If in doubt about what a hot ticket New York’s Estela is, one only needs to read up about Barack Obama’s recent visit, which saw our original filming date delayed. President of the United States aside, chef Ignacio Mattos and sommelier Thomas Carter’s restaurant that opened on East Houston Street last June, came in at number three on Bon Appetit’s best new restaurant list and was nominated for this year’s much-sought-after James Beard Award.

Founder of Swallow Magazine,  James Casey, and New York based filmmaker Luis Álvarez y Álvarez delved into the Uruguayan chef’s simple yet ingenious methods while creating a new dish for today’s film—his updated version of the winter-appropriate classic, fish and mash. “What’s interesting about the food is that it’s deceptively simple yet there’s a restraint and elegance to it,” explains Casey. “It takes its inspiration from many places but ends up being very New York."

Mattos cut his teeth at Alice Water’s Chez Panisse before spending several years in the kitchen of Manhattan mainstay Il Buco. A short but glittering stint at Isa (Taavo Somer’s Williamsburg restaurant where Pete Wells of The New York Times described Mattos as revelling in “deep, surrealist weirdness”) preceded the June 2013 opening of this, his latest offering. “Estela has become a club house of sorts,” Casey adds. “It represents the evolution of downtown and is, in a way, the New York restaurant of the moment.”

Rebecca Guinness is Editor-at-Large at NOWNESS.