Opening a restaurant in Mexico’s Riviera Maya wasn’t an apparent subsequent step for Curtis Stone. In spite of everything, the acclaimed Australian chef is squarely settled in Los Angeles, the place he owns and runs the Michelin-starred Gwen and, beforehand, Maude. However when the Belmond inns workforce approached him about opening a restaurant on a resort they have been refurbishing on this sizzling spot simply south of Cancun, he felt a right away connection.  

“[Belmond] actually needed to enhance it — however maintain its pure attraction,” he says of the resort, which was beforehand a personal residence. It’s a departure from most of the close by seashores, the place giant inns have shot up shortly and pushed a celebration scene full with daytime DJs. However what actually caught Stone’s consideration was the open hearth that performed a central function of the kitchen the place his restaurant would go. Whereas it’s a longstanding Mayan culinary custom, live-fire cooking runs in Stone’s household, too.

“My granny had a giant hearth at their farmhouse [in Victoria]; it’s what she cooked on and it’s what heated the home,” he says. “After I walked into that home I smelled the fireplace, and that’s a really particular scent to me.”

Stone already faucets into that cooking custom at Gwen, however he liked the thought of doing it by the lens of Mexico’s personal traditions — and culinary strengths. “Mexico is in the course of an incredible meals revolution,” he says. “And it’s occurring for good motive. The elements right here? It’s unbelievable — it’s like a playground.”

He named the restaurant Woodend, after the city in Victoria the place the household farmhouse is, after which labored along with his workforce to construct a menu that, he says, is slightly like “writing a love letter” to the world.

“I’m actually into telling tales by dishes,” Stone says. “And right here, we’re embracing the Mayan tradition, we’re embracing the elements — however we’re nonetheless cooking in a means that may be very genuine to us.” 

An amuse bouche of chilled tomato consommé with balls of melon and cucumber evokes the sensation of leaping into an area cenote to go swimming on a sizzling day. The “Mayan rice” is completed risotto-style, however the central ingredient including taste is native chaya greens. Then, after all, there’s the part of the menu that’s cooked over an open flame.

“There’s an unbelievable indigenous wooden right here that we’ve received our palms on that’s received a extremely delicate scent,” he says. “And over it we roast stunning meats and seafood from the area.” That seafood contains bluefin tuna from Ensenada and blue prawns from Sinaloa. The prawns are grilled and paired with inexperienced mango, apple, daikon, and almond. 

“[Woodend is] not some steakhouse that we pulled out of Los Angeles or New York and simply threw down right here as a result of we thought individuals may be enthusiastic about coming to my restaurant,” Stone says. “We needed to faucet into and respect the indigenous tradition.”

It explains why his partnership with Belmond is so seamless. After a full overhaul, Belmond launched Maroma, A Belmond Resort, Riviera Maya final yr. The model has taken nice pains to supply company distinctive experiences that work in concord with the pure environment of the Yucatán. Onsite, there’s a nursery producing endemic crops in addition to sanctuaries for indigenous birds, sea turtles, and Melipona bees (a stingless species prized by the Mayans). 

On the spa — by Guerlain — you’ll be able to e book a bee remedy and sound therapeutic session, take a category on native crops and herbs on the apothecary, or sweat it out in a temazcal. Whenever you keep at one of many 72 rooms and villas, you’ll robotically have an attendant to curate your go to, whether or not reserving your eating, yoga, meditation, and even sustainable ocean golf. 

It’s also possible to go for extra bespoke experiences like an agave spirits tasting — or a cenote go to. Swim in a single by day, come again and pattern Woodend’s homage to it that night. If Stone and his workforce are writing a love letter to Riviera Maya, it’s each a chic and real one.