Mexico City’s restaurant scene is dynamic again. Food obsessives are abuzz with news about the latest opening, gossip about who’s the hottest new chef, the coolest rooftop pop-up. When the pandemic receded, diners returned with gusto.
A generation of enthusiastic young chefs is upon us, leading creative cuisines. While there may be some diamonds in the rough out there, that’s not the case with Victor Toriz, whose Gaba, a modest but sophisticated artist signature cuisine the spot opened with little fanfare in August 2023. Young people cook he has accumulated a lot of experience in his 12 years of work. Born in Los Angeles, he spent much of his early life in Mexico City, later working in several renowned restaurants in California and Mexico.
Its expertly composed menu offers just four appetizerssix starters, four first courses and two desserts; less is better. Its food is deceptively simple and combines the best of the market with comforting and appropriate complements. While this is not traditional Mexican food, each dish references something Mexican, be it an ingredient, a technique, or a flavor.
The narrow two-level space, located at the southern end of Condesa, is appropriately understated in design, creating an ideal stage for food ingenuity.
I chatted with the chef recently, during the break between breakfast and dinner service: Gaba has already become a hot spot through word of mouth and is often packed.
Nicola Gilmann: What is your background?
Victor Toriz: I was born in East LA; my parents, both Mexican, separated when I was 11 and we moved back to Mexico City with my mother. I stayed here until I was 21. I actually didn’t want to be a chef, I wanted to be a music producer, but my parents didn’t like the idea. They thought I would have more opportunities if I studied cooking. So I signed up for a culinary program here in Mexico City.
I started cooking professionally at Bestia [L.A.’s much lauded creative Italian restaurant] with my mentor Ori Menache, the best chef I’ve ever met and now a friend. Then I worked on Here You Are Watching [the self-described “genre defying” venue in L.A.’s Koreatown]. I then moved to Tulum where I worked for a year at Arca with José Luís Hinostroza who brought the first high-level cuisine to the area. I loved working there, but Tulum wasn’t for me.
I moved to Mexico City with the idea of quitting cooking but I ran out of money so I went to Lucho Martinez’s Emilia, got a job there and worked my way up to cook. Then when Covid arrived, Emilia closed, but I continued to work with Lucho. A chef friend invited me to do an internship at Noma but I couldn’t get a work visa… it was a big disappointment. But then the opportunity to open my own place arose and I took it. I grew up as a really insecure kid. Cooking gave me so much confidence. I’ve associated happiness with food for as long as I can remember.
