“You’d better learn to cook, or you’re not going to survive.” Jorge Gonzalez’s mother had a way with words. And so he did, taking her counsel to heart and mastering the deceptively simple art of cheese enchiladas, which she stuffed with onions and slathered with red sauce. “I made some for myself again a couple of years ago and almost cried from happiness,” he says, wistfully. “It was just the flavour, the way she made them.”

You won’t find cheese enchiladas on the menu at Aramara at Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita, México, but you will find Chef Gonzalez’s “Chino Latino” fusion cuisine, or, as he puts it, “Asian dishes with Latin flair, or vice versa. There’s a lot of room for creativity.”

Gonzalez brings much to the kitchen in Punta Mita. Schooled in the culinary arts in his hometown of Guadalajara, he entered the profession when cooking was still considered more a job than an art in México. With that perception now evolved, he draws inspiration from former mentors as well as from the ingredients, which he secures from small regional producers he describes as “organic by default,” thanks to optimum growing conditions around the Resort.

“You have to understand the product and respect the ingredient before you can get creative,” he says. “Run your hands through the soil, watch the fish swimming and cut it to experience the freshness. That’s the quality we have to show.”

Gonzalez knows a lot about quality and creativity. In 2006, he placed first in a national Young Mexican Chefs competition, crafting contemporary Mexican dishes including a dazzling seared lion’s claw scallop appetiser. The victory won him a turn in the kitchen of Ferran Adrià, arguably the world’s greatest chef and the visionary behind molecular gastronomy.

“My dream was always to cook with someone so important,” Gonzalez recalls of his month-long stint at Adrià’s restaurant, El Bulli, in Roses, Spain. “The experience opened my mind that everything is possible. Copying isn’t key to success in cooking – opening your mind is.”