Food History of Puebla

Key eras

1531 to 1700, the convent kitchens

Puebla was founded in 1531 as a Spanish city with no indigenous settlement underneath it, and its convents became the laboratory where European technique met Mexican ingredients. Nuns at Santa Rosa and Santa Clara ground chiles, chocolate, nuts and spices into the sauces that became mole poblano, and turned pumpkin seed and sugar into the tortita de Santa Clara.

1821, chiles en nogada

The dish tied to the signing of the Treaty of Cordoba pairs a stuffed poblano chile with a walnut cream and pomegranate seeds. It is genuinely seasonal: the criollo walnut and the pomegranate both ripen in the Puebla valley between July and September, which is why the plate leaves menus in the autumn and comes back the following summer.

The 19th century, the Calle de los Dulces

La Gran Fama opened on Avenida 6 Oriente in the 19th century as the first camote counter in the city, and the street around it turned into a single trade. Camotes, cocadas, borrachitos, muéganos and rompope are still sold along the same block, one shopfront after another, with the ex-convent of Santa Clara opposite.

1933, the Lebanese spit

Migrants from the Levant set up vertical spits in central Puebla in the early 1930s. Tacos Arabes Bagdad and the first Oriental counter on 16 de Septiembre both date their recipe to 1933, and Bagdad moved to its 2 Poniente counter in 1945, and both served spit-roast pork in flatbread rather than tortillas. The taco al pastor is the descendant of that idea.

2024 to 2026, the Michelin years

The Michelin Guide arrived in Mexico and put Puebla on the map without awarding the city a star. Eight kitchens across the state took a 2026 Bib Gourmand, including Casareyna, Moyuelo, Cultivo, Los Camellos and Semitas Beto, and six more were listed as recommended, among them Augurio, Casa Bacuuza and La Noria.

Immigrant influences

• Spanish (Andalusian and Castilian): Brought wheat bread, pork, dairy and the convent tradition that produced mole poblano, the tortita de Santa Clara and the sesame-crusted cemita roll.
• Lebanese and Syrian: Arrived in the 1920s and 1930s and set vertical pork spits with pan arabe on 2 Poniente, creating the taco arabe and, indirectly, the taco al pastor.
• Italian (Chipilo, Veneto): Veneto families settled Chipilo south of the city in 1882 and built the dairy trade that still supplies Puebla with fresh cheese, cream and gelato.
• Oaxacan: Migration from the Sierra and the Valles Centrales brought quesillo, tasajo and tlayudas, which Casa Bacuuza now serves on 3 Poniente, sourced village by village from Oaxaca.

Signature innovations

• Mole poblano, the convent sauce that made a chile and chocolate grind into a national dish
• Chiles en nogada, a plate that only exists while the criollo walnut is in season
• The cemita, a sesame-crusted roll built with papalo, quesillo and chipotle
• The taco arabe, spit-roast pork in flatbread that fathered the taco al pastor
• The camote, boiled sweet potato paste rolled into a sweet on Avenida 6 Oriente
• Chalupas poblanas, small masa rounds fried to order in red and green salsa