Author goes into the kitchen to bring Mexican cuisine ideas to life at Izote

Nation's Restaurant News, March 17, 2003 by Florence Fabricant

After years of writing cookbooks and consulting on restaurants in Mexico and New York, Patricia Quintana has put her feet to the fire. A little over a year ago she opened Izote in Mexico City. She's in the kitchen.

"I finally realized Iliad to [open a restaurant]," she says. "I've talked enough about what Mexican cooking should be today. And I needed the challenge."

Izote de Patricia Quintana is in the high-rent Polanco district, on Masaryk, Mexico City's Madison Avenue or rue du Faubourg St.-Honore. Though it shares the neighborhood with Gucci, Vuitton, Cartier, Armani and Escada, it is casual, not plush, trimmed brightly in turquoise and bronze Aztec motifs.

The clientele is casually dressed, happily digging into creative, vibrantly seasoned and inventively presented food. But the food also is undeniably rooted in Mexican traditions. "Bringing the traditions up to date has always been my mission," Ms. Quintana says. Rarely, if ever, does one find Mexican food like this.

Thus, among the starters are a tamale sampler with fillings of huitlacoche--corn fungus, the truffle of Mexico--and cheese with squash blossoms. A kind of venison carpaccio called dzick, a dish that borrows from a rural tradition, comes drizzled with a sour orange sauce.

A small stack of tortillas with corn and shrimp comes bathed in a dark, smoky chipotle sauce. There's an enchilada filled with spiny lobster and green pumpkin seeds, and another enchilada, the single false note in a thoroughly satisfying dinner, stuffed with Brie in a moderately fiery guajillo chili sauce. A crayfish soup, on the thin side but infused with a tart-spicy sour orange and chili mixture, is ladled at the table over seared crayfish, fresh corn and diced tomato.

Lasagne involves sheets of pasta richly layered with huitlacoche and seasoned with the minty herb hoja santa. Another huitlacoche preparation is with the fish of the day in a creamy saffron sauce. The fish in question on the evening I was in the restaurant was red snapper. It was one of the best fillets of red snapper I have enjoyed in quite a while -- and not only because of Quintana's preparation.

In Mexico, not just in Mexico City but also on the coast near Puerto Vallarta, the red snapper was consistently firm, succulent and flavorful. It had none of the softness and somewhat grainy texture I have found in red snapper in many New York and even Florida operations. It seemed more like fresh black sea bass. The best explanation I've received has to do with the freshness of the fish.

After the red snapper came a piece-de-resistance: a lamb shank steamed to moist tenderness in a huge banana leaf. It was untied from its wrapping by the waiter, spooned -- yes, spooned -- onto our plates and accompanied with a trio of salsas: fresh green with pulque, the fermented drink made from agave; ancho chili with orange juice; and one blended with blackberries and chilies.

A kind of nut torte with a cajeta caramel sauce and several sorbets, including one with a margarita flavor, rounded out the dinner. I had started with a simple, straight up and delicious margarita and I went on to beer instead of wine with the dinner. Then, while Quintana chatted after dinner, she offered icy little glasses of nectar, a late-harvest chardonnay made in Baja California.

Izote moved into its location when another restaurant moved out, and it inherited a fairly compact kitchen that's on the upper level. There's a grilling station on the dining-room floor, in back, near a service bar.

When one considers the extent of the-menu and the complexity and quality of the food, the limited kitchen space makes Izote nothing short of astonishing.