The Riviera Maya Edition celebrates two years with Paco Ruano

From Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s Matador Room in Miami to Josh Niland’s Fysh in Singapore, Ian Schrager’s EDITION hotels have no shortage of culinary firecrackers. In Mexico Riviera Maya Edition in Kanaithe top chef is Francisco “Paco” Ruano, who runs Ki’is again The kitchen at the hotel.

On Friday, February 13, Ruano (better known as the Alcalde of Guadalajara, currently number 15 in the 50 best restaurants in Latin America) kicked off the hotel’s two-year anniversary with a special collaborative dinner. Ruano was cooking at Ki’is alongside his long-time friend, a Michelin-starred chef. Jonatán Gómez Luna of La Chique. It was part of a weekend-long food and drink event that included seafood and cocktail receptions hosted by Paola Morales and Amer Heneidi from Mexico City. Libraria Valladolid at the hotel A bar.

The entire birthday celebration weekend is a reminder that this program is unlike any other. The Plan hotels, designed by Schrager and Marriott, are often elegant urban spaces in the middle of busy cities. (Schrager likes to use the word “complex” to describe what he does, and that word is apt in this case.) The Riviera Maya Edition at Kanai, on a secluded 620-acre property on the Yucatán Peninsula, feels like a world away from that kind of setting.

So on Friday night, Ruano and Gómez Luna showcased world and sea ingredients from Mexico and the Caribbean. Ruano dressed a nopal ceviche with grasshoppers, coriander and turnip while Gómez Luna shaved coconut over a spider crab aguachile that showcased the texture and flavor of different types of coconut. Ruano served a sumptuous shellfish tamale consisting of abalone, mussels and atole made from shells. Gómez Luna’s 72-hour short rib comes with a deeply dark and complex chichilo mole and a santa tortilla for a soul-warming taco experience.

Ruano recently returned to Mexico after participating in Convergence, a symposium and dinner series in Copenhagen hosted by Alchemist chef Rasmus Munk, so he’s been busy on the chef collaboration circuit. But Friday in Ki’is was a deeply personal night for Ruano, who even brought his mother to the hotel.

“This is really special because I’ve known Jonatán for 14 years and he’s a pioneer of fine dining here in the Riviera Maya,” Ruano told the Observer. “I just saw his daughter, I met her when she was a baby.

Leading Ruano, whose portfolio includes Ojo in Bangkok and an upcoming project in Mexico City, plans to bring more friends to the Riviera Maya Edition in Kanai this year. He envisions an October event with some of the best chefs from Mexico and beyond.

“I want to bring my friends from Panama, who are coming República Dominicana, from Cartagena,” he says. I like to do things just to see my friends. And for me, it’s the coast. I’m a Pacific Coast now Caribbean kind of guy. I’m a beach person.”

At Ki’is, “We’re trying to explore the boundaries of the Mayans,” Ruano said. “We also bring a lot of things from Campeche—octopus and crabs. We use all kinds of citrus fruits that we can find in the Mayan area.”

Meanwhile, the Lobby Bar (where Libreria Valladolid staff created smoky and fruity cocktails with Moon Shift agave spirits on Friday) aspires to become a world-renowned venue and plans to bring in guest mixologists for monthly cocktails. This hotel, where we dined on Ruano’s roast pork garnished with edible flowers at Ki’is on Saturday, is also home to prominent people. Chef Tomás Bermúdez specializes in seafood So’ol Beach Club.

With this loaded culinary menu at the 182-room beachfront hotel, the Riviera Maya Edition at Kanai is a ballpark escape from what sounds like an insanely sophisticated experience compared to other versions. And in addition to being home to a 27,000-square-foot rooftop villa that is the largest hotel suite in North America, the property recently released two additional villas in a separate beachfront location.

Whether you’re in a three-bedroom villa, a four-bedroom villa or a five-bedroom rooftop villa (where Akon lives), you’ll have access to a full kitchen and dining area. These villas are designed for extended stays for large families or groups of friends, but may work well for some special dinners with globetrotting chefs.