The BentoBox 25
Supporting Women in Hospitality with Chef Elena Reygadas
May 14, 2024
The CDMX chef behind Rosetta on becoming an outspoken advocate.
Chef Elena Reygadas usually spends her mornings at Panadería Rosetta, the bakery she opened in Mexico City’s Roma Norte neighborhood. For lunch, she heads across the street to her flagship restaurant, Rosetta. In the afternoon, she goes home to see her two teenage daughters, and four nights a week, she comes back to Rosetta for dinner service. “It's my way of life,” she said. “Always a bit of running.”
Via Instagram
In addition to Rosetta and Panadería Rosetta, Reygadas owns three other casual café concepts — Lardo, Café Nin, and Bella Aurora — as well as a shop called Mesa Rosetta and a cocktail lounge, Salón Rosetta, located above the restaurant. The combination of Reygadas’ cooking style and artistic vision has helped her build a local restaurant empire with a global cult following. Her spots are always packed, filled with tourists and locals snacking on conchas and guava rolls.
But Reygadas hasn’t stopped at shaping the city’s food scene. The Mexico City native has been an outspoken advocate for women who want to pursue culinary careers. In addition to instituting support systems for mothers at her own restaurants, Reygadas has utilized her platform to fund a fellowship for young women throughout Mexico who are interested in pursuing cooking careers.
It’s not only a moment. You are a mother for the rest of your life.
Chef Elena Reygadas
How It Started
After studying literature in college at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Reygadas embraced her lifelong love of cooking at the French Culinary Institute (now the International Culinary Center) in New York City. From there, Reygadas moved to London, where she worked for five years honing her skills in Italian cuisine.
While working at London’s Michelin-starred Locanda Locatelli, Reygadas became a mother. “I experienced the process of being pregnant in a kitchen that was mostly male,” she said. “I had my daughter and realized it was not that easy to come back to a restaurant.” At that point, Reygadas decided to move back to Mexico City, where she knew her own mother and a network of friends would be able to help her balance motherhood with a career as a chef.
Returning to Mexico was a chance for Reygadas to rediscover her roots. When she opened Rosetta in 2010, the small menu leaned Italian. Slowly, Reygadas started to make her food more personal. “What I knew of Mexican food was my own experience and my own admiration for the culture,” she said. Since Reygadas hadn’t studied Mexican ingredients or techniques in a formal way, it took her a while to become comfortable cooking Mexican food. Over time, she developed her own unique style that’s now the foundation for all of her restaurants.
Rosetta’s tagliatelle. Via Instagram
Balancing Act
By the time Reygadas opened Rosetta, her oldest daughter was two and she’d had a second daughter who was just six months old. Her biggest challenge at that time? Balancing motherhood with the demands of starting a business that required long hours and night shifts. Although Reygadas had help, she knew that not everyone was so lucky.
“Many women leave the kitchen once they become mothers if they don’t have support,” she said. In an effort to encourage new mothers (and fathers) to keep their jobs at her restaurants, Reygadas offers maternity and paternity leave as well as options to take on a reduced schedule when first transitioning back into work. Reygadas also put a policy in place that enables mothers to return from maternity leave and work the day shift—something she’s found to be more convenient not only for new mothers, but all mothers. “It’s not only a moment,” Reygadas said. “You are a mother for the rest of your life.”
Paying It Forward
Reygadas’ passion for supporting women in the restaurant industry extends beyond her own kitchens. In 2022, she founded a fellowship that provides funds to women from all over Mexico who can’t afford to take the next step in their culinary careers. “In Mexico, it’s much more complex than just the kitchen environments,” Reygadas said. “It’s all of the systems that make it more difficult for women and mothers to be part of this profession.”
As an example, while there are several government-funded universities throughout Mexico, many young women, particularly those from rural areas, can’t afford to pay for housing at these institutions; this leaves them unable to go to college at all. Reygadas decided to do something about that. Her initial intention was for the fellowship to provide housing money for women who otherwise wouldn’t be able to leave home. However, Reygadas said that using the funds for housing isn’t a requirement of the fellowship. Women can use the money however they see fit so long as they’re furthering their culinary education.
In 2022, Reygadas received 400 applications and awarded three scholarships. Then, Santander came on board. “They told me they always wanted to give a culinary scholarship, so now I give 50% of the money and they give the other 50%.” Reygadas hopes to continue growing the program and expanding the number of recipients.
For 2023, Reygadas received more than 800 submissions from women across 13 Mexican states. She and the advisory committee, which is made up of notable Mexican chefs such as Daniela Soto-Innes, Monica Patiño, Thalia Barrios, Rosio Sanchez, and Norma Listman, awarded 20 scholarships. “There are so many women in this country that have so much passion for food and for cooking,” Reygadas said. “It’s been a pretty beautiful thing.”
Follow Chef Elena Reygadas on Instagram @elena_reygadas and check out the full list of The BentoBox 25.
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