Daniel Nates

Daniel Nates is a chef and a draughtsman. He lives in Valle de Guadalupe, Baja California, where he cooks at Olivea Farm to Table — a restaurant with a Michelin Star and a Michelin Green Star, whose menu changes with the garden's season. He is co-founder of Fritanguita, a poblano fritanga stand in Roma Norte, Mexico City, alongside Santiago Muñoz Moctezuma of Maizajo.

He is poblano by origin. He studied at the Centro Culinario Internacional of the Universidad de Oriente. In 2016 he was a Latin America regional finalist in the S.Pellegrino Young Chef Academy with his dish Quiltamal, winner of the Most Inspiring Message award. Food & Wine en Español named him one of Mexico's 19 best new chefs.

Before Olivea he led Maizal for eight years — his first restaurant, at La Casona de los Sapos in Puebla. He closed it in 2024. What he learned there still cooks what he does today.

Cooking and drawing interest him for the same reasons: composition, contrast, intent. His visual practice — drawing, painting, marks on paper — runs parallel to the kitchen. The table, he says, is the last painting.