A taste of Zioux’s Roots of Flavour evening: Street food dressed for fine dining

In September, Sandton’s Zioux restaurant welcomed the inaugural chapter of Roots of Flavour, a three-part culinary collaboration between Marble Hospitality and Air France-KLM. The event aimed to showcase celebrated Latin American chefs in South African kitchens. Chef Alberto Preciado, one of the participants, arrived carrying only a suitcase full of ingredients and a mission to dispel the notion that Mexican food is merely Tex-Mex.

Chef David Higgs, the evening’s host, quipped, “You must understand, it’s not Tex-Mex. We have a great tendency to bastardise stuff – we’ll leave that to the Spring.” The menu prioritized specificity and provenance over familiar shortcuts. The first course featured roasted esquites topped with grasshoppers, while subsequent dishes included citrus-cured salmon aguachile, natural-corn tortilla soup, and a beef tenderloin with green pipián mole.

Dessert consisted of a Mexican corn cake soaked in cajeta, accompanied by a vegetarian option featuring guava and Jamaica flower. Throughout the evening, Preciado emphasized the importance of preservative-free cooking, a philosophy deeply ingrained in Mexican culinary culture. For Zioux’s team, the evening held significant emotional weight, as a previous attempt to introduce a Mexican tapas concept had been abandoned in favor of an Asian menu.

The collaboration between Zioux, Air France-KLM, and the Mexican Embassy aimed to connect people and cultures through food, with Air France-KLM framing its involvement as an extension of its business. Roots of Flavour's opening installment indicated that the series had set itself an exploratory brief, with Panama and Peru expected to follow suit.