While celebrating the Monterrey restaurant’s 25th anniversary, the Pangea team also raised a glass to their win of the Gin Mare Art of Hospitality Award as part of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023. 50 Best sits down with chef-founder Guillermo González Beristáin and chef-partner Eduardo Morali to discover what sets Pangea's hospitality apart, how the restaurant’s philosophy has been changing and what the team has in store for the future
What is Pangea to you?
Eduardo Morali: Pangea is a restaurant that uses many French classic techniques, but with more and more regional Mexican ingredients – without ever fully becoming a Mexican restaurant. It's a restaurant that serves the food we like to make and that doesn't have many rules; it has order, but no rules.
Guillermo González Beristáin: We have always considered Pangea a neighbourhood restaurant. 85 per cent of our customers are locals, because [in Monterrey] we don't have the influx of tourists that Mexico City or Los Cabos have, and we are proud of the fact that we feed the region. After 19 years in the old space, six years ago we moved into a new venue designed by us and for us. That keeps people interested in coming back. There are customers who come here every week and don't even look at the menu, they just order the same as always, or people who always ask us for recommendations, so it becomes more of a personal relationship with the customer.
What makes the experience special?
GGB: Our team members “wear the restaurant’s t-shirt”, but they make it their own. They learn and they make Pangea a career, a way of life. Over the last year and a half, we have not had a single vacancy in the dining room, not even for a waiter. Our manager, Víctor Gómez, has been with us since we opened 25 years ago. He started as an assistant and grew with the project. When it comes to hiring, we love finding people with little or no experience and we train them here. That's part of Pangea's success without a doubt, particularly in Mexico, where hospitality is a profession that is undervalued and underpaid.
EM: Service is a collection of joint efforts that lead to a final product. The dining experience is always more than the sum of its parts, because a person can cook a dish, another can put it on the table and the waiter can serve the wine, but if there is no alignment among these three parts, the final experience is like anywhere else. The philosophy and the fine details turn it into an experience beyond its individual elements.
How is hospitality executed at Pangea?
EM: We follow that old-school philosophy where, if the customer asks for something extra or something special that we don't necessarily have, if we can do it, we find a way to do it. Because, at the end of the day, we’re in the hospitality industry..jpg)
Chef González Beristáin (L) collected Pangea's landmark accolade on stage in Rio de Janeiro from Oteque's chef Alberto Landgraf (R)
GGB: Hospitality is the reason why many of us came to work here. Our motto is: “we don't sell food, we sell service”. We repeat this not only to the front of house team, but also to the chefs, because we don't want to dissociate them and have two different teams. Eduardo and I are both chefs, so our hearts are in the kitchen, but we run a restaurant where 50 per cent of attention is given to the service and the remaining 50 per cent to the kitchen.
How do diners experience your philosophy?
GGB: It starts from the moment the guest arrives. If they're driving, they're greeted by the valet parking and they are taken care of from the moment the car door opens. Then their waiter introduces themselves and greets them; it's our service ritual. We also know how to read a table: some people come in a more intimate mood, some want to talk more with the team, and some might even be angry or arguing. We try to read these patterns to know how to approach the table. And even if you have worked out a certain structure for the service, you cannot always replicate it to the letter, because there are constant changes. We don’t want to become too formal or stiff.
How was Pangea born?
International gastronomic offerings in Monterrey were limited prior to Pangea's opening in 1998
GGB: When I arrived in Monterrey [in 1998], the local gastronomic offer was quite limited. It was focused on regional and local food, but there was little in the way of international cuisine or chef-led menus. We started out doing fusion cuisine, which is why we called the restaurant Pangea. In the 90s, there was a boom of techniques and ingredients from different parts of the world and that was the original Pangea menu.
Tell us about your current menu…
EM: Today, it’s completely different. We have a 12-course tasting menu with a premium pairing, but you could also come to Pangea on a weekday and just order from our daily menu, which is very dynamic. We have an interesting mix of classic dishes and recipes that are a little more contemporary. On the à la carte menu, we have a substantial meat section, because people in Monterrey eat a lot of meat, as well as fish. But we also try to always have two or three vegan or vegetarian options, and we have recently started offering a vegetarian tasting menu due to customer demand.
Which dishes can't be missed?
GGB: The cabrito [kid goat] is the most famous dish in Monterrey, where it’s traditionally grilled whole. It's a pretty tough dish that comes on the bone and sometimes you have to use your hands to enjoy it and lick your fingers. At Pangea, we cook the kid sous vide, which allows us to deglaze the meat, and we serve it with a dark beer sauce. For dessert, I love the sticky cake with figs, which are also typical of the city.
The pumpkin tamal is one of chef Morali's highlights from Pangea's current menu
EM: From the tasting menu, I love our pumpkin tamal, which is served with caviar and a sauce made with cream and fig leaf oil. We also have a delicious duck, which is on the à la carte menu, that we get from a small producer in Villa Victoria, in the centre of the country, and then we age it. For me, it's the best duck you can get in Mexico.
How do you feel about winning the Gin Mare Art of Hospitality Award?
GGB: We were surprised and, above all, very honoured and grateful. It is so rewarding to be recognised for our hospitality because it's the reason why Eduardo and I got into this industry: we love being of service and making people feel good. When we got back to the restaurant, we opened a bottle of champagne and had a toast with the whole team. Without a doubt, this is a prize we share with everyone at Pangea.
What's on the agenda for 2024?
GGB: To keep working and improving the menu. We also have an opening at the beginning of the year, the second branch of a concept we created in February 2022 called Café Laurel. It’s small, but it has been extremely successful, so we are now opening a second, slightly larger space.
Miss this year's ceremony? Watch the highlights here:
The list of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, was revealed on 28th November at a live awards ceremony in Rio de Janeiro. Browse the website, join the community on Instagram, follow us on Facebook, visit us on X and subscribe to our YouTube channel and newsletter to stay up to date with the latest news and announcements.
