By Mariana Hernandez
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Nestled in a quiet corner in Mexico City’s trendy Condesa neighborhood sits the vine-strewn restaurant Baldio, or barren in English. It has become a draw for its zero-waste kitchen, which means that every scrap of food and leftovers is reused for other purposes.
The restaurant, which opened in 2024 and seats 52 people, is routinely packed since it was honored in June with a Michelin Green Star for its innovative sustainability model. Baldio’s owners say it is the first zero-waste restaurant in Mexico City.
Baldio offers Mexican food with a gourmet take, such as yellow corn tamal with fermented salsa and pickles, a Mexican sweet corn salad with smoked butter sauce and cured buffalo meat, and grilled sweet onions with grasshoppers and hibiscus dressing.
Pablo Usobiaga, one of Baldio’s three co-founders, said the restaurant’s name is a rejection of the idea that “control, efficiency and profitability” are the most important aspects of our lives. “It is a way of challenging the status quo of profitability and absolute control.”
Fish remains are crafted into a fermented fish sauce, fruit peels are fermented into a traditional Mexican fermented beverage, and onion scraps are fermented until they turn into a powder-like seasoning.
All of Baldio’s ingredients are sourced within 125 miles (200 km) of the restaurant in an effort to reduce its carbon footprint. The majority come from an assortment of floating farms that sit atop an interweaving network of canals in southern Mexico City.
The floating farms, known as chinampas, were created a thousand years ago when Aztec farmers built fields on lakes so they could grow food year-round.
Usobiaga’s brother, Lucio, started working with farmers in the area 15 years ago to help them preserve centuries-old agricultural practices, such as using special fermentation techniques and organic fertilizers.
As part of their weekly routine, Baldío’s chefs travel to Xochimilco to meet with local farmers and explore the crops. Flowers are used in negronis, warm infusions and honey-based fermented drinks. The restaurant’s menu changes every week, guided by the season and harvest.
Lucio said the restaurant requires a creative spirit to constantly adapt to the changing harvest. “What drives us in the end is this excitement about doing things this way,” he said.
(Reporting by Mariana Hernandez; Editing by Emily Green and Lincoln Feast.)
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