chef ignacio del rio

Mexican chef born and rised at small town near Guadalajara (LA BARCA JALISCO)
His curiosity about the world of cooking began when he was very young when he visited his grandparents’ restaurant ” Rincón del rio ” where he saw his grandmother making desserts and his grandfather making salty cooking.
This curiosity was strengthened of litle by litle until it decided to enroll in to a culinary school.

He attended liaison college in Toronto and finished his degree in gastronomy at the University of the Valley of Mexico, where he met one of his mentors antoine dansac, who would take him as a pupil and motivate him to learn new techniques and go do stage at the best restaurants.

In 2010 he did stage at the Hacienda Benazuza EL Bullí Hotel in Sanlúcar la Mayor, Spain. Where he met Rafael zafra who would introduce it to the way of thinking of bullí and their techniques.

Years later Rafael Zafra himself invited him to the Benazuza Mexico project, of which he is executive chef since 2015 and where a cutting-edge Mexican cuisine is based on the harmony of flavors and the conceptualization of ideas.

In 2017, together with his team, he obtains the 4 AAA diamonds, in addition to obtaining 3 awards granted by the world luxury restaurant awards such as (Mexican cuisine global winner) , (luxury resort restaurant) continent winner and (molecular cuisine) continent winner: north America. In addition to staying since the end of 2016 as restaurant number 1 on the list of Tripadvisor.