i. Biography
Coastal cooking in the capital often depends on restraint: knowing when fish and seafood should carry the plate, and when urban discipline should frame it. At Ultramarinos Demar, Lucho Martinez works from that junction. Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, gives the coastal reference; city kitchens supplied the repetition, pressure, and station discipline that shaped the professional hand. Kitchen work can become structure before it becomes authorship. Martinez has described that early function plainly: "I started working at the age of 14, and honestly, I found a safe place in the kitchen and among the people there." The craft here was built through apprenticeship and attendance: arriving, listening, reading the room, taking the pace of service seriously, and letting technical habits accumulate over time.
The Path
Training at Em put Lucho Martinez inside a professional language that would stay with the work. The formation that followed was practical rather than decorative: first as a cook in kitchens, then as a hotel kitchen worker at Hotels in Cancún, Mexico, where scale, pace, and consistency are part of the daily brief. Mexico City supplied the sharper restaurant repetitions. Martinez was trainee / kitchen staff at Máximo Bistrot, then kitchen staff at Quintonil, and kitchen staff at Mia Domenicca. Those posts are the kind that teach through prep lists, service timing, correction, and standards enforced every day. The lesson is not glamour; it is endurance, accuracy, and the willingness to reset for the next service. Entrepreneurship entered the craft through room-making as much as cooking. As founder at 686 Bar in Colonia Roma, Martinez moved from working inside existing systems to building one of his own: a bar, a gathering point, and another format for hospitality. The current body of work carries those prior systems forward. Lucho is owner and chef of Em / Emília (since 2018) and chef / restaurateur of Ultramarinos Demar (since 2024), with a capital-based practice built from kitchen discipline, project-to-project momentum, and a sustained pull toward the coast.
Now
The restaurant ecosystem expanded vertically and laterally. Martinez opened 686 Bar above Em in 2021, adding another register to the world around the restaurant, and he also opened his second restaurant, Martínez, where he is a creative force today. Seafood and fish sit at the center of this work as a recovered proximity to place rather than a market pose. Martinez has tied that emphasis directly to birthplace and memory: "My main idea is to bring people together, while I cook what I enjoy the most (seafood and fish). I was born by the sea, and I wanted to reclaim that in my life and keep it close to me!" Gathering is the operating brief behind the cooking. The restaurants may be tightly shaped and technically disciplined, but the aim is legible to another operator: build a table people want to return to, and let the coastal material speak through an urban frame.
Signature
The named signatures — huitlacoche tart with Ocosingo cheese and escamole croquettes with serrano — work in a compact register. In Martinez’s hands, the interest is depth and contrast: earth, dairy richness, delicacy, and heat held in forms that depend on concentration rather than volume.
Accolades
Lucho Martinez has received MICHELIN Guide — One MICHELIN Star for Em (2024). One MICHELIN Star for Em (2024) recognizes the restaurant, and it also marks a craft arc visible in the work: early kitchen refuge, Mexico City discipline, independent projects, and the continuing coastal reference from Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Lucho
What is Lucho Martinez's present role?
Lucho Martinez is creative force.
Where did Lucho Martinez train or study?
Lucho Martinez trained at Em.
What recognition has Lucho Martinez received?
One MICHELIN Star for Em (2024).
