Fauna in Mexico?s Valle de Guadalupe Is Serving Classic Dishes Better Than Anywhere Else

“It’s flavors that I, as a Mexican, grew up enjoying.”But it’s almost impossible not to love Fauna, no matter your culinary fluency in the region: The crispness of the skin on the roast duck ballooned with its own juices, the savory complexity of charred cabbage with cabbage puree, and the novelty of serving bone marrow from half a femur, sliced lengthwise, need little translation.The dishes reflect Castro’s Baja experience—he grew up helping his grandfather at the family’s ranch in these same hills, cooking and working with the animals. And while he eventually left—cooking at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York, MeroToro in Mexico City, and helping Gabriela Cámara open Cala in San Francisco—it is difficult to imagine him anywhere but here on the peninsula, where he started cooking at age 14 at a cousin’s restaurant, which was only 16 years ago itself.Aldaco, Fauna’s pastry chef, has the same Blue Hill–MeroToro–Cala pedigree as her husband, plus additional fine-dining experience at the Nomad Hotel in New York City and Quince in San Francisco.