HANDLING THE heat

Talkative San José chef José González closed a much-loved restaurant to run an urban farm where he hosts tours for food enthusiasts, shining a light on the country’s rich produce and underserved culinary traditions

Part chef, part farmer, wholly dedicated food-lover, José González makes an interviewer’s life pretty easy. Meeting at his urban farm on the outskirts of San José, I have a list of prepared questions, but the 38-year-old is so enthusiastic, so intensely loquacious, that I barely get through three before an hour has passed. The former head chef and owner of the celebrated Al Mercat restaurant machine-guns words at a dizzying rate — more a tsunami than a stream of consciousness.

“I call Costa Rica an edible country.

Here, try this, bro,” he says, picking up a piece of cas — Costa Rican guava — from the ground. “You don’t mind? That’s how we do it here. We’re a green and beautiful country and there’s all kinds of stuff that we can take advantage of. Obviously, we have a greenhouse, too, but there’s so much just growing around the place. I grew up taking things from trees, enjoying nature and that’s what I’ve wanted to do with my cooking for the past nine years.”

José used the pandemic to take a step back from the frontline of the restaurant business, closing Al Mercat in the Costa Rican capital and retreating to his farm. Now, as the tourism industry begins to rebound, he’s offering culinary tours of his land along with opinions on anything food-related.

He doesn’t lack confidence. He knows firsthand what the standard of produce is like in the average San José restaurant and assesses