When a teenager from Mexico ends up in Colorado and starts cooking Italian food, you can bet some creative culture clashes begin to form on the plate. That’s where chef Luis Gutierrez’s Maiz y Fuego comes in, a new food stall inside La Plaza Colorado Aurora that opened in early December.
Gutierrez also owns Cucina Bella, a casual Italian restaurant in Denver. He has operated Cucina Bella with his brother Heriberto since 2022, serving classic dishes such as mushroom ravioli, veal saltimbocca, shrimp scampi, burrata bruschetta, lasagna, and more.
When a friend and regular customer of Cucina Bella asked him to help her run Maiz y Fuego, he decided to join the team and become the majority owner in the concept as well. This was a chance to get back to his Mexican roots, he said, while still showcasing the Italian food skills he’s known for.
“She [was] trying to do just Mexican food and I don’t mind, I love Mexican food.” explained the chef. “I said okay, we have to do Mexican food, but as everyone is doing it, we had to do some pastas too.”
On the current menu you’ll find Mexican favorites such as tacos al pastor, guacamole, flautas, and gorditas. On the Italian side, Gutierrez brings some favorite recipes from Cucina Bella such as the caprese salad, traditional bolognese with meatballs, and fusilli with a ton of garlic, broccoli, árbol chili, and creamy Parmesan sauce with choice of chicken or shrimp. But then dishes start to blend, the Diablá pasta comes with housemade spicy pomodoro, linguine, jalapeños, and queso fresco. Then for dessert you’ll find both flan with caramel and tiramisu layered with mascarpone.
Maiz y Fuego is the only place in La Plaza Colorado where you can get fried calamari, and that was part of the reason Gutierrez wanted to bring a bit of Italian to the marketplace.
But how did a Mexican chef end up as a prominent fixture in the Denver Italian food scene? It all started when he was a teenager and got a job washing dishes at Café Colore, a now closed restaurant in Writer’s Square downtown. After a year the owner wanted him to move up and onto the cooking line.
“I was never really thinking about moving forward because I had no idea how to cook until the cooks [were like] ‘can you help me with this and that,’” said Gutierrez, adding the owner asked him to help make some bread and before he realized it, he could cook the whole menu.
Good thing too, one day the kitchen manager at Café Colore decided to quit on the spot. The owner, who had just got married and booked a two-week honeymoon in Costa Rica, asked Gutierrez to take over while he was away.
“When he came back, see the restaurant was clean, no complaints, so he’s like, ‘you’re in charge now,’” said the chef, who was about 19-years-old at the time.
Gutierrez stayed at Café Colore for years until it was sold. After that he bounced around town to Cucina Colore and Duo, until finally landing his own spot, Cucina Bella. Everything the chef learned came from being in the kitchen, from pasta making to pizzas to creating comforting sauces.
Maiz y Fuego is the chef’s first project outside of Cucina Bella, and, save for those few menu items, the two aren’t alike at all. Cucina Bella has been a neighborhood staple with easy Italian food and moderate prices. Maiz y Fuego is almost like a food truck in an indoor market, though technically all the stalls built in La Plaza Colorado are old shipping containers. But one thing that remains consistent is Gutierrez’s dedication to fresh and good ingredients, no-frills dishes, and a pinch of heat here and there.
Visit Maiz y Fuego Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. It’s located at the back of the plaza at 15200 E. Colfax Ave., across from the arcade. Find more information at maizyfuegodenver.com, and follow Instagram for specials at @maizyfuegodenver.
