I had a chance earlier this week to meet noted Mexican chef and restaurant consultant Roberto Santibanez during his visit to Tampa. Santibanez came to town at the invitation of Rene Valenzuela, owner of The Taco Bus on Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa and Taqueria Monterrey restaurants on Fletcher Avenue and in Plant City. In February, Valenzuela also hosted Mexican cooking authority Diana Kennedy, the Julia Child of south-of-the-border food.

Santibanez is a native of Mexico City and an honors graduate of Le Cordon Blue in Paris. From 2002 to 2007, he was culinary director of Rosa Mexicano Restaurants in New York City. MarthaStewart.com called him, “An undeniable authority on traditional and contemporary Mexican cuisine.“ He is the owner of Truly Mexican, a New York-based food consulting firm, and recently authored the book, “Rosa’s New Mexican Table.” It is published by Artisan Books.

Santibanez did a cooking demonstration on Wednesday night at the Bus, as well as a book signing earlier in the day at the Barnes and Noble on Dale Mabry in Tampa. On Thursday, he did another cooking class at The Rolling Pin in Brandon. He also sat down with me for a fascinating Table Conversations podcast, during which Valenzuela sat in.

During the Taco Bus class, Santibanez led the group through a series of dishes, including:

Seafood filling for tacos

Ancho chiles stuffed with beef tenderloin, shiitakes.

For dessert, there were Brownie Tamales covered in delicious caramel and goat milk sauce.

How did it taste? It’s difficult to describe. The flavors were, at times, alternately intense, fresh and deeply fulfilling. Something inside me said, “This is what Mexican food is supposed to taste like.” And then that sort of made me angry when I started to think about all the bland, overcooked, unfresh Mexican fare I’d eaten over the years.

Santibanez is in the middle off writing his next book, which will focus on techniques that will bring out the best flavors in your Mexican cooking. He displayed such a technique Wednesday when he showed the proper way to wash cilantro (dip it in a bowl of water, don’t run it under the tap) and chop it (twist off the bottom third of the bunch, then finely chop and roll the cilantro as you work your way to the top of the plant). Do so properly and your food will have a completely different cilantro profile than if you had simply put it in a food processor and pulsed it to death.

Here is a gallery of photos I shot during the Taco Bus visit. As you can see, it was an intimate gathering in an untraditional setting, which made it all the more memorable:

And here’s a video clip I shot during the Wednesday night demo. In it, Santibanez talks about the foods that are found in Mexican pantries and how unlikely ingredients make their way into traditional Mexican cooking: