At El Molino del Sureste in South City, the details don’t just matter: they quietly stack, layer by layer, until you realize you’re eating something far more deliberate than it first appears. Every element, from sourcing to seasoning to structure, feels considered beyond trend or technique. The result is cooking that feels deeply personal and fully formed – a reflection of executive chef Alex Henry’s earliest memories.
“I learned to really love food as a young child,” Alex said. “I was always intrigued by my abuelita’s cooking, and the smells and sounds of the Lucas de Gálvez market in Mérida that we would frequent.” His grandmother had a stall there selling children’s clothing, but it was the surrounding rhythm of the market – vendors calling out, the crush of bodies, the perfume of chiles and masa – that lingered. By the end of high school, he knew cooking would be his path.
For Alex and his brother Jeff Henry, now co-owner and general manager, those early years in Mérida, Yucatán, unfolded in constant motion around food. Meals stretched into gatherings, unstructured and inevitable, where cooking wasn’t separate from living but stitched directly into it…