Day 1

Arrive and meet your fellow travelers and guide

After settling into our boutique hotel, we’ll set out for a welcome dinner at the perfect first stop in Mexico City, Nicos. A favorite for generations of locals, Nicos is that rare institution that has adapted to changes in the city without losing its identity. In business for 70 years, the place feels contemporary yet maintains an old school edge. The food of chef Gerardo Lugo – also the founder of Mexico City’s Slow Food chapter – is at once homey and artful. This is where we set the stage for our week as a group and get a taste of all that we will discover together.

Day 2

Tour the Centro Histórico, sample agave spirits

After breakfast, we’ll head out on a walking tour of the Centro Histórico, where immediately we’ll gain perspective on the many influences on the city’s kitchen. We’ll start at a local bakery that produces thousands of baked goods each and every day. Then, Paco will show us the highlights of the historic center, including the oldest public park in the Americas, a Diego Rivera mural that depicts 400 years of history and buildings that reveal the effects of the great earthquake of 1985. The lessons of the day all come together at the zócalo, a huge plaza shared by a colonial era cathedral and the ruins of the Pyramid of Teotihuacán. We’ll have a late lunch at a restaurant that’s off the beaten path, where we’ll enjoy giant tlayudas, crispy chapulines and glasses of refreshing horchata with melon and pecans. After a break in the afternoon, we’re invited for an evening with our resident chef, Emilio. A certified expert in agave-based spirits, Emilio will guide you in a tasting that includes mezcal, tequila and more. Each sip will be paired with antojitos – small bites – prepared in Emilios’s kitchen at Casa Jacaranda.

Day 3

Shop, taste and cook with Casa Jacaranda

Today, we’ll meet up again with Emilio for a full day of exploring, cooking and feasting together. We’ll begin with a shopping and tasting excursion to his local market. We’ll visit Emilio’s favorite market stalls, meet the vendors he works with, and taste chocolate, cheese and fresh tortillas, three foundations of Mexican cuisine. Back at Casa Jacaranda, he’ll lead you through a hands-on cooking class highlighting peak seasonal products. We’ll make salsas – a passion of Emilio’s – tamales and homemade tortillas of your own. After cooking, we’ll sit down for a well-earned late afternoon feast accompanied by a cocktail or two. This evening we’ll be free to rest and digest on our own.

Day 4

Eat a sunrise breakfast on a floating farm

We’ll head out in the morning by private van to get aboard a small boat on the canals of Xochimilco, the UNESCO heritage site of pre-Hispanic farmlands and canals. Once the vegetable garden of the city, today Xochimilco is home to a small group of passionate farmers and environmentalists who are revitalizing the area and are supported by the city’s top restaurants. We’ll watch the sun come up behind a volcanic skyline with a mug of hot café de olla – a beloved local coffee – in hand. Then we’ll visit a local farm, to learn about indigenous agricultural traditions that are being revived here. Breakfast will be made in an open-air kitchen using ingredients that you harvest from the field just minutes before. Back in the city, we’ll have some free time midday; anyone interested can be dropped off near Frida Kahlo’s house for a visit. In the evening, we’ll visit Licorería Limantour, where we can get behind the bar with professional bartenders. J.M. Hirsch, Milk Street’s Editorial Director and author of several cocktail books, earmarked this one for us; it’s his go-to Mexico City bar. Margarita al pastor? J.M. says: Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it!

Day 5

Dive deep into corn and take a taco tour

Corn is the cornerstone of the Mexican diet, so today is dedicated to in-depth, hands-on learning about this essential ingredient. In the morning we’ll visit Maizajo, an educational project started by a group of chefs dedicated to preserving and promoting the use of heirloom corn varieties in making tortillas. We’ll learn about the process from corn stalk to nixtamalization to milling to masa to tortilla and beyond. We’ll cement your respect for this process by sampling some fresh snacks from their griddle. Armed with our appreciation for all things corn, we’ll stop by the colorful Jamaica market for an early lunch at a few of our favorite stalls, including one specializing in the local delicacy, huitlacoche – corn fungus – and another dishing up esquites, cups of tender corn kernels with herbs. Plus, we will be introduced to some favorite local sweets, like tamarind coated in chili powder, tequila-flavored coconut rolls and what Paco calls the “pre-Hispanic power bar.” We’ll rest and digest in the afternoon in preparation for one of the week’s highlights and a Mexico City ritual: cruising for tacos. Our guide, Paco, featured in Netflix’s Taco Chronicles, is an expert on the subject and will take us to a few of his favorite places including an essential spot for tacos al pastor.

Day 6

Make mole and sample pulque in Milpa Alta

We’ll get an early start to travel to Milpa Alta, a farming community southeast of Mexico City. Here we will spend the day with a local family that holds tight to local culinary traditions. On their farm, we’ll learn about an ancient – and sustainable – farming system still in practice as we walk the fields and taste the maguey plant’s fresh sap, which is the key ingredient in the indigenous fermented drink pulque. We’ll then make our way back into town and to the home of a third-generation mole producer. In her outdoor patio, we’ll roll up our sleeves and help prepare the 30+ ingredients that go into her mole especial. We’ll carry buckets of the prepared ingredients around the corner to her family’s mill, where we’ll be immersed in the smell of fresh mole. After a short walk around town, we’ll share a late lunch of family recipes with our hosts – featuring mole, of course – before returning to Mexico City in the early evening. We’ll be free this evening to relax, get a drink or take a stroll on our own.

Day 7

Breakfast workshop at Casa Jacaranda and farewell dinner

In the morning Emilio has invited us over to cook his grandmother’s breakfast recipes together. We’ll learn to make “drowned eggs,” chilaquiles pasilla and black beans, the base of every meal in Emilio’s family home. After brunch, we’ll have free time to visit art museums, shop or rest until we meet up for our farewell dinner. We’ve got a reservation at Tetetlán, the celebrated restaurant located next door to La Casa Pedregal, a home designed by Luis Barragán, one of Mexico’s most famous architects. But before dinner, we’re in for a treat: a private tour of La Casa Pedregal. We’ll sip a cocktail as we explore this house museum and take in our final lessons about Mexico City’s transformation over time. We’ll sit down to dinner in a private room to reflect on the week and enjoy a meal featuring the highest quality ingredients, many sourced from the chinampas of Xochimilco that we visited earlier in the week.

Day 8

Pack Up and Depart

We wish you safe travels and continued adventures on the road.