Who is Jorge Vallejo, Hublot's new gastronomic partner?
Luxury thrives on unexpected encounters when they reveal, behind different professions, a shared approach. On one side, Hublot, the Swiss manufacturer that built its identity on theArt of Fusion, the convergence of materials, technologies, and watchmaking expertise. On the other, Jorge Vallejo, the Mexican chef who, with Quintonil in Mexico City, creates a dialogue between culinary heritage, local ingredients, and contemporary cuisine.
The partnership is no longer a hypothesis: on September 23, 2025, Hublot officially announced the arrival of Jorge Vallejo into its family as a Friend of the Brand. The wording is important. The company doesn't present him in its press release as a mere culinary provider, nor even formally as an "ambassador," but as a partner destined to embody its world.
For Hublot, gastronomy thus becomes a new arena for expressing luxury haute horlogerie. For Vallejo, this collaboration offers an almost natural parallel between two raw materials that are difficult to master: the product and time. To understand Hublot's interest in Jorge Vallejo, one must begin with Quintonil.
The restaurant was founded in Mexico City in 2012 by Jorge Vallejo and his wife Alejandra Flores. The project claims a relatively simple idea in its formulation, much less so in its execution: to express the flavors of ingredients from the Mexican territory through a personal vision.
Vallejo focuses its work on the product, taste quality, research and techniques capable of placing Mexican culinary traditions in a contemporary language.
Quintonil also emphasizes the relationships maintained with regional producers and their positive impact on their communities and the ecosystems in which they operate. This connection to the land is an important dimension of Vallejo's cuisine: Mexico is not used as a mere cultural backdrop, but as a source of food and a creative matrix.
In a world where luxury gastronomy could easily succumb to technical demonstration, Quintonil therefore chooses another path: starting with the Mexican product and elevating it without making it lose its identity.
Quintonil: two Michelin stars in the heart of Mexico City
The restaurant's international recognition has become difficult to ignore. On May 14, 2024, during the very first MICHELIN Guide selection dedicated to Mexico, Quintonil and Pujol became the first two restaurants in the country to be awarded two MICHELIN Stars.
Michelin described Jorge Vallejo and Alejandra Flores' establishment as a chic and welcoming restaurant with elegant and creative cuisine. A year later, on June 4, 2025, Quintonil retained its two stars. Michelin highlighted the emphasis placed on local ingredients and the restaurant's modern interpretation of Mexican cuisine while remaining deeply rooted in its traditions. This consistency is essential.
In haute cuisine, receiving an award is an event. Retaining it demonstrates an ability to consistently maintain a high level of cuisine and service over time.
The comparison with watchmaking becomes more relevant here than it seems: precision only has value when it is reproducible.
To further explore this transformation of theMichelin star into a desirability asset for brands and destinations, Luxe Daily also analyzes the issue in its dossier dedicated to the Michelin Guide 2026 and the new codes of gastronomic luxury.
Quintonil, third best restaurant in the world in 2025
In addition to its Michelin star, Quintonil has also been recognized by The World's 50 Best Restaurants. In the global ranking unveiled on June 19, 2025, in Turin, Quintonil reached 3rd place worldwide, behind Maido in Lima and Asador Etxebarri in the Spanish Basque Country. The restaurant was also named Best Restaurant in North America 2025.
The classification describes a cuisine based on fresh, local ingredients and traditional Mexican flavors and techniques reinterpreted in contemporary preparations.
Jorge Vallejo is not new to this world: he received the Estrella Damm Chefs' Choice Award in 2022, a distinction whose particularity is that it is awarded by the chefs themselves.
And in 2026?
The distinction is useful to avoid an SEO freshness error. As of August 28, 2026, the 2026 world ranking has not yet been published. The World's 50 Best Restaurants announced that its ceremony would finally take place in Lima on November 4, 2026.Therefore, it is more accurate to write:
"Quintonil is ranked No. 3 in the World's 50 Best Restaurants 2025"
rather than:
"Quintonil is currently the third best restaurant in the world.".
This detail may seem minor, but it prevents content from artificially retaining an annual ranking after its expiration.
Why did Hublot choose Jorge Vallejo?
On paper, a Swiss watch manufacturer and a Mexican restaurant don't have much in common. That's precisely what interests Hublot. The company has developed around its concept of the Art of Fusion : bringing together elements that traditional watchmaking wasn't necessarily intended to combine.
In 1980, the first Hublot watch combined a gold case with a rubber strap, a then radical contrast between precious metal and functional material. This approach subsequently became a true brand philosophy. Today, Hublot works with ceramic, sapphire, various alloys, and its in-house movements, all within this framework of merging tradition, innovation, and unexpected materials.
Vallejo's cuisine is also based on a form of fusion, but without confusion. His work combines:
- Mexican ingredients and contemporary techniques;
- culinary memory and creation;
- local biodiversity and haute cuisine;
- technical precision and emotion;
- cuisine and hospitality.
It is this parallel that Hublot explicitly highlights when it presents Vallejo as a representative of its Art of Fusion: tradition and modernity, creativity and precision, innovation and respect for origins.
At Hublot as at Quintonil, time becomes a material
Above all, there is a more subtle commonality: time. In watchmaking, time is obviously measured. It governs the power reserve, the frequency of a movement, the precision of a chronograph, or the complexity of a complication.
In the kitchen, time isn't read on a dial, but it governs almost everything: seasonality, cooking, resting, fermentation, maturation, preparation, and serving. Jorge Vallejo himself sums up this close relationship in the Hublot press release, explaining that time is for him "the most precious ingredient," the one that allows an idea to mature and a dish to reach its perfect point.
This is probably the editorial heart of this collaboration. Hublot isn't just looking for a renowned chef. The manufacture is choosing someone capable of making tangible an abstract concept around which all watchmaking is built.
Fine dining is becoming a strategic territory for luxury brands
The Hublot × Jorge Vallejo partnership is part of a broader evolution of luxury. For a long time, a brand could primarily build its desirability around its products, its boutiques and its campaigns.
Today, the product remains fundamental, but major brands are increasingly developing cultural ecosystems : sports, contemporary art, music, design, architecture, travel, hospitality , and gastronomy. Cuisine offers several particularly interesting advantages.
It creates an immediate physical experience. It generates content. It fosters hospitality. And, above all, it allows brands to partner with individuals whose expertise is also perceived as artisanal.
At Hublot, this strategy is not new. When announcing Vallejo in September 2025, the manufacturer indicated that it had ten internationally renowned chefs in its gastronomic constellation.
The objective therefore goes beyond a one-off publicity stunt: gastronomy is now one of the areas through which the manufacture expresses its identity. This logic echoes that observed in sports, where Hublot also uses international personalities to convey its values of performance and innovation. On Luxe Daily, the partnership between Hublot and Patrick Mahomes offers another example of this brand strategy. Hublot and Patrick Mahomes: an alliance built on performance
What gastronomy brings to Hublot's image
The chef has become a particularly powerful figure in the contemporary luxury economy. A great chef no longer just sells plates of food.
It embodies: a territory, an aesthetic, a set of gestures, a product philosophy, a form of hospitality,
and sometimes a complete cultural vision. For a fine watchmaking house, this symbolic density is invaluable.
Jorge Vallejo offers Hublot a connection with Mexico, one of the most closely watched gastronomic scenes today, but also with a generation of chefs for whom tradition and innovation are no longer opposed.
Gastronomy then becomes an instrument of brand equity : it enriches the brand's universe without requiring the chef to be immediately transformed into a derivative product.
This ability of cuisine to function as a true brand medium is also at the heart of Luxe Daily's analysis devoted to gastronomy as a new power of desirability in luxury.
And what can Hublot bring to Jorge Vallejo?
The benefit naturally works both ways. Hublot belongs to the LVMH group, and its universe enjoys global visibility in fine watchmaking, sports, culture, and premium events. LVMH describes the manufacture as a house that has made the Art of Fusion a philosophy extending from its creations to its partnerships.
For Jorge Vallejo, entering this ecosystem allows Quintonil's reach beyond the culinary community alone. This is important at a time when the chef and Alejandra Flores are also developing their brand outside of Mexico City.
The World's 50 Best Restaurants announced the development of Pib, a more relaxed project in Los Cabos, created with the owners of the Chablé hotel group and centered around fire cooking.
Jorge Vallejo is no longer just the chef of a very prestigious restaurant. He is gradually becoming a symbol of Mexican hospitality. For a luxury establishment, this evolution is particularly interesting.
Quintonil: Mexican cuisine that starts from the land
One of the risks when a luxury brand partners with a renowned international chefis reducing their cuisine to a few easily marketable words: "creativity," "excellence," "innovation." Vallejo's work deserves more.
Quintonil takes its name from a Mexican edible plant, a quelite, and seeks precisely to place the country's ingredients at the heart of contemporary gastronomic cuisine. Michelin cites in particular preparations featuring blue corn, crab , and green pipián, while the restaurant emphasizes research into the products, techniques, and culinary practices of Mexico.
This approach is important in today's fine dining economy. Sophistication no longer necessarily means importing the rarest product from the other side of the world. On the contrary, it can consist of revealing, with greater precision, what grows, is fished, or is produced in the area surrounding the restaurant.
Gastronomic luxury is thus drawing closer to the land. Not out of nostalgia, but because origin, traceability, craftsmanship, and storytelling create a value that standardization cannot easily reproduce.
An alliance between fine watchmaking and haute cuisine, but not yet a collaborative watch
Here, we must distinguish between facts and projections. Hublot's official announcement confirms:
- the arrival of Jorge Vallejo as Friend of the Brand ;
- its integration into the international family of Hublot chefs;
- the close connection between his work and the Art of Fusion.
However, the official sources consulted do not announce at this stage :
- Hublot watch design by Jorge Vallejo;
- limited edition dedicated to Quintonil;
- culinary residence;
- gastronomic capsule;
- launch dinner designed around Hublot dials;
- nor a collection inspired by the chef's fermentations or maturations.
Presenting these ideas as confirmed projects would therefore be premature. They could represent coherent developments for a collaboration between gastronomy and watchmaking, but they currently fall under the category of editorial speculation, not official information. This distinction between fact, interpretation, and anticipation is particularly important for content seeking to enhance its credibility on Google.
Hublot, LVMH and the Art of Fusion: a strategy of collaborations
The collaboration with Jorge Vallejo is also part of a partnership strategy that is particularly visible at Hublot. Athletes, artists, and cultural figures have long served as entry points for the manufacture to communities that don't necessarily engage with watchmaking through the same channels. LVMH emphasizes that theArt of Fusion is not limited to materials and movements: this philosophy also permeates Hublot's partnerships.
This model explainsVallejo's interest. It's not about asking them to become watchmakers, just as Hublot isn't aiming to become restaurateurs. The effectiveness of the partnership lies precisely in maintaining two independent areas of expertise. The company speaks of time. The chef transforms it.
Why is this collaboration interesting for the luxury hotel and restaurant industry?
For professionals in the high-end restaurant and hotel industry , the Hublot-Vallejo case goes far beyond a celebrity partnership. It illustrates three transformations.
The chef becomes a cultural brand
The best chefs today are able to exist beyond their restaurant. Their signature style can extend into the hotel industry, publishing, events, and collaborations with luxury brands.
Luxury sells more moments
Theproduct remains central, but brands seek to associate it with a memorable experience. A dinner, a hotel, a trip , or a meeting with a craftsperson possesses a different emotional value than a traditional advertising campaign. This rise of experiential luxury also extends to thehospitality industry and explains why luxury hotels and hotel groups invest so heavily in their culinary signatures.
The territory is once again becoming a premium asset
Vallejo's cuisine demonstrates that a deeply Mexican identity doesn't preclude an international audience . It can even be a prerequisite. The more global a luxury brand becomes, the more the uniqueness of its origins can create value.
On Luxe Daily, this dialogue between hotels, restaurants and premium experiences is also visible in the analysis devoted to the transformation of the Mandarin Oriental Paris and the strategic role of its new culinary concepts.
Hublot and Jorge Vallejo: the key information
| Element | Information |
|---|---|
| Home | Window |
| Band | LVMH |
| Partner | Jorge Vallejo |
| Official status | Friend of the Brand |
| Announcement date | September 23, 2025 |
| Restaurant | Quintonil |
| City | Mexico |
| Quintonil Opening | 2012 |
| Founders | Jorge Vallejo and Alejandra Flores |
| MICHELIN Guide | Two Stars retained in 2025 |
| World's 50 Best | World No. 3 in 2025 |
| Individual distinction | Chefs' Choice Award 2022 |
| Hublot Philosophy | Art of Fusion |
| Central common point | Time, precision, innovation and respect for origins |
Hublot × Jorge Vallejo: more than just a marketing partnership?
The answer may lie precisely in what hasn't been announced. No Quintonil-branded watch. No officially confirmed Big Bang-shaped dish. No limited edition presented as an immediate pretext for the collaboration. For now, Hublot is choosing a creative universe. That's probably the most interesting part.
Jorge Vallejo represents a Mexican gastronomy capable of being both profoundly local and perfectly international. Hublot represents a Swiss watchmaker that has built its identity not on the strict preservation of codes, but on their confrontation. Their point of convergence is therefore less the product than the method.
Combining what comes from the past with what did not yet exist. In a kitchen as in a factory, true sophistication rarely begins with accumulation. It begins with mastery. And in both cases, it takes time.
FAQ: Hublot and Jorge Vallejo
Is Jorge Vallejo a Hublot ambassador?
The title officially used by Hublot on September 23, 2025, is "Friend of the Brand." Some publications use the term "ambassador" generically, but this is not the precise wording used by the manufacturer in its announcement.
Who is Jorge Vallejo?
Jorge Vallejo is a Mexican chef and co-founder, with Alejandra Flores, of the Quintonil, opened in Mexico City in 2012. His cuisine particularly highlights Mexican ingredients, local techniques and their contemporary interpretation.
How many Michelin stars does Quintonil have?
Quintonil was awarded two MICHELIN Stars in 2024, during the first edition of the Michelin Guide in Mexico, and then retained them in the 2025 selection.
What is Quintonil's ranking in the World's 50 Best Restaurants?
Quintonil was ranked 3rd in the world in 2025 and received the title of best restaurant in North America that year. The 2026 world ranking is to be announced on November 4, 2026 in Lima.
Will Hublot create a Jorge Vallejo watch?
No Hublot x Jorge Vallejo watch has been announced in the official sources consulted. Such a collaboration therefore remains hypothetical at this stage.
What is Hublot's Art of Fusion?
TheArt of Fusion refers to the philosophy that has structured Hublot's identity since its first watch in 1980, which combined gold and rubber. Today, it extends to the manufacture's materials, movements, design, and partnerships.
Primary sources consulted
- Hublot – official announcement of September 23, 2025 : appointment of Jorge Vallejo as Friend of the Brand, partnership philosophy and Hublot gastronomic network.
- Quintonil – official website : opened in 2012, Jorge Vallejo, Alejandra Flores, culinary philosophy and work with Mexican producers.
- The World's 50 Best Restaurants – Official Ranking 2025 : Quintonil No. 3 in the world and best restaurant in North America 2025.
- The World's 50 Best Restaurants – 2026 edition : ceremony announced in Lima for November 4, 2026.
3 official French sources
- Michelin, Clermont-Ferrand – MICHELIN Guide Mexico 2025
- LVMH – official Hublot fact sheet, presenting the Art of Fusion, the history of the house since 1980, its know-how and its belonging to the French group LVMH.
- France Diplomacy – Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, modernised action plan of 14 May 2026 dedicated to the strategic partnership between France and Mexico and the deepening of their exchanges.
