About

Niki Nakazawa 

Niki Nakazawa is a producer, cook, and writer/translater/editor who over the course of her career, has cultivated a deep network of collaborators across creative fields in food, art, design, music, and film. After moving to Mexico City from Chicago in 2007, she served as managing editor of books at the art, architecture, and design publishing houses Turner Libros, A&R, and Arquine. During this time, she supervised the edition of over 20 different titles before being hired to direct public relations & sales at the contemporary art gallery LABOR. In 2012, she left the gallery world, shifted gears, and founded the experimental pop-up restaurant and catering company Pichón along with her creative partners Emma Rosenbush, PJ Rountree, and Kenny Curran. Pichón started as a weekly Sunday pop-up of simple food prepared with ingredients sourced from farmers working on the chinampa system of Xochimilco and from the Valley of Mexico. Over time, the ongoing search for local ingredients transformed Pichón into a vehicle for research which deepened Niki's knowledge and interest in Mexican culinary traditions, products, and history. On her journey to learn more about Mexican ingredients, Niki crossed paths with Max Rosenstock, who introduced her to the incredibly diverse and wild world of mezcal, later inviting her to form part of NETA, commercializing exemplary agave sprits from the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca. 

As a fixer and producer, Niki pulls from an international network of relationships built over the course of over a decade of working across cultures and creative disciplines in Mexico. She has a keen sense of who to connect to who, and her introductions have led to many lasting friendships and working relationships. Beyond her talent for bringing people together, she has a deep knowledge and love for Mexican history, cuisine and mezcal which she has applied to consulting on food and beverage programs and documentary film projects. 

Niki was born in North Carolina to a Uruguyan mother and Japanese-American father and raised in the Boston area. In 2007, she earned a BA with honors from the University of Chicago in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, where she explored the encounters between Mexican history, aesthetics, critical theory and Central European literature. She is also a singer. 

Press

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

The Making Of A Menu: The Standard Travels To Mexico For Its Upcoming London Restaurant

Q&A: Mezcal for Dummies with Niki Nakazawa

Marketing a Better Mezcal

This is How You Drink Through Oaxaca

Tales of Tulum: Pop-up in Tulum, Mexico Niki Nakazawa

Ensenada's Laja Restaurant and Roadside Carnitas

How Brunch Inspired Social Change for One Mexican Chef

Rare Treat: Mexican Amarillo de Camarón Recipe

Niki Nakazawa's Mexico City Salad With Avocado Toast and Peanut Chili Salsa

Let's Talk About Masa

Pichón, alta cocina itinerante

Arbol Espejo SA de CV

Niki Nakazawa and her partners Paul Nakazawa (strategic business consultant), PJ Rountree (photographer), and Kenny Curran (chef), established the company Arbol Espejo SA de CV in 2013 as a Mexico City-based business platform that offers services ranging from catering and event photography to consulting.