Escape to Tulum with Hartwood

Many dream of packing a bag, moving to another country, and starting a new life. Few actually do it. Eric Werner and Mya Henry are not among those few. The couple left New York five years ago with a loose plan for building an off the grid restaurant in Tulum, Mexico.

Five years later, Hartwood, a dazzling restaurant between the jungle and the sea, has garnered international acclaim from the likes of Alice Waters and René Redzepi and spawned a cookbook of the same name that highlights the restaurant’s regionally rooted cuisine.

But Hartwood is more than a cookbook. It is a love letter to the seductive flavors of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, replete with 225 stunning color photographs by Gentl & Hyers and insights to the manpower and organization required to operate the restaurant as narrated by Werner himself. 

“Every day we get about 50 bags and blocks of ice, which we use for most of our refrigeration. Hartwood has only one refrigerator and freezer – about the size of what you’d find in an American home – powered with solar batteries,” he writes.

As for Hartwood’s recipes, they pay homage to balanced cooking. Dishes are at once sweet and spicy, fresh and dried, oily and acidic. The book also provides instructions for utilizing the fundamental ingredients and techniques needed to capture its layered tastes. Through recipes, stories, and images, Hartwood explores a world of Mexican flavors waiting to be discovered.

Click on for four of our favorite recipes – also featured in the December-January issue of Latina magazine. Enjoy!

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Chilled Sandia Soup

• 4 cups seedless watermelon, cubed
• 1/2 habanero, seeded
• 2 medium red tomatoes, cut into chunks
• 1 small red onion
• 1 celery stalk

• 1 tablespoon roasted garlic, mashed

• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

• 1/2 cup Olive Oil

• 1 teaspoon honey

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter