Alcalde

Alcalde is a Mexican restaurant on Avenida México in Guadalajara, opened in 2013 by the chef Francisco Ruano, known as Paco. It takes its name from the Mercado Alcalde, one of the old food markets of the city.

Ruano started cooking straight after school. He worked on a cruise line and then for three years at Café des Artistes in Puerto Vallarta, before he went to Spain to train at El Celler de Can Roca, Akelarre and Mugaritz. Back in his home city of Guadalajara, he set out to cook the food of Jalisco and the rest of Mexico with the methods he had learned in those kitchens, and the restaurant became one of the first in the city to be known abroad.

The restaurant serves a tasting menu of four to seven courses, as well as a shorter set of three courses chosen from the menu. Among the first courses, shrimp come raw in a green aguachile sharpened with apple, and a small corn gordita holds soft cheese under a chili cream. Suckling pig comes with pipián, a sauce of ground seeds, beside a croquette of huauzontle, a wild green, and the catch of the day is served with salsa diabla and nopal. Jericalla, the baked custard of Guadalajara, closes many meals.

Fruits and vegetables come from growers in Ensenada, in Baja California, fish from the coast of Nayarit, and beans and tubers from farms around Jalisco. The dining room seats about 60 people. Alcalde has appeared on the extended list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants since it was first published, and the Michelin Guide gave it a star when it reached Mexico.