Cosme Aguilar

Cosme Aguilar is the chef/co-owner of Casa Enrique and Quique Crudo. His passion for food began in his hometown of Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state, where he was inspired by his mother’s passion for cooking. Along with his sister and aunts, he learned to cook Chiapas’s traditional dishes. His memories of his childhood’s flavors remain his inspiration as he brings New Yorkers a taste of a home-cooked Mexican meal.

It was never Cosme’s dream to become a chef. As a young man in Southern Mexico, his first passion was auto mechanics. When he ran out of money—the plight of the overzealous 20-something—he came to the United States and took a job as a porter, initially to make money to return to Mexico. But as time passed, he worked his way up the kitchen ladder. Trained in French cuisine, he used his knowledge and his mother’s old recipe book to craft a menu with time-honored Mexican dishes from different parts of the country. Today, Aguilar is the chef and co-owner of Casa Enríque, New York City’s first Michelin-starred Mexican restaurant. He has also been nominated for a James Beard award (2019).