Coming Soon: One of Australia’s Best Mexican Chefs Will Open His First Restaurant in Adelaide

Stepping into Barro will feel like coming home – and not just for Alejandro Huerta.

Huerta is one of Australia’s best Mexican chefs. In August, he’ll open Barro, alongside his wife Galia Valadez and best mate Eduardo Conde.

Huerta and Valadez were both born and raised in Mexico City. The pair have worked in Michelin-starred kitchens across the world. Huerta worked at Pujol in Mexico, Spain’s Quique Dacosta, Alinea in Chicago, and Noma. While Valadez worked at Lillas Pastia and the lauded Café de Oriente.

Huerta was cooking in Mexico when a friend introduced him to Walter Ventura, who was looking for a chef to head up Mexican Society on Gouger Street.

Adelaide was the city that started Huerta’s love affair with Australia. Although he eventually moved to Sydney, where he spent 10 years leading teams at the city’s best Mexican restaurants including No. 92, Lottie and Comedor, Huerta knew Adelaide was the place he and Valadez would open their first restaurant as owner-operators.

“Adelaide hospitality always felt like a community,” says Huerta. “People were like, ‘What can I do for you? Do you need advice? Do you need anything? Even, like, staff when you’re short-staffed.’ I really, really like that about Adelaide. With that and the produce and amazing wineries, it made sense to return to Adelaide to open our restaurant.”

The menu Huerta and Valadez are creating for Barro will be their most personal yet.

“As I grow older, I’m starting to cook things that remind me of home, of my mum and grandma. It’s like, ‘Okay, if I make this, it talks about who I am, who they were, and how that connects us forever’,” he says.

The menu includes a compressed pig’s head taco inspired by CDMX’s queso de puerco, potato and ’nduja flautas with radicchio and crème fraîche, and lamb shoulder with borlotti beans and birria consommé.

The star of many of these dishes is his great-grandmother’s mole coloradito. “My grandmother migrated to Mexico from Poland during World War II. At first, she only knew how to cook Jewish and Polish food, but then she met my grandpa. He’s from Puebla, this region where they just cook and eat classical food. My great-grandmother taught my grandmother how to do this mole,” he says before rattling off a list of 19 ingredients.

Grandmothers are also the inspiration for one of the venue’s signature desserts. “In Mexico, there’s always room for dessert. Your grandma would say even if you’re completely full, you can have ate con queso.”

The traditional cheese and fruit paste dish is refined at Barro to become a tart filled with a brûléed goat’s cheese custard and topped with a persimmon compote. “It’s like a cheeseboard in a bite,” he says.

Valadez is a pastry chef-slash-sommelier-slash-front-of-house-all-rounder. Her influence is felt throughout Barro’s menu, but when it comes to the cocktail program, you’ll see the fingerprints of Eduardo Conde, an award-winning bartender best known for his work with Sydney’s Maybe Group.

“[Conde and I] started working together when I was at No. 92 in Sydney. We just became really good friends. We started playing soccer together. When Galia and I decided to get married, he was my best man.”

The cocktails will feature tequila, mezcal and lesser-known Mexican spirits like raicilla, sotol and bacanora.

“We want to showcase about what Mexico really is. People know mezcal and tequila … but then other regions do something very similar with their own flavour profiles,” says Huerta.

“Everybody will have a different understanding of what Mexico is, but for us Mexico is the products, the ingredients, the recipes, and the experience. Like when you go to Mexico, you have a really good time because everybody makes you feel like you’re home. So, we want it to be that if you come to Barro, it’s like going to Mexico, and I will make sure that you feel at home.”

Barro will open at 30 Rosina Street, Adelaide on Saturday August 1.

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