Delicious archaeology

At Coacoa, Mexican chef Sebastian Alvarez dishes up history, culinary arts and vibrant design in multisensorial private dining experiences that nourish the body and mind

- ASIH JENIE

Did you know that pitaya, or the dragon fruit, is native to Mexico? And so are soursop and sapodilla? We didn’t. Chef Sebastian Alvarez told us these fun facts during our visit to his home-slash-private dining venue at Tanjong Pagar.

Occupying a conservation shophouse’s ground floor, Coacoa offers authentic Mexican home dining experiences and culinary consultancy with Alvarez as Executive Chef and Creative Director.

“I do the booking, cooking and advertising,” Alvarez quips. Born and raised in Mexico City, he moved to Singapore in February 2020 and has completed two specialisation programmes at the ESGAMEX, Mexico’s oldest culinary school dedicated to the research, promotion and development of local haute cuisines.

Bringing authentic Mexican cuisine to Singapore

Besides cooking, Alvarez also enjoys photography, branding and interior design, a set of interests that led him to launch a side hustle as a private chef and culinary consultant in 2022. He initially named this initiative Tlaxcoa—a play on the words love (tlahzoa) and snake (coatl) in Nahuatl, the indigenous language of Central Mexico, where present-day Mexico City is.

“The idea was to fall in love with Mexican food,” Alvarez explains. “And I love snakes. They symbolise fertility, abundance, renewal and transformation in Mexican culture.”

These translated into vibrant branding and striking printed collaterals that enrich the dining experience. However, he later realised that it was challenging for nonMexicans to pronounce the ‘tl’ sound in the name. “So we shortened it to Coacoa—snake snake,” he says, referring to the company’s double-headed snake logo.