ABOUT AGUAMIEL
Aguamiel is an ever-evolving project based in the lush Etla Valley of Oaxaca that incorporates food + temazcal as tools, with the intention of harmonizing & healing all of our relations.
Aguamiel seeks to interweave and connect humans utilizing the universal languages of food, ceremony, dance, art, and connection with Mother Earth and her medicine.
OUR STORY
Aguamiel was founded by Gerardo Aguilar (MX) and Kristen Leahy (US) in 2020. Gera and Leahy moved to Oaxaca from Mexico City in 2019 and began to explore their new home, as well as investigate how food is related to healing, becoming inspired by the beauty and abundance of Oaxaca and a desire to share what they were learning with their human family.
That same year they continued studying temazcal (they first started with a teacher in Cuernavaca in 2018) with a local maestro temazcalero. They built their first inipi sweat lodge and have been facilitating community temazcal ceremonies every full moon ever since, as well as guiding ceremonies for private groups. They opened their Sunday only countryside land-to-table restaurant in October 2020, and it has received clients from all over the world.
Aguamiel’s cuisine recalls an ancient way of relating to food, with simple seasonal preparations.
We source clean and original ingredients from organic and artisan markets and local farmers. The food is handmade, without industrialized products, and is inspired by the living language of the earth.
Food is served in a collective and family-style atmosphere. The intention is to create an experience in a beautiful natural environment that encourages communion with the food we eat and where it comes from, with Mother Earth, with ourselves and with each other.
As Aguamiel continues to evolve, we focus on more complete experiences with healing & community building as the goals, setting aside the restaurant format to embrace a more diverse variety of events, ceremonies, workshops, communal meals, festivals, happenings, and collaborations.
We love our home and it feeds us deeply to share the medicine of this place with all of those that come with open hearts to receive it, and in turn, share theirs.
MEET THE FOUNDERS
Gerardo Aguilar
Gerardo Aguilar is a Mexican chef, pioneer in the Pop-Up movement of unique gastronomic experiences in Mexico. In 2020 Leahy and Gerardo created Aguamiel in Oaxaca. Countryside Restaurant / Gatherings / Temazcal
From his Oaxacan and Yucatecan roots, his studies in Europe, and 14 years of experiences in Mexico and abroad, he has developed a high-caliber creative cuisine with a focus on the best and freshest ingredients, consciously sourced from original farms and producers, and avoiding industrialized ingredients. In his kitchen, Gerardo lives with corn, ferments and the wood stove. He never stops searching and experimenting with the best ingredients, which in turn transform into innovative flavors that become unique experiences, where culture is imprinted on each creation. Gerardo's interpretation of Mexican cuisine is that of a vibrant, alive and evolving Mexico where traditions, culture and innovation are always present.
Kristen Leahy
Kristen Leahy (aka Leahy) is co-creator of Aguamiel, a Oaxaca-based project focused on food as healing, recovering ancestral food practices, integrative health, and ritual as a sacred language.
Her path of self-healing and the love she has for baking and desserts led her to explore creating desserts that are pleasing to both body and spirit by experimenting with local and seasonal products and omitting refined sugar, wheat, and industrialized ingredients.
Leahy is also a choreographer and dancer, certified dance and movement therapist and clinical counselor, and a temazcal (ancestral sweat lodge ceremony) guide. Leahy’s work seeks to empower self-healing through reconnection and recovering the ancient sacred language of ceremony that honors the gifts of Mother Earth in order to restore health and harmony. As an artist, she loves to explore the power of dance as storytelling, uniting force, and offering.