- Michael Gebert
- Plating venison, one of the few meats Mexico had before 1492
How do you make a seven-course Mexican meal without pork or beef, without limes, without garlic or onions? That’s the challenge that Rick Bayless’s Topolobampo just set itself—because Mexican cuisine had none of those things before the Spanish arrived and brought them.
The result is that rarely do you feel deprived of anything in the meal—maybe only when the absence of dairy is most obvious, as with a boniato (sweet potato) puree. You might expect the desserts to be the harder part of the menu—besides dairy and wheat, pre-Columbian Mexicans also lacked sugar, though they did have honey and agave—but it’s surprisingly lush. Although the ingredients list is true to the era, Bayless’s team allowed themselves to use modern techniques to find ways to achieve things closer to recognizable dishes and desserts—so, for instance, there’s a coconut “ice cream” that has no cream, but it has surprising body from the use of atole, a thick corn drink.
