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Sofia Cortina
Pastry chef
- Discipline
- Other
i. Biography
Sofia Cortina’s work sits in the register of disciplined pastry: precise, restaurant-facing, and shaped across Mexico and Spain. From Pujol, Hotel Carlota, La Vitrine, and Te Extraño, each room added another layer to a practice that has stayed clear in its method. The line most often tied to her — “¡Podrá faltar la carne, pero jamás el postre!” — reads as a working premise rather than a tagline: dessert is not an afterthought, but a position that can carry weight at the table.
The Climb
At Espai Sucre and Pierre Hermé, pastry is framed as technique before ornament: balance, calibration, and repetition do the work. That basis carried Sofia Cortina into kitchens where pace and consistency matter as much as finish. In 2011, she entered Pujol as pastry chef, and remained there until 2014, while also working in kitchen and service at Pujol (2011–2014). The dual role placed her inside service from more than one angle, where dessert had to hold its place within the rhythm of the full dining room. The next step extended that same rigor into Barcelona, where she worked at Dos Palillos in Barcelona (from 2013). The move added range without changing the center of the work: precision, timing, and the ability to fit pastry into the larger mechanics of the restaurant. Across these roles, Sofia Cortina’s practice reads as integrated rather than isolated, with pastry treated as part of the kitchen’s shared timing, texture, and finish. From there, she became pastry chef at Hotel Carlota in Mexico City (2015–2020), a long run that gave her room to develop the work over time. She then served as director of own project La Vitrine at La Vitrine in Mexico City (2020–2023), a role that placed authorship directly on the line. Today, Sofia is chef creativa of Theurel & Thomas.
Today
She is pastry chef at Te Extraño in Mérida, Yucatán. The sequence of posts suggests a pastry chef who has moved through exacting kitchens without losing the line of the work: training, service, leadership, and creative direction all stay connected to the same core discipline. In Sofia Cortina’s case, the continuity is in the method — pastry handled with the demands of restaurant service in mind, and with enough control to make dessert read as a serious part of the meal.
Recognition
Sofia's honors include Latin America’s Best Pastry Chef (2020).
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Sofia
What is Sofia Cortina's current role?
As of 2026, Sofia Cortina is Pastry Chef.
Where did Sofia Cortina train or study?
Sofia Cortina trained at Espai Sucre and Pierre Hermé.
What recognition has Sofia Cortina received?
Latin America’s Best Pastry Chef (2020).
