Curtis Stone’s Newest Restaurant Is Blending His Family’s Cooking Traditions Wit…

Opening a restaurant in Mexico’s Riviera Maya wasn’t an obvious next step for Curtis Stone. After all, the acclaimed Australian chef is squarely settled in Los Angeles, where he owns and runs the Michelin-starred Gwen and, previously, Maude. But when the Belmond hotels team approached him about opening a restaurant on a resort they were refurbishing in this hot spot just south of Cancun, he felt an immediate connection.  

“[Belmond] really wanted to improve it — but keep its natural charm,” he says of the resort, which was previously a private residence. It’s a departure from many of the nearby beaches, where large hotels have shot up quickly and pushed a party scene complete with daytime DJs. But what really caught Stone’s attention was the open fire that played a central feature of the kitchen where his restaurant would go. While it’s a longstanding Mayan culinary tradition, live-fire cooking runs in Stone’s family, too.

“My granny had a big fire at their farmhouse [in Victoria]; it’s what she cooked on and it’s what heated the house,” he says. “When I walked into that house I smelled the fire, and that’s a very special smell to me.”

Stone already taps into that cooking tradition at Gwen, but he loved the idea of doing it through the lens of Mexico’s own traditions — and culinary strengths. “Mexico is in the middle of an amazing food revolution,” he says. “And it’s happening for good reason. The ingredients here? It’s unbelievable — it’s like a playground.”

He named the restaurant Woodend, after the town in Victoria where the family farmhouse is, and then worked with his team to build a menu that, he says, is a little like “writing a love letter” to the area.

“I’m really into telling stories through dishes,” Stone says. “And here, we’re embracing the Mayan culture, we’re embracing the ingredients — but we’re still cooking in a way that is very authentic to us.” 

An amuse bouche of chilled tomato consommé with balls of melon and cucumber evokes the feeling of jumping into a local cenote to go swimming on a hot day. The “Mayan rice” is done risotto-style, but the central ingredient adding flavor is local chaya greens. Then, of course, there’s the section of the menu that’s cooked over an open flame.

“There’s an incredible indigenous wood here that we’ve got our hands on that’s got a really delicate scent,” he says. “And over it we roast beautiful meats and seafood from the region.” That seafood includes bluefin tuna from Ensenada and blue prawns from Sinaloa. The prawns are grilled and paired with green mango, apple, daikon, and almond. 

“[Woodend is] not some steakhouse that we pulled out of Los Angeles or New York and just threw down here because we thought people might be interested in coming to my restaurant,” Stone says. “We wanted to tap into and respect the indigenous culture.”

It explains why his partnership with Belmond is so seamless. After a full overhaul, Belmond launched Maroma, A Belmond Hotel, Riviera Maya last year. The brand has taken great pains to offer guests unique experiences that work in harmony with the natural surroundings of the Yucatán. Onsite, there’s a nursery producing endemic plants as well as sanctuaries for indigenous birds, sea turtles, and Melipona bees (a stingless species prized by the Mayans). 

At the spa — by Guerlain — you can book a bee therapy and sound healing session, take a class on native plants and herbs at the apothecary, or sweat it out in a temazcal. When you stay at one of the 72 rooms and villas, you’ll automatically have an attendant to curate your visit, whether booking your dining, yoga, meditation, or even sustainable ocean golf. 

You can also opt for more bespoke experiences like an agave spirits tasting — or a cenote visit. Swim in one by day, come back and sample Woodend’s homage to it that evening. If Stone and his team are writing a love letter to Riviera Maya, it’s both an elegant and genuine one.