{"id":6633,"date":"2026-07-24T00:09:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T07:09:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/news\/7760704\/with-a-historic-3-michelin-stars-a-mexican-restaurant-in-san-francisco-defies-stereotypes\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T08:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T15:15:13","slug":"with-a-historic-3-michelin-stars-a-mexican-restaurant-in-san-francisco-defies-stereotypes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/6633\/with-a-historic-3-michelin-stars-a-mexican-restaurant-in-san-francisco-defies-stereotypes\/","title":{"rendered":"With a historic 3 Michelin stars, a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco defies stereotypes"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 After an eight-year wait, the historic third Michelin star<\/a> that chef and co-owner Val Cant\u00fa and his team at San Francisco’s Californios<\/a> craved is theirs. It’s the first for a Mexican restaurant anywhere in the world. So it’s understandable he and his 40-person staff have more swagger.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been just really rewarding to see the team kind of like, carry a little bit more confidence in their step,\u201d Cant\u00fa told The Associated Press. \u201cMaybe I\u2019ve got some new confidence too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The feat caps a trajectory that began with Cant\u00fa getting his first star right out of the gate when Californios opened in 2015. He got a second one in 2018. At a June ceremony in San Diego, Cant\u00fa, with his wife Carolyn by his side, received his third star and a crisp white Michelin chef’s jacket.<\/p>\n

The accolade feels like validation not just for Californios but for the notion that Mexican food in Mexico and across the diaspora can be an elevated experience. Similar to fine dining Chinese restaurants just a few miles away from Californios<\/a>, Mexican American restaurants have dealt with criticism for daring to charge more and offering tasting menus. Meanwhile, few bat an eye at French and Japanese restaurants with similar prices.<\/p>\n

Shoot for the Michelin stars <\/p>\n

The Michelin Guide, started in 1889 by French brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin, created a star-ranking system in the 1920s. Today, the guide has ratings for over 40,000 restaurants. To evaluate a restaurant, Michelin sends undercover inspectors posing as regular diners. The inspectors said Californios ascended the ranks because it has never been \u201cafraid to cross borders\u201d on the plate, according to Michelin\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From the first bite, Californios patrons experience the Texas-born Cant\u00fa’s blend of Mexican culture with California ingredients. He starts a meal with a sope, a small hand-formed masa cake made with white corn and beans from a farm in nearby Santa Rosa. Then, with a spatula, caviar made in partnership with a Sacramento sturgeon farm is carefully placed on top.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just really, really delicious and kind of feels like a warm hug,\u201d Cant\u00fa said. \u201cIt feels comforting.\u201d <\/p>\n

Michelin inspectors agreed. <\/p>\n

Californios deserved a three-star promotion, one of five inspectors said on Michelin\u2019s website, for dishes consistently \u201cexecuted with such precision, refinement and clarity without losing the Mexican identity \u2014 things like kombu or the matsukasa yaki fish taco.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes Cant\u00fa and his team would try to guess if a diner could be an inspector. That turned out to be a good reminder that \u201cevery guest gets the same quality of presentation and hospitality,\u201d the chef said.<\/p>\n

Mexican food’s growing recognition comes as immigration enforcement gets harsher<\/p>\n

In the past few years, Michelin has starred a number of Mexican restaurants including a 10-by-10 foot (3-by-3 meter) taco stand in Mexico City<\/a>. The growing recognition comes at a precarious time for immigration enforcement policies and the treatment of immigrants \u2014 even those in the U.S. legally.<\/p>\n

Not someone who seeks to inject politics into food, Cant\u00fa could not ignore constant headlines about federal immigration operations \u2014 some of which have resulted in deaths including a Mexican man in Houston<\/a> and a Colombian man in Maine<\/a> earlier this month. Immigrants are \u201cthe backbone of all these dish pits and kitchens,\u201d Cant\u00fa said. He has shown support through gestures. In March, he collaborated on an \u201canti-ICE\u201d fundraising dinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe culinary world is like a huge supporter of immigrants and the need for immigrants and the need to treat people with respect,\u201d Cant\u00fa said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to say much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being in a blue state, Cant\u00fa is certain most of Californios\u2019 diners share that sentiment.<\/p>\n

Gustavo Arellano, a food writer and journalist who\u2019s also Mexican American, believes the cuisine\u2019s popularity really helps humanize the immigration debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see this especially like in small Southern towns where the rhetoric is \u2018I\u2019m against illegal immigrants. I don\u2019t want too many Mexicans,’\u201d Arellano said. \u201cBut, then they look at the Mexican restaurant in town and they\u2019re like \u2018Well, not them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Californios shows Mexican food is just as worthy of fine dining<\/p>\n

Growing up, Cant\u00fa watched his father and uncle in Texas run a Mexican restaurant and tortiller\u00eda. As a chef working at high-end establishments in Austin and San Francisco, he found himself asking, \u201cWhy is no one doing Mexican cuisine and treating it with like extreme care?\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspired by the Bay Area, he settled on the name Californios. It’s a nod to descendants of Spanish and Mexican settlers who settled in the 1700s and 1800s in what would become California. <\/p>\n

Californios started with a $57 four-course tasting menu. The pushback was immediate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a ton of like, \u2018This is not Mexican cuisine,\u2019\u201d Cant\u00fa said. \u201cEven from our families, you know, trying to explain a contemporary cuisine to a lot of people is totally foreign because people kind of think that cuisine exists in a cookbook and that it doesn\u2019t change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Californios is at the forefront of what some call \u201calta California\u201d cuisine, where the children of Mexican immigrants or immigrants themselves use classical chef training with Mexican flavors. The term refers to the former Spanish province north of Baja California; Arellano describes it as an \u201cideology\u201d that originated in California and has spread across the U.S. <\/p>\n

Raised flavor profiles and prices ultimately raise skepticism. Arellano argues people think this way partly because they’re trying to keep Mexican food in a box. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s always going to be a knee-jerk reaction,\u201d Arellano said. \u201cIt goes to this myth that Mexican food should be cheap because Mexicans, all of us are supposedly working class that cannot afford higher-end stuff. That’s classist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cant\u00fa plans to keep bringing attention to his Mexican-California brand of fine dining. A cookbook is in the works. <\/p>\n

\u201cMexican cuisine is one of the most diverse and complex cuisines in the world,\u201d Cant\u00fa said, \u201cand there\u2019s countless Mexican immigrants in the United States and Latin immigrants who have their own ideas and concepts of what things can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Tang reported from Phoenix.<\/p>\n

\n \"|\"
Chef Val Cantu, co-owner of Californios, speaks with a member of the staff in San Francisco on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo\/Haven Daley)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n \"|\"
Chef Val Cantu, co-owner of Californios, poses in front of his three Michelin Star plaque in San Francisco on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo\/Haven Daley)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n \"|\"
Tortillas are displayed at Californios, the first Mexican restaurant in the world to earn three Michelin stars, Thursday, July 16, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo\/Haven Daley)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n \"|\"
Nopales from the prickly pear cactus are prepared at Californios in San Francisco on Thursday, July 16, 2026. (AP Photo\/Haven Daley)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 After an eight-year wait, the historic third Michelin star that chef and co-owner Val Cant\u00fa and his team at San Francisco’s Californios craved is theirs. It’s the first for a Mexican restaurant anywhere in the world. So it’s understandable he and his 40-person staff have more swagger. \u201cIt\u2019s been just really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":6634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"guid":"20546bc7-0439-4187-8408-a75218d83a88","source":"The Associated Press","byline":"Terry Tang And Haven Daley","published":"2026-07-24 00:09:04","updated":"2026-07-24 08:07:22","_infotelid":"","_prepressid":"","_multisite_post_sync":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1303,1304],"tags":[],"region":[1301],"class_list":["post-6633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-world","region-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/6633\/with-a-historic-3-michelin-stars-a-mexican-restaurant-in-san-francisco-defies-stereotypes\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"With a historic 3 Michelin stars, a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco defies stereotypes","url":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/6633\/with-a-historic-3-michelin-stars-a-mexican-restaurant-in-san-francisco-defies-stereotypes\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/news\/6633\/with-a-historic-3-michelin-stars-a-mexican-restaurant-in-san-francisco-defies-stereotypes\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/inwheels-7932a766001aa20368adb3d05c763d57bceb46cc6934d4252b4e33c7194336c3.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/inwheels-7932a766001aa20368adb3d05c763d57bceb46cc6934d4252b4e33c7194336c3.jpg"},"articleSection":"International","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Associated Press"}],"creator":["The Associated Press"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"iNwheels","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-07-24T07:09:04Z","datePublished":"2026-07-24T07:09:04Z","dateModified":"2026-07-24T15:15:13Z"},"rendered":"