“Respecting the tradition and ingredients is the winning formula at Don Sánchez,” says Chef Edgar Román in his kitchen, where he observes, coordinates, corrects, and engages in every corner of creating a menu that has become a cornerstone of San José del Cabo culinary movement and, indeed, Los Cabos as a whole destination. Don Sánchez remains faithful to its slogan “Culinary Passion for Baja.” This space joined Edith’s Group culinary family in 2023, a culinary powerhouse with The Office, Tres Sirenas, La Pintada, The Italian Job, and Edith’s as part of their portfolio that has set the standard in Los Cabos for almost three decades. However, unlike other venues in the group, Don Sánchez has the particularity of being the first to join the family externally, not as a creation of Edith Jiménez, but as a necessary alliance for both parties, combining the greatness of a restaurant group and the name of a chef who has carved out a career and has become a beacon for many chefs who grew up under his teachings before Los Cabos became what we know today.
Edgar Román comes from a family where traditions held the aromas of grandmothers’, aunts’, mothers’, and those who wanted to join the artisanal food tasks. Growing up close to large stoves, clay pots, stone ovens, breathing in spices and herbs, toasted and charred, shaped Chef Edgar Román’s personality clearly. Hence, his essence is based on authentic cuisine, which seems to be lost among fads and trends and, ultimately, as much as we intend to forget it, will always be the foundation of everything creative and to which one inevitably returns when seeking the true flavors that identify us.
This passion and care for the ingredient is, among many other things, part of the reasons why Román Chávez can boast of being the only chef in Los Cabos with a Five Star Diamond Award granted to him as an individual for his commitment to high-quality cuisine, in addition to being the motivation every day in the kitchen and creative processes for the restaurant to also be recognized with the same award by the American Association of Hospitality Sciences.
Edgar Román, 2023 Chef of the Year of Club Vatel Mexico for his commitment to the work and discipline and President of the Baja California Sur Chapter, from where he has promoted projects ranging from culinary education to social responsibility and the creation of community projects, uses his voice and presence in the destination to emphasize sustainability as a fundamental lifestyle for Los Cabos to maintain a positive experience not only for the generation of a tourist experience but as an example of the extension of social sustainability to the communities that nourish, day by day, the kitchens and products served in a menu that Edgar Román has established as a Kitchen of Orchard, Sea, and Farm and that has earned recognition from diners, associations, media, and expert colleagues.
“You can’t overlook tradition when using the ingredient. But the most important thing will always be the seasoning, the flavor. Flavor should never be sacrificed in the sake of presentation.” Edgar Román knows that Don Sánchez’s menu is the best and only introduction to the consistency of what he does and says. Because for him, it’s not a marketing speech, but a philosophy decades in the learning, collaborating with world-class chefs, and the responsibility that comes with being recognized among colleagues, most recently, as part of the list of the 250 Best Restaurants in Mexico edited by Grupo Larousse and a huge group of culinary experts who make up the Editorial Voting Council for this publication which in just celebrated 10 years recognizing the best of Mexico. In addition to this, the Five Star Diamond Award and a recent invitation to join the World Association of Gastronomy Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, recognized under French law since 1901, but which can be originally traced back to 1248 when King Louis IX established the Guilde Des Ayeurs with the idea of improving the technical knowledge of apprentices, merchants, and masters of what we know today, 800 years later, as “Gastronomy”.
“I’m a cook and I’m always in the kitchen. If you come, you’ll find me here,” says Edgar Román proudly to anyone who asks. When he leaves his kitchen, it’s to coordinate projects that have a strong gratitude for the industry and the guild. He, as the one of the founders of Chefs X Los Cabos, the most important culinary event with social responsibility in the destination, keeps coming up with projects in which he can defend the idea that “Although each chef speaks with his or her own voice and own ideas, gastronomy is a community. And a community is formed from the diversity of of those who make it up. That’s why it’s always important to listen to all the voices of the kitchen.”
2024 presents itself as the year of consolidation for Don Sánchez restaurant. But for Chef Edgar Román, it’s a year where the work must be done with more strength than ever. Recently appointed as Conseiller Culinaire by the World Association of Gastronomy Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, one of the most important communities globally for lovers of the culinary arts, Chef Román is more immersed in the kitchen than ever. Because for him, beyond awards and recognition, cooking must always be thought as a way to promote the greatness of the ingredient and the satisfaction of the most important element in the equation: the diner.
Press Contact
Elsie Méndez
Sabores Comunicación
+52 55 5502 8067
emendez@lossaboresdemexico.com
