Get the Lowdown on Baja Chef Roberto Alcocer

Many might know him better by his food and his restaurant than by his name. Roberto Alcocer is the chef and owner of Malva Cocina de Baja California, located in the heart of the Mina Penélope winery in Ensenada, Mexico. Yet he's not just another Baja chef—irreverent, bold, and unapologetic, he doesn’t mince words, he wants it all and goes for it.

Alcocer was born in Mexico D.F. and raised in Ensenada where he runs his one-year-old restaurant. And though it hasn’t been long since it opened its doors, customers are raving about its food.

“I am so thankful for that," Alcocer said. "Obviously it creates an expectation and we need to keep building from those high standards. We do our best to make it delicious, the proof is clear: people love it.”

While the restaurant may still be in its infancy, Alcocer has been working towards this delicious dream since he started his culinary career at the age of 17 in France. 

“I always wanted to be chef," Alcocer said. "It was the food, smells, tastes, colors. I was a very greedy kid. I wanted to marry a cow to always have cheese, milk, and cream."  

When he realized that that wasn’t possible, he thought, “marrying a girl who could cook would do it too.”

Finally, one day, he concluded that he didn’t need to marry someone to eat well. “I could actually do that myself," Alcocer said. "That’s how I got inspired in becoming a chef and embracing this path.”

And embrace the path he did. After stages in France and Spain (including one with acclaimed Spanish chef Sergi Arola), Alcocer returned home and immersed himself in Mexican cooking, working at both top ranked Condesa and Pujol restaurants. Then in 2013, he decided to set out on his own. 

Next, Alcocer opens Malva… [pagebreak]

Malva was born out of Alcocer's strong desire to own his restaurant and make the dishes in his imagination and it was helped along by his friendship with Malva’s winemaker, Verónica Santiago. “We were both seeking to pair food and wine with creativity and freedom, without any ties or parameters, representing the best of what the region has to offer,” said Santiago. 

Malva is more than just a restaurant, it's an experience. Floating above the Mina Penelope winery, it's set in a gorgeous and lush setting, with an outdoor kitchen and seating area, and it's a true farm to table spot: the restaurant uses produce, livestock, and wine from the garden, the property, and the vineyard to create the menu. 

“At Malva, we offer a personal cooking style, a true representation of Baja California cuisine, based on the products of our ranch, Valle de Guadalupe and Baja," Alcocer said. "It's cooked mostly with wood oak, either grilled or baked in sun-dried oven brick, blending and using both modern and ancestral techniques."

Like most businesses in Valle de Guadalupe, Malva is also a work-in-progress that flows with the cycles of nature.

“Due to the vagaries of our climate and seasons, the menu is constantly changing, so every week we create different dishes for our menu and tasting menus,” Alcocer said.

Yet Malva is not only a culinary experience. At Malva guests and diners can experience the land at its best from tasting products made fresh daily (sweets, custards, cheese, butter, jams, marmalades, bread, yogurt, milk, and more) to walking around the garden and farm.

“All cultivated with biodynamic and permaculture techniques to preserve and nourish the soil, and avoid using harmful chemicals to protect our land and health,” Alcocer said.

Next, what comes after Malva… [pagebreak]

Malva is just the beginning. Soon, Alcocer will open his second spot, Tahal. 

“Dreams begin in your mind and become real in paper,” said Alcocer. “Tahal was born from the need to provide a space for food to Baron Balche vineyard with my personal touch.”

The Baron Balche vineyard, located in Guadalupe Valley, is only 15 minutes away from Malva, which will give Alcocer the freedom to come and go from one kitchen to another, if needed. But though they'll share a chef though, you won't fine overlapping menus. 

“Malva is fully a purposeful cuisine," Alcocer said. "While Tahal will be a place where everything on the menu will be very familiar, yet prepared with the finest ingredients.” 

If you can't make it to Baja though, swing by San Diego this fall. Alcocer is gearing up for his first appearance at the 2nd annual ¡Latin Food Fest!, happening September 11 through the 13th. There he'll be presenting a modern Mexican dinner with festival favorites chefs Javier Plascencia and Richard Sandoval.

“I am very excited about it," Alcocer said. "I truly admire chef Sandoval and well, with 'El Negro' (Javier Plascencia), every time we do something together we create amazing things. I think each of us will bring to the table our own, very different vision and perspective of how we see and taste contemporary Mexico."

And in the future, you might not have to travel west to get a taste of Alcocer's food. Among other dreams and future projects Alcocer would like to “open a restaurant in San Diego, Los Angeles, DF, Monterrey, or a fine dining restaurant in Guadalupe Valley.” But beyond all that his biggest dream is to make his family happy, “find that balance, make them happy while I keep doing what I love.”