Mexico can appear on a plate, but it could never fit on just one. Every region has ingredients, techniques, and flavors capable of telling an entirely different version of the country. Perhaps that is why, when UNICO 20°105° Hotel Riviera Nayarit began thinking about how to celebrate its first anniversary, it chose to look far beyond its own coordinates.

Throughout September—fittingly, the month of Mexico’s Independence celebrations—five regions of the country arrive at the table of a hotel that, in just one year, has begun to build an identity of its own in one of the most privileged destinations on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Menus, guest chefs, artisans, and experiences trace a journey across the country from north to south. But behind the celebration lies a far more interesting question: how do you tell the story of Mexico through food without losing what makes it recognizable?

For Luis Quiroz, Executive Chef of UNICO 20°105°, the answer does not necessarily lie in transforming more. Sometimes, it is about knowing what does not need to change.

UNICO 20°105°: Cooking with a Sense of Place

When Luis Quiroz first arrived in Riviera Nayarit, he found a culinary identity that had yet to be built. UNICO 20°105° was a new project, and with it came the opportunity to develop that identity from the ground up. To imagine each concept and decide what it would mean to cook from Mexico’s Pacific coast within a hotel that wanted Mexican culture to shape the experience.

For Quiroz, however, the kitchen had to begin with what mattered most: local ingredients. It is a conviction that has followed him throughout much of his career and one he now sees as a way of giving something back to the cuisine that shaped him. “That is my responsibility now: to give back some of what the kitchen has given me,” he explains. “To make sure that, whenever it is in my hands, I support [the local market].”

Perhaps that is why, across UNICO 20°105°’s three restaurants, Mexico finds its way even into cuisines rooted elsewhere. Agua Madre embraces Mexican cuisine directly, while Italian-inspired Lía and Japanese KOBO retain their own codes without completely letting go of the place that surrounds them.

The intention was never to make every concept Mexican, but rather to allow the location to find its way into each one. “I always wanted to bring in that local culinary signature,” he recalls. “Regardless of the fact that we have two international concepts, we always try to include something Mexican.” It is this that defines Quiroz’s culinary signature.

A Mole Still Has to Be a Mole

Although the cuisine at UNICO 20°105° seeks new ways of expressing Mexico, that does not mean everything needs to be reinterpreted. For Quiroz, bringing Mexican cuisine into the present also requires knowing what to preserve. “Innovating and expressing yourself however you want as a chef is perfectly valid, but without overdoing it and always keeping sight of the roots you started from,” he explains.

His example is simple: “A mole is a mole.” It may incorporate a Japanese ingredient, a French technique, or a different presentation, but its essence should remain. He applies the same logic to one of the region’s most representative dishes: pescado zarandeado. Quiroz may change the cooking method, garnish, or presentation, but he would never reinvent it to the point where it is no longer recognizable.

Perhaps that is also part of the culinary identity UNICO has built during its first year: a kitchen capable of looking forward without assuming that everything that already exists needs to be transformed.

UNICO at One

That same idea becomes the starting point for UNICO 20°105°’s first-anniversary celebration. Throughout September, the hotel will explore five regions of Mexico—West, Southwest, Southeast, North, and East—through food, art, and different forms of cultural expression.

“Gastronomically speaking, we would need an entire year to express everything Mexico has around us,” Quiroz admits. September, then, becomes a small glimpse of that diversity: a way of bringing different parts of the country to Riviera Nayarit without pretending that any one of them could tell the whole story of Mexico.

The celebration also takes that conversation beyond the table. UNICO brings together chefs, workshops, artist interventions, and experiences that change throughout the month, extending the same philosophy that has shaped the hotel’s first year: that getting to know a place also means engaging with the many ways its culture comes to life.

The Dishes That Are Starting to Stay

One year has also been enough for UNICO 20°105°’s three culinary concepts to begin developing identities of their own. Quiroz describes restaurants that have gradually reached the “essence” and “maturity” he envisioned from the beginning. So much so that when asked to choose a signature dish, picking just one proves impossible.

“It’s a pretty difficult question, because I have a favorite in every restaurant,” he admits. At Agua Madre, he chooses the beef tongue taco with salsa verde, one of the dishes he is most excited about on the new menu. At Lía, it is the lamb osso buco, cooked for 14 hours and served with polenta, a dish that recently earned a standing ovation. And finally, he points to KOBO’s Korean-inspired ribs. Three very different dishes that also reflect the distinct identities now living side by side within the hotel.

In the end, a kitchen’s identity is also built in the memory of those who experience it. Quiroz has seen it happen throughout this first year: returning guests asking for dishes that are no longer on the menu, flavors they have begun to associate with each restaurant. Because perhaps that is the difference between serving a great dish and building a cuisine of your own: making someone want to come back and find it again.

Beyond the Table

A hotel can also be a way of getting to know a place. At UNICO 20°105°, the kitchen may be its most visible expression, but the intention to speak from Riviera Nayarit continues beyond it: through art, design, wellness, and spaces that look out onto the Pacific. The property itself frames local culture as central to the experience, extending from gastronomy into art and the work of regional artisans and producers.

After its first year, that seems to be the identity UNICO continues to build. It is not simply about being in Riviera Nayarit, but about allowing the place to move through the entire experience. And if, for Quiroz, that begins with the ingredients that enter his kitchen, it also explains where he wants to take it next. To remain “an ambassador for Mexican cuisine and local ingredients” and, in his own words, “defend them tooth and nail.”