Slideshow

A Look Back at La Grand Parillada, Starring Javier Plascencia, Aquiles Chavez, And Jose Ramon Castillo

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Pablo Salas

The Hola Mexico Film Festival stepped up what is typically a screen-only agenda this year by hosting some of Mexico’s brightest culinary talents for a food and wine event of epic ambition on Sunday. Celebrity chef Aquíles Chávez, Toluca’s tatted bad-ass Pablo Salas, Javier Plascencia of New Yorker fame, Oaxaca’s Rodolfo Castellanos, and celebrity chocolatier José Ramón Castillo offered guests tastes of their Alta Cocina styles, taking over the spacious, albeit-scorching courtyard in Downtown’s La Plaza de Cultura y Artes. With the help of locals like Josh Gil of Tacos Punta Cabras, Cristian Velasquez of Escuela Taqueria, and volunteering Cordon Bleu students, near disaster was narrowly averted after some of the scheduled help failed to materialize. The dish roster included crispy grilled tacos filled with braised tripas and octopus with fresh green garbanzo beans from Plascencia, and tacos topped with fried veal and a citrus-tinged roasted manzano chile salsa from Salas, while dessert included cinnamon and mezcal marinated fruit topped with deliciously grainy Oaxacan chocolate snow from Castillo. To see everything the chefs were cooking yesterday, come take a look in our slideshow.

Additional reporting by Javier Cabral.

Of Toluca’s Amaranta.
Braised and fried veal tacos with chile manzano salsa.
The Tabasco chef and television star.
Veggies slathered in a bacon crema and cilantro pesto.
The chef behind Tijuana’s Mision 19, Casa Plascencia, and Villa Saverios, and San Diego’s Romesco.
Grilling up a whole lotta tripas, the small intestine of a cow.
Made tacos with octopus and tripa, with fresh gusana garbanzo beans, pickled root vegetables, and avocado.
The chocolate maker and television star.
Provided dessert of cinnamon and mezcal-grilled fresh fruit with Oaxacan chocolate nieve.
Of Oaxaca, taking care of business.
Tijuana’s innovative cafe provided the coffee.
From Baja.
A chef at Ricardo Zarate’s Paiche filled in when many of the volunteers didn’t show up, impressing Grub Street with his drive as he had to be at work that afternoon.
A Tempranillo-Cabernet Sauvignon blend from Baja’s Valle de San Vicente.
A chef from Escuela Taqueria, helped out the visiting chefs yesterday.
A Look Back at La Grand Parillada, Starring Javier Plascencia, Aquiles Chavez, A