Restaurant receives international recognition for preserving authentic cuisine
When Rafael Ponce de Leon and his wife, Monica Saldivar, opened La Unica Mexican Eatery in downtown Pennington three years ago, they set out to give customers a taste of Mexico that went beyond the familiar tacos, burritos and other dishes commonly associated with Mexican restaurants in the United States.
Their commitment to preserving the flavors, ingredients and cooking traditions of Ponce de Leon’s homeland has now earned the restaurant international recognition from Mexico itself.
La Unica received the Sello M designation from Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mexican Academy of Gastronomy during a ceremony Wednesday, Aug. 12, becoming the only restaurant in Mercer County to earn the distinction. The award recognizes restaurants outside Mexico that preserve and promote authentic Mexican cuisine, with particular attention to traditional recipes, ingredients, preparation methods and culinary expertise.
For Ponce de Leon, known to friends and customers as Rafa, the honor is especially meaningful because it comes from the country whose food and traditions inspired him to leave behind a 30-year corporate career and pursue his lifelong interest in cooking.
“It’s the Mexican authority saying your restaurant is a real restaurant,” he says.
The award is not based on customer reviews or popularity. Restaurants seeking the designation must undergo an evaluation conducted through Mexican embassies and consulates, with culinary experts reviewing their menus, ingredients, techniques and the experience of the people preparing the food. La Unica underwent an on-site evaluation and menu review that examined its recipes, use of traditional Mexican ingredients and culinary expertise.
The designation was presented to Ponce de Leon and Saldivar by Mariana Díaz, head consul at the Mexican Consulate in New Brunswick, during the August ceremony. Díaz emphasized that the distinction is not easily earned. Applicants must demonstrate that their food is rooted in Mexican culinary traditions and that the people preparing it understand the techniques necessary to reproduce those dishes authentically.
The recognition is a milestone for a restaurant that opened only three years ago, but the story behind La Unica stretches back decades and across two continents.
Ponce de Leon was born and raised in Mexico, where he spent the first 50 years of his life. He grew up in a traditional Mexican family in which cooking and sharing meals were central to everyday life. Those experiences gave him an appreciation for the role food plays in Mexican culture, where recipes and cooking techniques are often passed from one generation to the next.
“Coming from a traditional Mexican family, food was central to our lives,” he says. “Weekends were celebrations, holidays were gatherings, and the kitchen was where we spent most of our time.”
He learned to cook informally from relatives and friends, spending time in their kitchens and developing an interest that would eventually become a second career. For much of his adult life, however, Ponce de Leon’s professional path had little to do with food.
He spent 30 years working in sales and marketing for multinational companies in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. In 2011, a corporate transfer brought him and his family from Mexico City to the United States, where they settled in Pennington. Although he continued his corporate career, his interest in cooking remained.
He eventually pursued more formal culinary training, studying at the International Culinary Center in New York City, Mercer County Community College and Bocconi University in Milan, along with additional instruction from chefs in Madrid and Mexico. The education broadened his knowledge beyond the Mexican recipes he had learned growing up and introduced him to other culinary traditions, particularly Spanish cooking.
In 2016, he established Las Patatas de Rafa, a family catering business specializing in authentic Mexican and international cuisine. Among the additions to his menu was paella, the traditional Spanish rice dish, which quickly became one of his most popular catering offerings. The venture allowed him to begin building a business around his culinary interests while continuing to share the foods and flavors he had grown up with.
His involvement in cooking also led him into teaching. In 2018, he began offering classes through Princeton Adult School, introducing students to Spanish and Mexican cuisine, a role he continues today.
By 2023, Ponce de Leon and Saldivar were ready for another step. When a commercial space became available in downtown Pennington, the couple saw an opportunity to open a restaurant in the community where they had made their home.
They named it La Unica Mexican Eatery, meaning “The Unique,” and developed a fast-casual menu centered on Mexican street food and regional specialties. The restaurant officially opened May 5, 2023, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by family members, friends and local officials.
Opening a restaurant, however, brought challenges that went beyond preparing food. For Ponce de Leon, one of the most important was finding ingredients that would allow him to reproduce the flavors of Mexico without relying on substitutes that substantially changed the character of the dishes.
“One of our early challenges was sourcing native ingredients to replicate authentic Mexican flavors,” he says.
He began searching for suppliers that could provide traditional Mexican products, eventually assembling a network that includes local farms, specialty stores and distributors in New York City and Philadelphia. Among the local suppliers are Fairgrown Farm and Kerr’s, while specialty distributors supply ingredients that are more difficult to find in central New Jersey. The restaurant also incorporates selected international products, including grass-fed beef, when they meet the standards Ponce de Leon has established for his recipes.
Over three years, Ponce de Leon and his team have refined recipes, adjusted ingredients and modified the menu in pursuit of flavors that reflect the food served in Mexico. Rather than concentrating on a single region, La Unica’s menu draws on culinary traditions from across the country, incorporating classic dishes associated with different parts of Mexico.
Ponce de Leon says the goal has always been to reproduce the experience of eating in a Mexican restaurant rather than simply offering familiar interpretations of Mexican food. That approach reflects the diversity of a cuisine that varies considerably from region to region.
Traditional Mexican cooking incorporates ingredients and techniques shaped by local agriculture, geography, history and cultural influences. Corn, beans and chiles are staples, but the ways they are prepared and combined differ throughout the country. Even something as basic as a tortilla requires attention to the methods used to prepare the corn and make the masa, or dough. Ponce de Leon sought out suppliers who followed traditional corn-processing techniques rather than settling for commercially produced alternatives.
The emphasis on authenticity became a defining feature of La Unica and ultimately helped the restaurant qualify for the Sello M designation.
The Sello M program was established by Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mexican Academy of Gastronomy as part of an effort to recognize businesses abroad that help preserve the country’s culinary heritage. The initiative grew out of the 15th anniversary in 2025 of UNESCO’s recognition of traditional Mexican cuisine as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. That designation, awarded in 2010, acknowledged the cultural significance of Mexican food, including the agricultural practices, cooking techniques, rituals and family traditions associated with its preparation.
Under the Sello M program, restaurants must have been operating for at least two years, offer a menu reflecting Mexico’s culinary diversity, use appropriate traditional ingredients and preparation techniques, and employ someone with training or experience in authentic Mexican cooking. Applications are reviewed by the Mexican Academy of Gastronomy, with consular representatives conducting verification visits to help determine whether establishments meet the requirements.
For La Unica, the process involved an examination of the restaurant’s menu, its recipes and the background of its chef. Ponce de Leon says evaluators recognized the restaurant’s use of original recipes reflecting Mexico’s culinary diversity, its commitment to native ingredients and traditional techniques, and the expertise behind its preparation methods.
The recognition also places La Unica among Mexican restaurants around the world that have earned the distinction. Recipients are included in an international directory designed to help travelers identify restaurants serving authentic Mexican cuisine.
The award provides another measure of how far the business has come since opening in 2023. Ponce de Leon says La Unica has developed a loyal following and earned a 4.8-star rating on Google. Although customer reviews are important to any restaurant, he considers the Sello M recognition different because it validates the culinary philosophy behind the business.
“After three years of working with our recipes, adjusting ingredients, modifying the menu, we were recognized with Sello M,” he says.
The restaurant has also become another way for Ponce de Leon to strengthen his ties to the community that welcomed his family after their move from Mexico. In addition to operating La Unica and his catering business, he continues to teach cooking classes at Princeton Adult School and serves on Pennington’s Economic Development Commission, where he participates in efforts to support the borough’s business community.
“I love being part of the local community!” he says.
His involvement in Pennington reflects a career that has taken several turns, from corporate sales and marketing in Mexico City to catering, culinary education and restaurant ownership in central New Jersey. The transition has allowed him to turn something that was always part of his family life into a profession, while introducing customers to the culinary traditions that shaped his childhood.
For Ponce de Leon and Saldivar, the Sello M designation represents both an acknowledgment of their work and an incentive to continue refining the food they serve. It also gives their small restaurant on North Main Street a distinction that extends well beyond Pennington.
Three years after opening La Unica, the couple has received recognition from the country whose culinary traditions they set out to preserve, bringing Ponce de Leon’s journey from the family kitchens of Mexico to international recognition in the community he now calls home.
For more information about La Unica Mexican Eatery, visit la-unica.net or call (609) 901-3181.
