Mexican Food's Ambassador In NYC

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Most first-time diners at Fonda, a lively Mexican restaurant in Brooklyn's Park Slope neighborhood, start with the usual — the spicy guacamole and a well-made margarita. But it isn't long before they notice that this isn't some run-of-the-mill tacos 'n tequila spot. Soon, dishes emerge from chef-owner Roberto Santibañez's kitchen bathed in sauces of vibrant green or deep-hued red or rich chocolate, steam rising from the plate in artful swirls.

Talk about secret sauce! The flavors of Santibañez's salsa verde, his adobo and his spicy hazelnut mole practically dance across the palate. And these sauces helped make Fonda such a hit that Santibañez and his team two weeks ago opened a second Fonda, in Manhattan's East Village. "In Mexico, the sauce-making is very important," he says. "Without it you're left with some pretty flavorless tacos."

Santibañez spent five years helping build and expand the Rosa Mexicano brand before setting out on his own with Fonda, the next step in a career that has taken him from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris to kitchens in England, Austin and his native Mexico—before he settled in NYC. (He's also authored two celebrated cookbooks: 2007's Rosa's New Mexican Table and last year's Truly Mexican.) Over the next few days, he'll share several recipes for Fonda's favorite dishes with Food Republic, starting with this delicious spinach and mushroom enchiladas recipe. Here he talks Fonda expansion, signature margaritas and why Mexican food is so underrated.

Why did you study French technique and European cooking, only to go back to your native Mexico and return to Mexican cuisine?

I was classically trained and looking at all the sauce-making and how important that was for the French. Then I grabbed a couple of jobs in Europe here and there. I got a job in England and then I went back to Mexico. Everything started back then. My interest in Mexican cooking was immediate. I said what am I doing? I have all this that belongs to me and everyone my age wanted to be a French cook. Wanted to be a European cook. And I took a complete different route and started researching and wanting to know more. It was a very different Mexico, the one I was in as a young guy and the Mexico we know now.

Obviously your focus right now is in New York, where you just opened your second Fonda. What about the first Fonda made you want to expand the brand and find another location?

I do love my first Fonda. I was just there on Saturday because I miss them. It's a great team of people. It's a great little restaurant and we're trying as hard as we can to replicate it. It's going to be a challenge. We're very ready and we're feeling very confident.

What made you open a second one?

I think just a little bug in my ear. I just wanted to do it and to see how we could manage it, and just for the excitement.

Some of it must have come from working at Rosa Mexicano for so long. You helped oversee the opening of how many restaurants there?

Probably five or six.

From a business point of view, it's better to have more restaurants, right?

It is. If you really want to make money you cannot just keep one restaurant. It's hard to make money in the business. The bad thing is I don't know how to do much else and I've lost the figure too.