Comedor’s Star Chef Alejandro Huerta Finds His Next Dining Room

Alejandro Huerta staged at Noma. And his cooking on Australia Street – at the since-closed, scandal-plagued Comedor – was exceptional from the get-go. It wasn’t straight-up Mexican food, but the influences were unmistakable.

Six months since we last had the chance to dine on his punchy plates – think one-bite potatoes topped with fire-roasted leeks, fermented chilli and a showering of shaved queso cotija – Huerta has landed in Blackheath, as executive chef of Blaq. The restaurant is at The Kyah, the once-tired motel, now turned beautiful boutique hotel. His wife, Galia Valadez (ex-No 92), joins him as pastry chef, and the pair’s new menu launches in late July.

It’s a welcome change of pace for the couple – and heartening food news for the Mountains.
“We’ve always thought about moving to a remote area, living closer to nature,” Huerta tells Broadsheet. “So when the guys from Kyah approached us, we thought, ‘Here’s our chance.’ We want to give Blaq its own identity, separate from the hotel, and to showcase the beauty of all the producers in the region.”

Huerta has spent his first few weeks overhauling Blaq’s vegetable garden and acquainting himself with local suppliers, including vegetable growers in nearby Bilpin and the team behind Earthrising Mushrooms in Lawson. Locally grown produce will form the basis of an evolving menu Huerta says isn’t Mexican, but will take clear inspiration from his and Valadez’s home country.

“We don’t want to turn Blaq into a Mexican restaurant, but of course there will be Mexican influences. One of the dishes is based on caldo tlapeno, a traditional Mexican soup that’s not common in restaurants. My version is based around a concentrated jus made with gelatinous pork hocks and smoked chilli tea, served with chickpeas, roasted vegetables and a beautiful piece of pork cooked over charcoal, all topped with pickled leeks. The dish looks totally different from the original, but the flavours remind me of home.”

Valadez’s focus is the dessert menu. An apple pie will be all-local, next to a corn and banana cake served with crème fraîche and cajeta, a dulce de leche-style caramel. “It’s made with goat milk that you cook with sugar for hours until it caramelises. The goat milk gives a tartness that dulce de leche doesn’t have,” says Huerta.

Alongside the reimagined menu, Blaq is overhauling its wine list and cocktails. And while the current dining room – with its multiple cosy wood stoves – will remain the same for now, there are plans to renovate both the restaurant and the hotel.

The couple have only been in the Blue Mountains a short time, but already they’re seeing the power of relationships in a small community. “Networks are so important. The farms don’t have capacity to work with that many customers, so you have to get other locals giving you a recommendation.”

Although Huerta isn’t looking to turn Blaq into a Mexican restaurant, he sees opportunity in visiting farmers weekly. “Maybe I can convince someone to grow tomatillos or Mexican chillies.”

Alejandro Huerta and Galia Valadez’s menu will start at Blaq, 13–17 Brightlands Road, Blackheath, in winter 2025.

@alhuertac
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@blaqatkyah