HI! My story began at home back in Mexico with my grandmother and aunties cooking, they became my inspiration. When I came to Australia (1982) I started working as a kitchen hand then started cooking and learning from some excellent Chefs. After a few years I decide to become a Chef and then work at many Restaurants, but it wasn't until 2004 that the desire to open my own Restaurant became real. I made a trip back to Mexico to get inspired and back to my roots. My Restaurant was named Los Amates Mexican Kitchen with the intention of offering the most authentic and traditional Mexican food as the alternative that was offered in this Country was Tex-Mex food with one sauce for all and plenty of cheese and sour cream. I opened on Johnston st, Fitzroy, the heart of the Latin-American hub, with a very small menu, confident that people will try and enjoy my food. To my surprise it took one year for the Restaurant to become popular, then my menu grew along with a steady following. Then we were noticed by The Good Food Guide to be included in their 2006-07 editions, then started to get many mentions in The Age's Epicure. Then Mexican food became popular. We introduced many ingredients , specially how to eat Tacos with soft Tortillas, also many dishes like our famous Mole sauce, Mexican Salsa Verde, etc. We feature in TV shows like channel 9's Postcards and Channel 7 Coxy's Big Break. Also feature in many magazines like SBS's FEAST, TIME OUT Melbourne and Latin Flavours. But our biggest accolade was appearing in Mexico City's Buena Mesa Magazine, in which we were named as Top 10 Mexican Culinary Embassies in the world! (reforma.com/buenamesa ) and also appearing in a TV show from Chile called Bitacora de Viaje, shown in many Latin American countries, as well as being featured in Nuestros Cocineros por el Mundo (Our Chefs around the World) in Mexican cable TV. therefore closing the Restaurant was a very painful and sad thing to do, but it was necessary as my physical and mental health was taking it's toll. Now I am living in the West side of Melbourne and I am very happy to offer my services to bring you what was considered the best Mexican food in Melbourne. I hope to see you soon!
