On the front porch of the small house-turned-restaurant in Port Moody, Originals Mexicano’s head chef Esteban Cuevas received the highest culinary honour Mexico can bestow outside its borders.
On May 29, during a ceremony attended by the Mexican consul general, the restaurant was awarded the Sello M – Mexico’s seal of culinary authenticity – making it one of only six recipients across B.C., N.W.T, and the Yukon to earn the distinction.
Cuevas, who immigrated to Canada in the early 2000s, said he was “humbled and grateful for the award, adding his goal has always been to represent true Mexican cuisine.
He remembers returning home from Charles Best Secondary with friends, and making them simple quesadillas, while his mom made sauce.
“They would go crazy for it,” he said. “Back then I realized there is a craving for real Mexican food. But it was always a challenge for our family finding authentic restaurants – they just weren’t around.”
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The Sello M is issued by the Academia Mexicana de Gastronomía, Mexico’s sole education institution dedicated to research, promotion and development of high Mexican cuisine, and officially backed Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The prestigious designation recognizes restaurants outside Mexico that preserve traditional cooking methods, authentic ingredients and cultural heritage.
For Cuevas, who opened the little restaurant in Port Moody’s heritage district at 21 after originally planning a coffee shop, the award felt deeply personal.
“When you’re a kid, that’s where you get all the main inspiration,” Cuevas said, reflecting on childhood meals shared among his large family in Mexico City. “Having a meal is one of the most important things in Mexico. You don’t go and meet people — you go and have meals.”
Those memories shaped Originals, a restaurant inspired in part by Merendero Las Lupitas, a restaurant in Mexico City’s Coyoacán borough that Cuevas remembers visiting for special occasions as a child.
“This place reminded me of that restaurant,” he said. “That place was also a little house in Coyoacán.”
The path to opening Originals was anything but conventional.
Cuevas attended Douglas College, initially planning to pursue business studies, while working at Mexican restaurants and hotels around Metro Vancouver.
He started as a dishwasher, then moved to bartending, but never considered himself to be a cook.
“But I was exposed to incredible food, incredible chefs, and I was able to see what they were doing, and started cooking a little bit,” Cuevas said. “I wasn’t very good at first.”
Despite never formally attending culinary school, Cuevas taught himself cooking while building the business, leaning on mentorship from friends, endless practise and long workdays.
“I was here from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., working, cooking, teaching myself through YouTube, a lot of training,” he said. “It’s one of those things, where if you spend a lot of time and a lot of hours doing one thing, you become good.”
Today, he travels back to Mexico several times each year to continue learning regional techniques and traditions.
“I’m still learning every year, but now they are becoming my creations,” he said, adding he constantly adjusts recipes. “You do the same dish a thousand times — that’s where the challenge comes – that’s when you become a chef.”
The Sello M program itself is intentionally selective.
Matthew McPherson, liaison officer for economic and public affairs with the Mexican Consulate in Vancouver, said this year marked the first intake for the worldwide initiative.
Under the Vancouver consulate’s jurisdiction – which covers B.C., Yukon and Northwest Territories – 22 businesses applied. Only 11 met the requirements, and just six ultimately received the award.
McPherson said the Mexican government is trying to preserve and promote its traditional culinary heritage, noting that Mexican gastronomy was the first ever to be recognized by UNESCO as a heritage cuisine due to its blend of indigenous, traditional, as well as European methods.
He said its traditional cuisine is often misrepresented globally through stereotypes and commercial chains.
“Traditional, authentic Mexican cuisine is not often at the forefront of people’s minds, especially abroad,” McPherson said. “I think it’s really important that we recognize the people behind these businesses that are really putting in the work to make sure that traditional and authentic methods, recipes, and ingredients are well represented.”
Applicants were required to submit extensive documentation, including recipe portfolios, sourcing records, cultural histories and visual evidence of operations. Consulate staff also conducted secretive in-person reviews and evaluations.
“We definitely took some inspiration from the Michelin Star program,” McPherson said. “The recognition is absolutely meant to be prestigious.”
Restaurants are assessed on authenticity, staff expertise and quality standards, with reviewers specifically looking for traditional techniques and ingredients rather than commercial shortcuts.
Speaking during the award ceremony, Mexican Consul General Julián Adem Díaz de León said Originals stands out as a cultural ambassador.
“They have brought about something incredible – a restaurant with unique cuisine techniques and interesting ingredients which are true to our Mexican gastronomical heritage,” he said. “They have been able not only to preserve, but to disseminate knowledge of Mexican culinary expressions abroad.”
