Original subtitles

[Deckman] I'm from the South.

And so if it's not smoked, then it's not worthy, right?

Wood-fired cooking is so primal.

It's so, like, how it all started 10,000 or however many thousands of years ago.

And now it's trending, which I think is funny that

the original way ancient man cooked is now trending.

I mean, how can that possibly be?

It makes everything taste better.

It's sort of the ultimate connection to nature.

[gentle music playing]

Using nature to cook nature.

I've lived and worked all over the world.

In 2012, we opened Deckman's En El Mogor in Valle de Guadalupe

on the grounds of an organic farm and vineyard

with the goal to be as close to a sustainable,

zero-kilometer restaurant as possible.

And I think I finally found my home.

I came here because of the incredible ingredients

that come from both the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean.

We have beautiful produce, cheeses, meats, olive oils,

all within mere miles from the restaurant.

For me, it really is a chef's paradise.

After I became a Mexican citizen,

it was important for me to travel the country

and meet like-minded chefs,

ranchers, producers, fishermen, artisans,

who shared my commitment to responsible and sustainable farming and fishing.

Join me as we explore and deep dive into the magical landscape of Mexico

and discover its rich, culinary tapestry.

[upbeat music playing]

[Deckman] The Baja Peninsula's stunning and diverse landscape of deserts,

mountains, and coastlines is one of the longest peninsulas in the world,

extending over 1,000 kilometers.

And in my opinion, it's one of the most spectacular places on the planet.

The Sea of Cortez on the east coast of the peninsula

is known for its biodiversity

and has been called the Aquarium of the World

for its vast variety of marine life.

It has even been designated as a UNESCO world heritage site

due to its ecological importance in distinctive marine ecosystems.

The sea supports a wide range of amazing species and seafood.

The Pacific Ocean on the west coast of the peninsula

also has nutrient-rich waters.

Here, the ocean has a consistent tide flow,

which produces a bounty of outstanding seafood.

The northern part of the peninsula is Baja California.

And this region has played a pivotal role in Mexico's food and wine revolution

that began back in the early 2000's.

Up until 20 years ago, there weren't any fine dining restaurants

held by Mexican chefs serving Mexican cuisine in Mexico.

If you went to a fine dining restaurant in Mexico City, for example,

the chef would be French, serving French food and French wine.

But that began to change when, in the late 1990's,

aspiring chefs left the country to attend culinary school or stage

at well-known restaurants throughout the world.

With new sophisticated palates, knowledge, and sharpened culinary techniques,

they returned to Mexico and opened their own restaurants.

With a focus on using Mexican ingredients,

they began to innovate, elevate, and redefine Mexican cuisine.

Here in Baja California, two chefs spearheaded

the movement to redefine Mexican cuisine in the early 2000's.

Benito Molina opened Manzanilla in Ensenada...

and Jair Tellez opened Laja in Valle de Guadalupe,

both offering fine-dining experiences with local ingredients.

[rock music playing]

My friend Pablo Ferrer was instrumental in this new culinary movement.

As a young oceanographer, he saw Baja ingredients being exported,

and not even being available to local chefs.

He created the marketplace and the logistics

to get these incredible ingredients to local chefs.

Today, his company, Sargazo, is one of the premier

and well-respected wholesale distribution companies

in Baja and Mexico.

It's you, man. You--

When people ask me what really caused the catalyst,

what allowed Mexico to go from...

sort of seen as almost a celebration of peasant food--

I don't know if that's the right word, but really, really traditional food.

--uh, in sort of the high-end...

The ability of a really finer restaurant experience

was all created because he created a logistic

to get high-end ingredients to these chefs.

And there really wasn't-- Other than imported things,

that didn't exist on a national level in Mexico.

Because at that time, you know, all over Mexico,

if you wanted, uh, to have good ingredients...

[Deckman] They came from someplace else.

-...in a restaurant... -Yeah.

...they would bring them from abroad.

So it's, like, ironic that we had these amazing ingredients

going to other countries.

And if you wanted something good, you would have to bring it--

Back then, it was really the story with any ingredient in Mexico.

You had some of the best agriculture products in the world

all being exported.

And what was left here... We didn't have--

There weren't very many options. And I think that's changing.

I think there's way more focus today in Mexico

about, uh, celebrating local producers,

understanding what is grown around you,

uh, and really, the producers understanding that:

"Hey, there is a marketplace in Mexico for those ingredients."

So, yeah, I would say that I was at the right place

at the right time, surrounded by the right people.

And you know, at that time,

no hotel would dare to hire a Mexican chef.

-Yeah. -Uh...

I mean, many different cooks,

but the head chef would be French, uh...

-[Deckman] Italian, Spanish, German. -...European, from anywhere,

and sometimes a couple of Americans.

But it was mostly, uh, European chefs.

And I mean, it's been changing so much.

Even Mexican food was not appreciated. I mean...

It really also changed the country, and in the sense

that when the chefs started being recognized,

the Mexican chefs started being recognized as Mexican chefs

and your restaurant starts being noticed and it's not from France,

and it's not from, you know, a European or American establishment,

You know, makes you proud.

And so I think, for Mexico and for all the, you know,

from all the way from the back of the house

to the front of the house,

it just, it fills you with pride.

-Cheers for that. -Yes, cheers for that.

-Cheers to the ingredients. -Everything's delicious Drew.

-Thank you. -Thank you.

[Deckman] Bruma and restaurant Fauna are part of the new wave of development

in Guadalupe Valley.

Beautiful infrastructure offering a highly polished hotel and gastronomy

combined with well-made wines

have set the tempo for the future development of the area.

Restaurant Fauna recently grabbed the number five spot

of Latin America's 50 best restaurants by San Pellegrino,

bringing well-deserved notoriety to the restaurant and the Valley.

It's one of the nice things about being here in Baja California

that you can really kind of do sort of whatever you want.

-Exactly. -Right?

But I mean, about no rules.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Because, you know, living in Michoacán, Oaxaca, or Yucatan,

there's so much tradition in so many years.

We have a colleague here in the Valley that likes to say,

"We don't have the weight of the pyramids on our shoulders."

Yes.

And so, you know, Baja food or Baja cuisine has really become

kind of anything made with Baja ingredients.

Baja is a really young state, populated by mainly migrants

-from different parts of the world. -Exactly.

So I think it's a combination between some sort of, like,

Mexican influence, Baja flavors, with whatever background you have.

Each family created its own "version" of Baja cuisine,

with the ingredients, with the backgrounds,

with whatever they enjoy eating.

So still we have some food that we don't share the same... No?

-Same history. -It has to do with that.

Her Spanish background or my German background

uh, decided to do something... something different.

What brings us together, I guess, is seafood,

'cause we all have seafood in our background

whatever way you prepared it, you know.

-I mean, erizo, and lobster, and cangrejo. -Yes.

And we always-- We all ate that in a way, no? And certainly--

-But that's going back to the ingredients. -Yeah.

A lot of people think, of course, of seafood, no,

fish tacos when you come here.

And I think gradually, gastronomy or food has taken over

that agricultural part of the Valley.

We have to remember that the sea gives us this amazing seafood

in which everyone, you know--

We became a gastronomical region in the country because of it.

Let's not forget that, you know, when you come to the Valle,

have a great meal, maybe enjoy a carajillo,

but that's not why you're here, you know.

-It all started with the wine. -It all started with the wine.

Let's remember where we came from,

what we're doing, what makes this special, and what created the whole thing.

-I love wine because I love food. -Yeah.

They come together.

You both grew up here,

but then you both left and went to see the world,

learning your trade and your skills.

As you travel and you come back home, you're never the same person.

It's not the same person that left on the travel that comes back.

How have your international experiences

allowed you to be better ambassadors,

better producers here in Baja California?

The first time I left was to Denmark.

Uh, Noma was the best restaurant in the world. That was the first time.

And I started looking to our cuisine, uh, in a very different way.

And it was until I until, of course, until you see something else.

For us, growing up here, you have 500 different dishes,

like, different textures, different flavors, different...

Until I left, I started realizing how lucky we are,

and how much... Like, how much attention to food--

We have, like, this huge spectrum of ingredients, flavors, traditions,

uh, and especially in a region where we can do whatever we want.

That was, for me, the biggest thing.

[pensive music playing]

[Ojeda] I mean, I spent 16 years in Bordeaux,

so that was a long while.

And coming back and living this in Mexico, just opens up so many possibilities.

So I think working abroad actually,

and living abroad, actually helped me realize

that the biggest advantage that we have is us.

-I know it sounds cliché, but it's not. -I don't think so. I agree with you.

We're very, very lucky.

We have great product from the mountain, great product from the ocean.

Uh, I mean, the vegetables are amazing. We are very fortunate.

I think sometimes you have to leave what you have

-to understand what you have. -Yeah.

Because, you know, you can't see the forest because of the trees.

And so when you step away, and you can look back and see the forest,

then you understand the abundance

and the offering that we have here in Baja California

and how just world class, without a doubt, the ingredients are.

You eat beautifully in the Valle, and you drink amazing wine.

Now, let's support that.

-Salud. -Salud.

[Deckman] Ensenada is home to some of the most progressive

and innovative aquaculture projects in the world.

Aquaculture can get a bad rap sometimes,

but in my opinion, just as in traditional farming,

there are good practices and bad practices.

When done correctly, aquaculture produces a superior ingredient

while at the same time, promoting a sustainable future

and helping conserve the ocean's endemic populations.

Although technically not aquaculture,

Baja aquafarms also doing business as Bluefiná, off the coast of Ensenada,

is one of the local projects helping to conserve biomass.

With a team of scientists, engineers, divers, and aquaculture specialists,

the team has created a more sustainable, ethical,

and responsible fishery for bluefin tuna

that is setting best practices for the bluefin ranching industry.

Because of illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing,

bluefin tuna populations have been severely overfished.

And Bluefiná invited me to see firsthand how they are redefining this industry

and proving that it can be done responsibly.

-Thanks, Benito. -No, no.

You know, I've been in the helicopters for races and things like that,

but over the ocean and seeing the farm from the sky, it's really impressive.

I mean, obviously, bluefin tuna gets...

There's a lot of publicity, there's a lot of, um, pressure,

there's a lot of people not doing bluefin tuna the right way.

Not respecting the resource, not acknowledging the market.

And I've watched what you do,

change into a company that is very, very concerned...

-Of course. -...very socially active.

And-- And-- And-- And really, is doing what I see the most it possibly can

to conserve the resource and-- and still bring it to market.

It has been the hardest part to get into a concept that

you have a resource that is overexploited.

We put a lot of effort, not only this company,

this country put a lot of effort to set into a quota system.

It's been ten years that we start this concept

to catch less and do more with what we have.

We're seeing more tuna. We're seeing them come back.

-Definitely. -Nature's incredible in that sense, right?

[Sarmiento] That's the main concept.

[Deckman] Give nature a break, and she recuperates.

Which is a really cool thing, is because they're assessing the stocks

and they've realized that if they only harvest so much

that it's sustainable, and they're being able to get more tuna in bigger sizes

to capture, out on the ocean.

And they're doing better and better every year, which is really cool.

So walk me a little bit through the process

from setting the seine net to having a nigiri on your plate.

So he catches them with these big purse seines,

and then he purses them, and then he puts them into a net,

just like the one that's right behind us here, to be towed by a boat,

like these boats that we have behind us here, and they bring it in.

They bring it in here to shore, where they--

So transfer from the sein net to the corral at sea.

-Yes. -[Deckman] Then the corral is towed back?

[Sarmiento] Once we transfer the fish, we have to keep it alive.

Count the fish, size the fish.

So every fish that is harvested from the ocean,

when it gets here, it already has a certificate.

So you have divers working the whole way in?

-[Sarmiento] Whole way in. -[Deckman] Okay.

So now we've transferred from the seine net to the corral.

We've towed the corral back in.

By the time it gets here, they've been counted.

Do you know how many is in the corral and their approximate sizes?

Approximate sizes, number of pieces, and we start feeding.

And that's one of the things that we talked about,

was that, over time, you've changed the way you feed the fish.

Yeah, we have learned how to catch the fish, farm the fish.

Feed the fish on the needs of the fish.

[Schmidt] Get them to the right conditions so that they're ready for market.

So you don't really need to get them huge.

You just need to get them right, just a little condition.

Getting that fish in perfect conditions in the short amount of time...

I mean, it's 90 seconds from water to the ice slurry.

Yes. Since we harvested here, every fish has its tag.

You can know where it was catch, the year, the strainer that catch it,

the tow boat that tow it.

It's a whole traceability concept.

How much of your product is sold on futures?

-None. No. -None? Wow.

-Really? -No, no. It's not futures.

This is based on the market needs.

Every fishes harvested today is already sold.

We were talking about the way it happens in the Mediterranean

where they capture everything,

they feed everything at the same time, they harvest everything,

and so there's huge amounts of fish coming to market all at the same time,

-and all that fish gets frozen. -[Sarmiento] It is.

There's no long-term employment.

It's almost like migrant workers, right? And these guys are full-time employees.

They're-- They have the Baja aquafarms tattoo.

I mean, I see this as being way more manageable.

That's, uh... That's controlling your market.

That's [stammers] eliminating waste.

Long-term farming takes long term everything.

[Deckman] Benito and I were inspired to come to Baja California

because of a visionary winemaker.

Hugo D'Acosta was trained in Bordeaux.

And when he returned to Mexico, he saw the potential of the region

producing quality wine to complement the ingredients.

So he sought out chefs who wanted to source local

and create a cuisine that defined Baja California.

[inaudible dialogue]

You and I are both here because of the same person.

-You came ten years or more before me. -That is right.

Way more than ten years before me.

-Hugo brought you to Santo Tomás. -Yes.

What would this be without him?

I mean, he's the first guy that, you know--

I guess you could probably think that maybe somebody else

would have seen the situation in Guadalupe Valley,

where people were stopping growing grapes because it cost them more to grow them

because the few buyers there were had just squeezed everything out of the farmers.

And he was like, "Well, you should make wine."

Maybe somebody else would have done that, but it wasn't somebody else.

It was Hugo D'Acosta that had the vision to go,

"Hey, stop selling your fruit for pennies.

I'll teach you how to make wine. Let's make wine."

And that's where it went, psst, right?

He knew that he had to create a culture of wine

and teach people to make wine,

teach people to drink wine,

to make a bigger happening, you know.

I think that takes a lot of caring, a lot of passion,

-a lot of understanding, a lot generosity. -Generosity.

I mean, I think--

"Visión de campo," I say it a lot in Spanish.

And for the wine industry in Mexico to take off where it took,

they needed food, so they needed some cooks.

And so that's how it happened.

In Embotelladora Vieja, the first time, the first reunion I had with him,

he told me, "I don't care if we make money.

I just want to make this restaurant famous."

So I ordered a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano my first day.

[all laughing]

And quiche de Parmigiano Reggiano.

"The Parmigiano Reggiano is coming with me."

[all laughing]

But it was this understanding of, like, how the only thing that matters

is to make the experience more beautiful.

So he was ahead of his time.

-He is still ahead of his time. -Absolutely.

Ahead of his time and with a huge heart

who shared all this knowledge and let us shine.

What he did is he created all this beautiful wine industry

where everybody was making great artisanal wines,

and that brought in all these great chefs.

And in my case, in particular,

you have all these people coming in to try great wine

that are made by small producers.

And it opened the door for beer and for other things

that are made artisanally much better than,

you know, than the industrial stuff.

So a lot of us are here because of him, you know, because of Hugo.

And it kind of all brought us all in, and Ensenada has become a hub for that,

as far as craft beer is concerned.

In my case, uh, Baja, in particular, Ensenada,

is considered one of the top spots,

and I think a lot of us are here because of that.

You know, because people are here, and they like to try new things,

and they like, they know, they see that it is possible.

And he is the one who made that possible for all of us.

He identified the existence of the ingredient

and invited the right people to share those.

And the two of you were groundbreakers here,

just innovators, you know.

You, a couple years later, Jair started with Laja.

But, I mean, that really started the recognition

of the area, what you were doing.

I mean, you have to understand that,

I mean, Ensenada, for people in Mexico City,

22 years ago was the Wild West.

It was someplace that people didn't think of coming to do anything.

It was just a town.

I remember I was so blown away, blown away.

I mean, the ocean, I kind of expected what I was going to see

after being on the tuna boat and coming here a couple of times.

But what really blew my mind was when I went to Maneadoro and I saw the farms.

-[Deckman] Yeah. -[Benito] I was like, "Oh, my God."

Besides all this beauty in the ocean, we have all this beauty in the land.

So it was quite something to see all this other beauty

besides the ocean, which is there.

I mean, like the olive oil, the wine is another ingredient,

and all the other tradition,

like the cheese with Marcelo, for example, too.

I mean, there is a lot of projects and a lot of people

who are really interested or committed to the products that they make,

and they're proud of it, and work on it really hard.

For me, the defining element of Baja cuisine is,

it's not a cuisine that's based on tradition.

-It's based on ingredient. -Mm-hm.

And any ingredient made with Baja ingredients

is automatically Baja cuisine.

That's exactly what I told Anthony Bourdain.

We have a clean slate here.

And I mean, we don't have all this tradition

of, like, Oaxaca or Chiapas.

This is a new place with fantastic ingredients,

with a wine region that's being born, so it's...

It was-- It was, I think, one of the most important things,

and also, the freedom that it gave us

because you don't have to follow anything.

-It was for us to do what we wanted. -[Deckman] Right.

[Deckman] One of the ingredients that I've had on my menu

since I opened is true striped bass

or in Spanish, "lubina rayada."

When we roast the whole sea bass,

we actually debone it and put it back together.

We season it with San Felipe sea salt, ground fennel seed,

and also, fennel confit, with thyme,

a little bit of olive oil here from the Valley,

and into the hot wood-fired oven until the fish is done.

We serve it with a sauce vierge,

which is basically just a cured tomato vinaigrette.

I sourced the fish directly from Pacifico Aquaculture,

who grows the bass eight miles off the coast of Ensenada

on Todos Santos Island.

This is part of the Pacific Biosphere Reserve.

This farm is the only sustainable sea bass farm in the world.

I've been to the farm to see how the fish are cared for,

and it's really an incredible experience.

Now, what we're doing there is selecting the strongest,

the fastest growing, growing from the start.

Now, we're much more focused on quality than just on quantity.

They come in the market as quick as possible.

-Exactly. -So, what is the total amount of time,

from hatch to placement in the farm?

How long are those fish here?

It takes about 110 days.

How big are the fingerlings when they...?

Oof. They're about this size, yeah.

But, you know, aquaculture gets a really bad reputation.

There have been some really horrible examples of aquaculture,

not to do aquaculture.

But aquaculture, in a closed cycle like yours,

-it's not different than landfarming. -Nope.

[Deckman] And in the same sense, there's good land farming,

there's regenerative agriculture, there's organic agriculture.

There's a lot of different things.

And there's really shitty commercial agriculture

that's just dumping chemicals and monoculture.

And the same as in aquaculture.

-There's best practices and not so... -Not so good practices. Yeah.

And so I really, you know, it's--

I've always enjoyed watching Pacifico

develop and change and become more and more, with each season,

more dedicated to sustainability,

-more dedicated to traceability... -[Vincent] Mm-hm.

...and really making it a long term manageable project.

And congratulations here. I love your fish.

Good. Again, I think big part of Pacifico is sustainability, doing things right.

Part of it, again, it's certifications that actually tells people

that we're doing the good thing, no?

You need to be very mindful of what's going on with the facts, no?

Luckily, we have good people here.

They're all graduates from the local universities.

The feedback that we get from techs from day to day is super important

We're four stars BAP-certified.

That's hatchery, farm, processing, and admin.

They're certified.

It's meaning you don't use hormones.

You're doing-- You're giving the best quality feed.

You're taking care of your people, which is a big part, social,

doing social part on the community as well.

Here, we're doing 100% RAS,

so the actual water that we discharge is small.

The water quality that we discharge is actually better than what we receive.

-[chuckles] -So it's a big, big thing.

And at the end of the day, we have a product that,

compared, let's say, to fisheries, that it's stable year-round.

The quality is stable since we manage the feed and everything around it.

It's a really stable product. Really good product, no?

Well, thank you for your time, brother.

-No problem. Whenever. -Always a pleasure.

[upbeat music playing]

[seagulls calls]

We hear every day about climate change.

We hear every day about all the horrible things

that we have done to the earth.

Efforts to recuperate something.

Try to stop Armageddon.

And I see a company like Baja Aqua-Farms

that's going to extreme lengths to conserve a resource.

Still, a controversial resource.

But you're doing so many things

between traceability and responsibility in social programs.

How do we get other fisheries

to treat the ocean like you're treating the ocean?

Just thinking about... if the kind of traceability

and conservation efforts that you are applying to your capture,

other fishermen and other fisheries would use...

how fast the ocean would rebound,

and how much more it would just come back.

I think the most important part

is to understand that we owe this respect to the ocean.

Every one of us in this table, we have a huge respect to the ocean,

and the ocean has shaped our lives.

So we have this contribution of respect to pay back.

And this respect is sustainability, traceability, zero plastic,

all of those things that can make a change.

I think it's a mistake to just concentrate on the ocean.

Yes, the ocean is very important for everyone sitting here,

but it's so interconnected with the land.

And conservation and traceability and chemicals and water conservation.

And it's one equation.

If you started with their social programs and the way they treat their employees,

most fishermen don't get paid very much.

To feed your family, you have to fish a lot.

You've got to catch huge amounts of fish

to get to a volume that, "Hey, my kid can go to college.

I can buy a car. I can build a house."

I think if we started in fisheries

from just being willing to pay more for a fish...

finding a way to eliminate second, third, fourth, fifth buyers

and get closer to the source when we're buying, I don't know.

I think that has a...

I think it has a trickle-up effect

and creating a better life for a fisherman

that would not require them to just take everything out of the ocean.

And I'm not just talking about Mexico. I'm talking about worldwide.

Well, I agree. But it has to do with education.

Showing them that there's a value like what Pablo is doing,

saying, "Hey, you know, we will pay you more

for a quality fish that has been managed properly."

You know, you don't just grab it and throw it in the boat.

You grab it, you ikejime it, you put it on ice,

and then, you know, they'll pay you more for it.

So we need to show them that there is that market.

As a consumer, we have to be willing to pay more for that market

and let our distributors or the people who are getting us our fish know that

so that they can communicate with the fisheries.

You know, go back to the really-- Vote with your fork.

Move the market based on what products they choose.

As a restaurant owner, I don't source things.

First of all, there's nothing that I serve that I don't know where it's from.

[Deckman] One of my favorite Baja ingredients is the oyster.

The Pacific coast of Baja has optimal growing conditions for oysters.

Due to this, the oyster has become one of the most indicative

and representative ingredients of the new Baja cuisine.

When I first moved to Baja California,

I was blown away by the quality.

There's a couple different species being grown.

Almost all of them are Crassostrea gigas,

which is the Pacific oyster.

I want to show you guys three oysters

that I've come to love here in Baja California.

So remember, when you look at these oysters,

we're talking about exactly the same species.

The difference in the oyster is the choice that the farmer makes in his farm.

You can tumble, you can do off bottom, you can do them on the beach.

Uh, each one of those ends up with a different result

in the quality of the oyster, the taste of the oyster

and the form of the oyster. So this is the Icchati. It's semi-tumbled.

So you get a nice, rounded shell, decent commercial size.

This is the Kumiai.

Is a little more rough, has a little more fluting.

Is also semi-tumbled. A little bit less than the Icchati.

And then this is the Pai Pai, which is a little oyster golf ball.

Very similar to some of the luxury tumbled oysters in the Pacific Northwest.

So our sauce mignonette really only has three ingredients:

red wine vinegar, shallot and crushed pink peppercorns.

You can add anything you want.

Oysters tend to be salty, so the opposite of saltiness is acidity.

So that's why typically white champagne and crisp bright white wines

go so well with oysters.

Because you have the bright acidity

that goes against the salinity of the oyster.

So we're gonna make a mignonette with a little bit of vinegar.

Trying to just play a little bit with the saltiness of the oyster.

A little bit of shallot...

A little bit of brunoise, not much.

And then we'll take a little bit of the pirul.

This is-- It's already ground. So this is the pink peppercorn.

And I add just enough to sort of flavor it.

So now we have the shallot, the peppercorns.

And this is red wine vinegar.

Mix it slightly, and it's ready to go.

So let's open the oysters.

So we'll start with the Kumiais.

There's so many different ways to open an oyster.

So I open them from the side.

All we wanna do is just really separate the adductor muscle from the top shell.

So when you open it, there shouldn't be half of the oyster stuck here.

Dump the first water.

That's really the water that's been inside the oyster.

It doesn't really add anything. If the oyster is alive,

it's gonna make its own water again.

And then I just separate the adductor muscle

from the bottom shell so you can eat it.

These are the Kumiais.

The flavor profile of the Kumiai is briny,

obviously, finishes with a slight cucumber sort of melon finish to it.

And you know, I look at it as sort of a neon brininess

as opposed to the Pai Pai.

And as we get down, the more tumbled

become a little more creamy and the saltiness becomes more rounded.

So these are the Icchatis.

Creamier in its profile.

How much mignonette do you use? It's your call.

I personally eat my oysters... When I'm eating, a drop of lemon,

maybe not very much mignonette at all.

So we're just gonna... just a little bit. A little bit of the shallot, not too much.

Otherwise, you're tasting sauce and not oyster.

Just a touch of the mignonette. If you like more, it's not a problem.

Put some on the table for your guests, then they can all make their own decision.

So one of the ways I like to create the bridge between the ocean and the land,

what I think is one of the most important products of Guadalupe Valley is olive oil.

So we only use olive oil here from the Valley,

all cold pressed, extra virgin.

And so we just add just a drop of the olive oil to the oyster.

And it really gives it a little more creaminess

and aids with sort of combating some of the salinity of the Baja oyster.

Enjoy. When you're out there,

and you see Baja oysters in your favorite oyster bar,

order them.

[bird of prey screeches]

[Deckman] Off-road racing is one of my passions.

I support many races like the Rebelle Rally,

the Baja 500 as their chef on the road,

and sometimes I get behind the wheel.

[upbeat rock music playing]

[inaudible dialogue]

Today we are venturing into the mountains for a fun ride

before dipping into the Ojos Negros Valley

to visit my dear friend Marcelo Castro,

who has continued his family's 100 year legacy

of cheese making that began when his great-great-grandfather,

a Swiss-Italian immigrant, bought land in the Valley.

Marcelo is the fourth generation of cheese makers

and continues to honor his great grandfather's

all-natural recipe.

His cheeses are not pasteurized, and there are no hormones.

The farm raises German Holstein cows

for their milk production because of its flavor over the Swiss Jersey.

They are pasture-fed and fed on fresh clover,

alfalfa and hay, which adds flavor to the cheeses.

[Deckman in English] Raw meat. Some people don't like to eat raw meat.

I like to eat raw meat. I think it's sort of the true flavor

of what responsible, um, properly raised beef is.

We source from a farm in Sonora

that cares deeply for the wellness of their animals.

So today we are working with, uh, eye of ribeye.

So this a ribeye you can tell there's not a lot of fatty graininess.

This is a grass-fed, non-fattened cow.

We're dealing with textures that are a little more

less traditional in the sense of, uh...

You know, so much of the beef is fattened at the end,

and you get this artificial fat, uh, that's deposited in the meat.

Not really very healthy for the cow or for the person who eats it.

I'm just gonna do a little bit of raw ribeye.

So we're just gonna do thin slices, sort of almost like a sashimi.

I'm gonna do five here.

We're just gonna kind of lay them out.

This kind of a plate is not something that--

This is not a planned recipe.

So for me anything like a sashimi, a tiradito, a carpaccio.

It's really about, what do you have in front of you? What's there?

One of the things that we really started to do this year

is fermenting excess from our gardens.

Instead of trying to turn everything into compost,

we've started to lacto-ferment a lot of things.

One of the things that we sort of found along the way

as we were doing this is kimchi.

And we just take vegetables, things that we already have in our garden.

Everything goes into the kimchi.

Uh, we use cayenne pepper that we grew and dried from our own garden,

as opposed to buying a chili that's imported from Korea.

Just give it 2% salt by volume and let it go.

This is our kimchi. So I'm just gonna chop this up a little bit for our beef.

Just to give it a little easier-to-eat texture.

Acidity, spice, punginess...

Just this.

Um, San Felipe sea salt.

Right down the middle.

This is a lemon emulsion that we make.

So this is literally a whole lemon, we cut them in half,

take out the seeds, and then equal parts olive oil in the blender,

and it turns into this sort of mayonnaise that's vegan, um, as well as super tasty.

Uh, this is a bergamot kosho, that we also made here.

This is inspired by the yuzu kosho in the Japanese cuisine.

Bergamot is the citrus that's used in Earl Grey tea.

You don't really use the insides, you use the outside.

Uh, the rind.

So this is bergamot that's been salt-cured for about four years.

We then ferment serrano chilis and then chop everything up together.

So this is our Guadalupe Valley take on yuzu kosho.

We can add a little freshness, cucumber...

This doesn't have to be super fancy.

It just has to be flavorful, right?

In your house, you have most of these ingredients.

Just add a little bit of fresh cucumber on one side of it,

a little bit of green onion, also from our garden.

One of my favorite sort of fresh flavor ingredients.

A handful right in the middle.

And these are pea fronds.

We've got some winter peas that we planted.

So we just go down and pull the green stuff, man.

And we're gonna put that a little bit all over the place.

And then back to the Guadalupe Valley olive oil.

Olive oil on everything.

And just a twist of pepper.

This is a very simple dish. Use flavors you have that you like.

And just to really take the raw meat over the top,

Ensenada has extremely healthy, very sustainable

sea urchin diver industry.

Beef tartare is typically eaten with egg yolks.

We eat our beef tartare with raw sea urchin.

This can be eaten with chopsticks, fork and knife,

you can cut it thick or thinner, however you like to do it.

Sort of Frenchy, sort of not. Sort of Kimchi, sort of not.

Sort of Mexican, sort of not.

So, I think that really describes

what Guadalupe Valley and Baja California is.

It's a crossroads of many, many different cultures.

[upbeat music playing]

[Deckman] My friend and colleague Chef Javier Plascencia,

along with his family, have numerous restaurants

along the peninsula.

And have played a significant role in the culinary scene

Not only of Tijuana but of the entire Baja peninsula.

We opened Saverios, and I started cooking Italian.

Um, and then after a few years I said, "Why am I cooking Italian?

I'm Mexican. I want to learn about my cuisine or my region."

And I met Pablo.

He started bringing me some samples of what we had here locally,

the seafood that I'd always cross to San Diego to get.

You know, salmon and swordfish, and even basil.

I had to cross to San Diego to bring basil to Tijuana.

That's how I started, uh, opening my eyes, seeing what was out here,

and started, you know, doing my own little changes in the menu.

Mission 19 opened up in 2009?

And I just remember walking in there and just going, "Oh, wow."

-Yeah, "What is this?" -This place is a game changer.

Yes.

I mean, Mission 19 was really, at least for Baja California,

really the first, modern,

cutting edge-- It was-- It was just-- It was so different

than anything that was around.

And in a celebration of Baja ingredients,

incredible service, great wines,

and in a setting that was really, really special.

It was really nice.

First tasting menus in Tijuana because, you know, never had it.

Uh, we did a lot of wine dinners, and met amazing people, and...

So it was a very ingredient-driven restaurant,

and it was-- It was really fun.

So it was a really good experience for the younger generation of--

Now a lot of the cooks that worked there, they have their own restaurants.

Something important that was going on in Tijuana

is the culinary school. The culinary arts school.

[Plascencia] It started at more or less the same time.

[Ferrer] Yeah, they've done an amazing job.

[Deckman] And that's also, I think, Mission 19 combined with the school,

which sort of we now have a finishing school for chefs in Tijuana,

and we also have a real school.

And that's when, like, all these gastro parks started popping up,

and these really creative, progressive, young chefs

doing some pretty amazing things from a 3-meter-by-3-meter box

in some, like, food-truck park.

Well, now it's obvious that we became a food destination.

Now people are serious about our food and they come.

And people wanna discover more of the ingredients that we have.

The wines, of course, and the craft beer, and...

[Ferrer] A year after Javier opened Mission 19 in Tijuana,

he opened Finca Altozano, 90 miles south in Guadalupe Valley.

When I walk in today, I still remember Finca back then,

and it makes me think about Deckman's back then,

and how we all started sort of like this.

And then it goes, "Oh, we need a little more space.

All right, we can do this. How about that?"

And just sort of the beauty of starting in an open space

as opposed to inside of a building in a city,

where you're like, "All right. Well, I rented this space.

If it gets too small, I need to find another space."

And in our cases its sort of like, "Well, I'll just move the haybales."

Right? Or "I'll just extend the deck."

And now, you come in and it's amazing.

[Deckman] One of your quotes that I use in a lot of interviews

that I always accredit to you is like,

"You know, a friend of mine, Javier Plascencia, always said,

'Well, here in Baja California,

we don't have the weight of the pyramids on our shoulders.'"

Which makes us so different from other places in Mexico.

You know, if I go and I try to do my version of a mole negro in Oaxaca,

they're gonna go like, "That's not a fucking mole.

What are you thinking?" But here it's like,

"Oh, no, these clams are from here.

And I grew the food. And the oil is from here.

And we grew the chilis. And the salt is from San Felipe."

"But it doesn't look Mexican." "Well, it's Baja California."

-Yeah. -Absolutely.

[Plascencia] Yeah, that's one of the big advantages that we have here, I think.

Because you get-- I mean, they're part of your team.

The producers, or the fishermen.

That's what I really love about this region.

And the people.

They feel very proud when they see their product on your menu.

They care for it. They come and check back with you.

"Hey, how's it going? Is it working out? What can I do?"

You know? That's great.

[band playing jazz music]

[inaudible dialogue]

[rock music playing]

[inaudible dialogue]