The recognition sets a high-profile tone for his next chapter in Central Texas, where he will open\u00a0Estella at Canyon Ranch Austin, a 600-acre wellness resort under development about an hour west of Austin.<\/p>\n
Michelin inspectors cited Cant\u00fa\u2019s ability to blend global techniques with a clearly defined Mexican identity, highlighting both precision and restraint in his cooking.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat really stood out to me was the global inspiration and seeing those international techniques and flavors executed with such precision, refinement and clarity without losing the Mexican identity,\u201d one inspector wrote. \u201cThe cooking was bold and impactful, and the kitchen wasn\u2019t afraid of spice and heat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cant\u00fa, the Central Texas\u2013born chef behind Californios, told the Statesman in January that his approach to Estella will be about refinement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be a light version of what we do,\u201d\u00a0Cant\u00fa said. \u201cLight, bright, fresh. Clean.\u201d<\/p>\n
Estella will anchor the culinary program at Canyon Ranch Austin when the resort opens on Oct. 15. The development spans 600 acres of Hill Country terrain along the road to Spicewood.<\/p>\n
Estella will not be open to the general public. Access will be limited to overnight guests and property homeowners.<\/p>\n
For\u00a0Cant\u00fa, the focus will be on seasonal ingredients, precision and balance \u2014 with\u00a0masa as a consistent throughline.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m making tortillas, I feel connected at a root level,\u201d\u00a0Cant\u00fa said. \u201cIt reminds me of making tortillas with my grandmother and my dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Estella will be one of two dining concepts at the property, alongside a more casual caf\u00e9 serving breakfast, lunch and takeaway meals. Cant\u00fa\u2019s influence will be most present in the flagship dining room, even if his day-to-day presence is not constant.<\/p>\n
Ingredients will be\u00a0sourced from regional farms and purveyors, with select items coming through long-established relationships in Mexico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The recognition sets a high-profile tone for his next chapter in Central Texas, where he will open\u00a0Estella at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,1223,1224,62,5459,3720,124938,11208,354,27],"class_list":["post-350666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-austin-texas","tag-austin-things-to-do","tag-dining","tag-fine-dining","tag-michelin","tag-michelin-awards","tag-michelin-star","tag-restaurants","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}