Some dinners are remembered for a single dish; others are remembered the way you remember a journey. On the night of October 5, Villa Premiere hosted Sentir México: Cena Embajadores de Estado, one of the centerpiece evenings of the 18th edition of Vallarta Nayarit Gastronómica, and what happened at the table was exactly that: a journey. From Bogotá to the Sierra Gorda, from the Jalisco coast to the valleys of Oaxaca, from Nayarit to Guadalajara, without ever leaving your seat.

Seven cooks, one course each. Four Mexican wines, an Italian sparkling wine and a mezcal cocktail to go with them. This is the story of a night that was served slowly.

One table for seven cuisines

The Ambassadors' Dinner is a tradition within Vallarta Nayarit Gastronómica: the night when the guest chefs cook together and each one brings the flavor of their homeland to the table. It is not the first time that table has been set at Villa Premiere, and this year the festival arrived with Guanajuato as its guest state, something you could feel from the second course on.

The format was simple to explain and hard to forget: seven courses, each signed by a different chef, with the hotel's executive chef, Rogelio Domínguez, as host. For a couple, there are few ways as generous to get to know a country as sharing it dish by dish, quietly trading notes on what each bite leaves behind.

The journey, course by course

First course: Bogotá opens the night

Chef Natalia Cocomá came from Bogotá, Colombia, to have the first word: scallops and cebolla cabezona. A start from the sea, with the name Colombians give to the bulb onion, which here sounded like a new accent at the table. The pairing, by Josman Fernández, was a white from Valle de Guadalupe: Gigi Blanc.

Second course: Guanajuato and the root that awakens

Lucy Noriega brought Guanajuato on a plate: trout in chilcuague escabeche. Chilcuague is a root from Guanajuato's Sierra Gorda, known for the tingle it leaves on the tongue, and at the table it becomes one of those sensations you whisper about to the person beside you. It was paired with Canto de Sirenas, a white wine from San Miguel de Allende, so that plate and glass spoke of the same state.

Third course: the host and his Pacific

Then came the house's turn. Host chef Rogelio Domínguez presented his Pacific buñuelo, a nod to the sea that peeks in from every balcony of the hotel. Lorena Morales chose for it the bubbles of Acquerello, a sparkling wine from Treviso, Italy.

Fourth course: Oaxaca in mole negro

Claudia Lara, of Los Danzantes Oaxaca, served a tamal colado with mole negro and confit suckling pig: the strained masa, silky, beneath the darkest of Oaxacan moles. Here the pairing set wine aside. Mario Mendoza answered with Toledo, a drink made with mezcal and lychee soda.

Fifth course: Carlos Gaytán, steak and forest

The main course bore the signature of Carlos Gaytán, the first Mexican chef to earn a Michelin star: New York strip and mushrooms. Meat and earth, with no more adornment than necessary. Josman Fernández returned to the table with a red from San Juan de la Vaquería, in Saltillo, Coahuila.

Sixth course: Nayarit, the sweet neighbor

The first dessert came from Héctor Leyva, of Hoja Santa & Zicatela, and it was named for exactly what it was: Frutos de Nayarit (Fruits of Nayarit). A tribute to the state that shares a bay with Puerto Vallarta.

Seventh course: Jalisco closes at home

The last word went to Paco Ruano, of Alcalde restaurant in Guadalajara: cajeta flan with bone marrow and agrillo. Cajeta, bone marrow and agrillo in a single spoonful, an ending as Jalisco as it was unexpected, paired with a rosé from Valle de Guadalupe.