Rooted in Jalisco
The al pastor pork at Xalisko — chef Beatriz Martines' new restaurant in The Woodlands — arrives on a miniature vertical spit, topped with a thick slice of pineapple. It's a table-top version of the traditional trompo, the rotating device used in many parts of Mexico to cook meats with a vertical grill. Served with fresh, housemade corn tortillas, Beatriz's version pays homage to the beginning of her culinary career.
Growing up in Guadalajara, in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, food was at the heart of Beatriz's life. During her childhood, her grandmother owned a fonda — a small mom-and-pop restaurant — where her aunts also worked. From a very young age, she remembers helping them in the restaurant's kitchen, as well as in preparing family meals. “I feel like cooking is in my blood,” Beatriz says. But she never contemplated cooking as a career until later in life. Her dream was to become a teacher.
In 2000, when she was 18, Beatriz married and moved to the U.S. Her first job, in 2005, was working in the cafeterias of Willbern Elementary and Moore Elementary in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District. During that time, she prepared trompo at home because her husband, Juan Martines, loved the dish. Eventually, friends began asking her to make it for special occasions, eventually referring other clients. A side catering business was born.
“Our trompito dish is a symbol of how we started here,” Beatriz says. “Although I have been involved in gastronomy since I was a child, it was only when I started doing it here that I reached a more professional level. It's a symbol, so we don't forget how we started.”
The weekend taquizas — Mexican-style taco buffets where guests make their own tacos with a variety of fillings and salsas — were just the beginning for Beatriz. One day, Juan asked her where she saw herself in five years. She says she was taken aback by the question, but Juan pointed out her passion for cooking and urged her to enroll in culinary school. He told her that just because she had married young and had kids didn't mean she had to give up her dreams. Although Beatriz agreed, she put off inquiring about culinary school until Juan surprised her with an appointment at the Art Institute of Houston.
“When I saw it, I fell in love. I had always cooked, but never professionally. That day, it was like love at first sight. I was thrilled,” says Beatriz.
The cost of the degree discouraged her, but her husband assured her they would find a way to pay for it. She started in 2011, while still working at the school cafeteria and raising her then-two children (the couple now have three).
What followed was a series of opportunities that, combined with her hard work, determination and the support of her family, put her on a path to become an accomplished chef and an example to other immigrants and women in the hospitality industry.
As a student at the Art Institute, Beatriz met Mexican celebrity chef Aquiles Nuñez, who offered her an internship and eventually hired her to work at his former Houston restaurant, La Fisheria. Beatriz finished her culinary degree in 2013, but her husband pushed her to continue studying pastry and baking the following year.
“Thanks to that, I went to Spain,” says Beatriz. The year she returned to study baking and pastry, the famous Roca brothers behind the twice- named No. 1 restaurant in the world, El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain, were visiting Houston as part of a six-city tour. Sommelier Josep Roca, chef Joan Roca and pastry chef Jordi Roca held various dinners in Houston and offered students the opportunity to apply to work at those events. Two students would then be selected to apprentice under them at their restaurant in Spain.
Beatriz forgot to send her résumé. “The deadline had passed, and I thought I had lost the opportunity, but my husband told me, 'Do it, do it right now.' He has always been my backbone that encourages me to be better, so I sent it,” she says.
When Beatriz found out she was one of the two students who won the apprenticeship, she was in shock. “She didn't want to go,” says Juan.
At the time, Beatriz had two children under the age of 6 and the thought of leaving them for six months seemed impossible. But again her husband and extended family came through, caring for the kids while she was away. During that time, Juan says he gained a new appreciation for single moms and dads. Beatriz credits the experience in Spain with opening doors and changing her professional vision. “Until you are in a place where they push you to the highest level, you don't realize what you are capable of,” she says.
Beatriz’s days in Girona were long and grueling. She felt the pressure the minute she set foot in the kitchen. On days when she thought she couldn’t handle the stress, she motivated herself by thinking of her children in Houston. "That's when I gathered the courage and said, I left them, it has to be worth it,” she says.
As a woman in the culinary world, Beatriz says she has had to work twice as hard to earn her place and respect, but she has managed.
“When you enter the kitchen, you have to enter with a confidence that you know what you're doing, even if you don't, and [with] humility. You have to be ready to learn from everyone, from the dishwasher on, not going in thinking that you know more than anyone else,” she says.
While in Spain, Beatriz met Houston chef Hugo Ortega and his brother Ruben, who is the pastry chef for Hugo’s restaurants. The pair were on a two-week visit to El Celler de Can Roca following the Roca brothers' world tour. In Houston, Juan had taken Beatriz to Ortega's restaurant, Hugo's, several times because of her love for Mexican cuisine, but she had never met the chef. Still, Beatriz often told her husband that one day she would work for Hugo. “It's funny how life works,” she says.
Hugo recalls connecting with Beatriz over the food of their native Mexico in Spain. “Her determination and willingness to say ‘yes’ to opportunities reminded me of myself as I worked to achieve my American Dream,” says Hugo.
When Beatriz returned to Houston, Hugo hired her to work for H-Town Restaurant Group (Caracol, Hugo’s, Xochi, Urbe and Backstreet Café), which he owns and operates with his wife Tracy Vaught. She started as culinary director, and later became corporate chef. Beatriz traveled with Hugo and created menus alongside him. She also trained and supervised staff at the various restaurants. She worked for Ortega for eight years but never abandoned the idea of having her own place.
“One of the reasons I went to culinary school was so that we could prepare everything perfectly for our customers. We were torn between starting a more formal catering business or a small casual restaurant. Life took me on a different path, but here we are now. We never gave up on the idea,” says Beatriz.
At Xalisko, which opened in February 2023, Beatriz pays homage to her roots, her family and her culinary journey in everything from the restaurant's decor to her creative spins on traditional recipes.
The restaurant's logo is a corn cob and the dried corn in its husk that hangs in the restaurant’s private dining room are both a nod to her late father, who grew corn in Mexico. Handcrafts and folk art from Jalisco can be found throughout the dining room. On the walls, beaded art by the Wixárika, Indigenous people from the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountain range, brings color to the room, as does the colorful woven canopy along the hallway leading to the private dining room. This crocheted piece of art is part of the 86,000-square-foot woven sky found in Ezatlán, Jalisco, which holds the 2019 Guinness World Record for the largest fabric pavilion in the world. The restaurant's rustic wooden furniture was also made in various parts of Jalisco.
Beatriz's menu is inspired by Mexico's Pacific Coast, which encompasses the states of Jalisco, Michoacán, Nayarit and Colima. It also includes several dishes that have special significance for her. Besides the aforementioned trompito, her tamal de elote and birria tatemada are both prepared using her grandmother's recipes.
The tamal de elote is presented with a modern twist. Corn is served atop corn puree, cotija cheese and corn husk ash. The birria — beef or lamb marinated with dried peppers adobo sauce, slow cooked wrapped in agave leaves — is very traditional in Jalisco, particularly for special occasions like weddings and baptisms. At Xalisko, Beatriz serves beef birria during lunch and lamb birria for dinner. Her grandmother was her town's birria maker, so she feels proud telling people that the dish at Xalisko is prepared using her recipe.
While being a restaurant owner brings different challenges than working in someone else's kitchen, Beatriz loves it. Her husband often has to remind her that it's time to go home when they find themselves at the restaurant after midnight. “I am very dedicated to what I like,” says Beatriz.
Her dedication has paid off. In March, one month after opening, Xalisko was named one of Houston’s top 25 dining destinations by the Houston Chronicle.
Beatriz sees the opening of Xalisko as the fulfillment of her dream and she says she wants to be an example for others, especially women and those who come to the United States not knowing English, that you can move forward and fulfill your dreams with patience and hard work.
“You have to work hard because nothing comes for free, you have to put in a lot of effort, but we are in a country where we are given more opportunities than in our own countries,” she says.
Xalisko, 1335 Lake Woodlands Dr, The Woodlands, xalisko.com
