The attendees: Mercedes Bernal, 34, and her chef husband, Rodney Cusic, 35, co-owners of the Mexico City restaurant Meroma, hosted, Bernal says, four “dear friends who all share an obsession with food”: the chef Edo Nakatani, 51; the mushroom supplier Nanae Watabe, 36; the food photographer Ana Lorenzana, 38; and the composer Nicolas Leau, 39. Bernal’s father, Pablo, 68, who co-owns the hacienda with several family members, also joined them, as did her two Italian greyhounds, Simón and Lucas.
The food: “People think there’s a lot of pressure when you’re cooking for food professionals, but all we want is something tasty on the grill and to relax with a good bottle of wine,” says Bernal, who picked up provisions from Jarilla, the deli and shop she owns in Mexico City. Dinner included spice-rubbed grilled chicken, grilled cucumbers with labneh and herbs, grilled Napa cabbage and peppers with lime zest and sourdough pita. “Nanae brought two kilos of beautiful chanterelles, porcinis and morels,” adds Bernal, “and we sautéed those in a clay pot with garlic, butter and parsley. Everything tastes better in those clay pots.”
The music: Dinner took place outside, where Bernal says she prefers listening to the natural ambience: “Birds, the way the wind blows — the night has its own crazy sound.”
The conversation: A discussion about how the late and heavy rain this season made some parts of Mexico too wet to forage for mushrooms segued into one about psychedelic mushrooms, companies making mushroom coffee alternatives to help with concentration and sleep, cannabidiol’s legality in Mexico and whether Bernal should start stocking “fancy French gummies made with seasonal fruits but infused with CBD” at Jarilla.
