A dinner at Lengua Madre, the chicly elegant Mexican restaurant helmed by Chef Ana Castro in the Lower Garden District, is not your typical New Orleans dining experience. If the neon pink hallway leading into their modest dining room doesn’t clue you into that, you’ll definitely notice it on the menu, a five-course fixed affair that’s constantly evolving according to the season and the chef’s whims. Dining there is a chef-led journey through Castro’s culinary imagination, flavored heavily with nostalgia from her upbringing in Mexico City and wide-ranging travels abroad.
“I’m a very sentimental person,” said Castro. “Nostalgia is our strongest suit at Lengua and our favorite ingredient. I’ve always said that the food here is going to be informed through the lens of traditional Mexican recipes, and nostalgia’s right there because I’m cooking from memory.”
Given the impressive list of accolades Castro and Lengua Madre have racked up since opening just two short years ago, it’s difficult to imagine that the restaurant almost never happened.
“It was 2021, and we had the space, but I was a little lost, I think,” the chef said. After spending time in several lauded Crescent City kitchens, she’d landed at Coquette, where, under Chef Michael Stoltzfus, she quickly rose from garde manger to sous chef. “I kind of knew that I wanted to do Mexican food, because I was just tired of cooking something that didn’t feel natural to me. And Michael and I were like, ‘Why don’t we give this a shot?’ Then we started realizing how easy everything started developing. As a chef and as a person, I never felt like the creative process flowed with such ease and in an organic manner as it did when I started thinking about the menu at Lengua. I’d never felt so relaxed and confident about everything. So I thought, ‘this is a good sign!’”
While the cuisine at Lengua pays deep homage to ingredients and traditional dishes of Mexico, their inspired execution is all uniquely Castro’s. A recent meal started off with a shrimp and rice “caldito,” a hot, intensely piscine drink typically served in Mexican restaurants to revive the senses. An aguachile was a delicate delight, combining marinated hamachi with golden beets, habaneros and Creole tomatoes topping a leche de tigre sauce garnished with cilantro flowers. More substantial fare included a crunchy, hand-made sope filled with Louisiana blue crab dressed in a mint aioli with English peas and a green pico de gallo, and a taco made with a pink xocoyul corn tortilla (fashioned from masa ground by hand in-house on a volcanic stone mill) filled with dragon tongue beans, epazote and smoked trout roe atop a pistachio and gordal olive mole verde. An outstanding lamb tapixte cooked inside plantain leaves was accompanied simply by grilled suyo cucumbers, nasturtium, mint, lime, and a simple salsa. By the time the meal concluded with a Ponchatoula strawberry sorbet and an arroz con leche artfully combined with their spin on kaya (fig leaf custard) garnished with young coconut strips and dried figs cooked in sake and vanilla, one’s head can’t help but swim with dreams of Mexican retreat.
Amidst the well-justified praise and laurels, Castro remains humble. “Right now we’re just riding the wave,” she said. “We’re all really happy, the systems are working…it’s exciting!” And with chefs like Ana Castro shaking up the dining scene with such inventive, memory-soaked gastronomic delights, it’s definitely exciting for New Orleans, as well.
About the Chef
Born in Texas and raised in Mexico City, Ana Castro grew up cooking in her grandmother’s kitchen before studying classical culinary technique at Le Cordon Bleu. After turns in restaurants in such far-flung places as India, Denmark and New York, she eventually landed in New Orleans, cooking at a number of lauded establishments, including Coquette and Jewel of the South, before opening Lengua Madre in 2021. Above all, Castro considers herself blessed to be cooking in the Crescent City, and sees her kitchen crew no less than family. “I love my kitchen and my entire team. They’re incredible,” she says. “I’m lucky to be in the exceptional company, and I have no idea what I did to deserve them. We take care of each other, and that’s important.”
About the Chef
Born in Texas and raised in Mexico City, Ana Castro grew up cooking in her grandmother’s kitchen before studying classical culinary technique at Le Cordon Bleu. After turns in restaurants in such far-flung places as India, Denmark and New York, she eventually landed in New Orleans, cooking at a number of lauded establishments, including Coquette and Jewel of the South, before opening Lengua Madre in 2021. Above all, Castro considers herself blessed to be cooking in the Crescent City, and sees her kitchen crew no less than family. “I love my kitchen and my entire team. They’re incredible,” she says. “I’m lucky to be in the exceptional company, and I have no idea what I did to deserve them. We take care of each other, and that’s important.”