A Culinary Journey Through Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula

"Come in," says Eliodoro Xicum Cobá with the broadest smile as he greets us at the gate of his soon-to-open restaurant, Xicum, a few blocks from Parque Principal Francisco Cantón Rosado in the city of Valladolid. We are the first guests to taste the young chef's menu before it is presented to the public.

Behind Xicum, in his open kitchen, Eliodoro's staff is busy pressing tortillas by hand and preparing the grill. His concrete table, adorned with a stone mortar in the shape of a rooster, is whitened by coal ash. The enchanting city of Valladolid is the first stop ...