Santiago Muñoz Moctezuma

Santiago Muñoz Moctezuma is a Mexican chef whose career has been built around corn, traditional nixtamalization systems, and Mexican popular cuisine understood through deep respect for product, territory, and ancestral processes. Trained in hospitality, he developed his professional career in leading kitchens in Mexico City, where he consolidated a strong technical foundation and a critical perspective on production chains and ingredient origin.

His work is defined by ongoing research into native corn, heirloom varieties, and their transformation, as well as by an active defense of traditional tortillería as a cultural and gastronomic cornerstone. This vision takes shape in Maizajo, a Mexico City–based restaurant of which he is founder and chef, conceived as an integrated space that brings together a mill, tortillería, and taquería. At Maizajo, the complete process—from grain to taco—is visible and central, reaffirming the value of craftsmanship and seasonality.

The project has received both national and international recognition for its contribution to contemporary Mexican cuisine from a perspective deeply rooted in tradition. Santiago Muñoz Moctezuma was selected by Food & Wine as Best New Chef 2024, received recognition from the Michelin Guide Mexico, and was awarded the La Liste Discovery Gem Award in 2026, establishing himself as one of the most relevant voices of a new generation of Mexican chefs committed to identity, sustainability, and the preservation of culinary heritage.