something more affordable.<\/p>\n I talked to people and they told me that if I wanted to open something I need to do it in the tourist area. I thought the best thing to do then was to go and work for a hotel, but then I saw a small place, asked about the rent, and it wasn\u2019t that expensive. It was a tiny place, with a fraction of the space we have now, but it was only a few blocks from the main road. I decided to do it, and I did. Since the beginning we\u2019ve had a lot of people come, and they always appreciated that we had very good food, but we were also very affordable, with really reasonable prices.<\/p>\n The new garden bar at Alcaravea Gourmet looks out through the restaurant’s distinctive fa\u00e7ade, which features wrought iron trained with vines and colorful flowers.<\/p><\/div>\n At the time Derrick and Anastasia Grahn were the owners of this place. They had the Hangout Caf\u00e9 \u00a0here, and there were some other small shops as well, including a beauty shop. Maybe 10 years before then, there was a bus depot, too. Anyway, in those days Derrick and Anastasia published a magazine called Cabo Noche<\/em> (later Cabo Social<\/em>), and they had the magazine office upstairs. After we had been open six months or so, they decided to move to a larger building about a block away. Derrick wanted me to take over his space here. I didn\u2019t really have the money, but he told me not to worry, that we\u2019d work something out. And we did.<\/p>\n It was very challenging. We didn\u2019t really even have a wine list back then, just a few bottles from domestic producers. We didn\u2019t have a liquor license for awhile. But we stayed focused, kept the quality high, and kept putting everything back into the business. It was a simple place, but we had a smile for everyone. We were on a mission. We grew into the space, and kept the focus on the food and service.<\/p>\n Speaking of service, you have one of the best wait staffs in Los Cabos. How much training do you do with your people?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Well, you just saw people leaving after training. Typically, we have a training session about once a week. Sometimes twice. It depends. The important thing is that we\u2019re always looking for opportunities to get better. Next week, for example, we\u2019re going to be training with some baristas<\/em> from Starbucks, to help upgrade our coffee service.<\/p>\n Those things help, but the key to our food and service is how long some of our staff have been here. There are people who have been with us from the very beginning. Two of our cooks just finished culinary school, young people, who are comfortable with us because we treat them well, and offer opportunities to learn and advance.<\/p>\n One of the things I always try to do is to identify the strengths and skills of my people, and to put them in advantageous positions. Sometimes a person might be very good at something and not even know it. You have to let them know, and also help them explore and improve in other areas. At the beginning I had two cooks in pastry. That\u2019s all they thought they could do. I had to show them that they could do so much more, and they have. One has been here eight years, the other nine. I\u2019m very proud of them.<\/p>\n In the beginning I didn\u2019t have a lot of tools, so our strength had to be our staff.<\/p>\n Were you the only place in the neighborhood making Italian food in 2006?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, there was nobody else. I was out front in my toque, my apron, my jacket. I used to be out there every night with food on a tray, telling people \u201cTry this! I\u2019m the Chef here. I just came from Canada.\u201d It took some time. People are sometimes reluctant to try something different. But we kept growing, and I made a lot of friends. For example, there\u2019s a lady bringing a big party in later, 25 people. She was one of my first customers. She doesn\u2019t come all the time, but she recommends us to a lot of people, and we get some big parties that way.<\/p>\n You have a passionate local following. I would imagine a lot of your new business is from recommendations. True?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n It was the local people who first brought the tourists. They brought them in. They saw that visitors wanted to try something different at a reasonable price. We had to make a decision at that time, because we had very little staff. Tourists didn\u2019t really want to come for lunch, but for dinner. So we closed for lunch because I didn\u2019t have the people or the money for two shifts.<\/p>\n![\"Alcaravea](\"https:\/\/www.loscabosguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/12193272_778711402254612_8608226007158697985_n.jpg\")
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