Food History of Mexico City

Key eras

Pre-Hispanic Tenochtitlan (1325-1521)

The Aztec capital built on the chinampas of Lake Texcoco ate corn, beans, chiles, amaranth, chia, cacao, turkey, dog, fish, axolotl, chapulines and escamoles. Maize was sacred. Markets fed 200,000 daily by the time Hernan Cortes arrived in 1519. Pulque from fermented maguey sap was the ceremonial drink; chocolate was reserved for the elite. Most of the modern Mexican larder began here.

Colonial New Spain (1521-1821)

The Spanish arrival in 1521 brought wheat, beef, pork, chicken, dairy, garlic, onions, rice and the lard that defined colonial Mexican cooking. Mestizo cuisine emerged from convent kitchens: nuns in Puebla invented mole poblano in the 17th century and chiles en nogada around 1821. The era's signature room is the colonial palace, including the 1692 hacienda that became today's San Angel Inn.

Independence and the Porfiriato (1821-1910)

After independence in 1821, French haute cuisine arrived with Emperor Maximilian (1864-1867). The Porfiriato (1876-1911) brought European immigration, La Opera Bar opened 1895 on 5 de Mayo, Cafe de Tacuba opened 1912 on Calle de Tacuba and Pasteleria Ideal opened 1927. Roma and Condesa rose as Art Nouveau and Art Deco neighbourhoods. The cantina became the urban institution it still is.

Post-Revolution and the al pastor invention (1910-1980)

Lebanese immigrants arrived in the 1920s to 1940s and adapted shawarma into tacos al pastor in the late 1930s, replacing lamb with pork marinated in adobo and stacking it on a vertical trompo. El Tizoncito on Tamaulipas (1966) claims to have invented the modern small-tortilla version. El Huequito (1959) was an even earlier operation. Salon Tenampa opened in 1925, giving Plaza Garibaldi its mariachi identity. La Merced market reached its 1957 form.

Modern Mexican fine dining (1998 to today)

Gabriela Camara opened Contramar on Durango in 1998, retro-engineering the tuna tostada into Mexico City's most-copied dish. Enrique Olvera opened Pujol in 2000 (on Francisco Petrarca, moving to Tennyson in 2017), reorienting it toward modern Mexican around 2006 and beginning the mole madre service in 2013. Jorge Vallejo's Quintonil arrived 2012, then Maximo (2011), Rosetta (2010) and Em. The 2024 Michelin Guide Mexico debuted with stars at Pujol, Quintonil, Sud 777, Em, Rosetta, Maximo, Masala y Maiz, plus the first ever taqueria star at El Califa de Leon.

Immigrant influences

• Lebanese: Lebanese-Mexican families brought shawarma to the city in the 1920s-1940s and adapted it to pork on a vertical trompo, giving birth to tacos al pastor in the late 1930s.
• Spanish: Convent kitchens in Puebla and Mexico City created mole poblano in the 17th century and chiles en nogada around 1821, with Spanish lard, dairy and wheat anchoring colonial Mexican cuisine.
• French: French haute cuisine arrived with the Second Mexican Empire under Maximilian (1864-1867) and shaped the Porfiriato cantinas; pan dulce conchas, bolillos and laminated viennoiserie all trace to that period.
• Italian: Italian immigrants opened Roma Norte trattorias from the 1900s, naming the neighbourhood; Elena Reygadas brought Italian pasta technique to modern Mexican cooking at Rosetta.
• Jewish (Ashkenazi and Sephardic): Polanco grew its kosher delis and bakeries from the 1940s onward, with Maguen David and the Ashkenazi community building Sinai Deli, El Gaucho Grill and the city's kosher infrastructure.
• Spanish post-Civil-War refugees: Republican exiles after 1939 opened the city's Spanish-Mexican kitchens; Pasteleria Suiza opened on Parque Espana in 1942 and Pasteleria Ideal (Centro Historico, founded 1927) became a destination for the cream-filled rosca de reyes.

Signature innovations

• Tacos al pastor: Lebanese-Mexican vertical-trompo invention, 1930s-40s
• Mole madre at Pujol: continuously aged mole, started 2013
• Tuna tostada at Contramar: Gabriela Camara's 1998 retro-built dish
• El Califa de Leon: 2024 first ever Michelin star awarded to a taqueria
• The Mexican fonda: home-cook lunch counter format taken to every barrio