In partnership with 
This spring, Mexican-American chef Claudette Zepeda is bringing her take on Mexican cuisine to Don Julio Hacienda, a new multi-level space in Flemington's Birdcage Enclosure for the 2026 Melbourne Cup Carnival. Centred around the traditions of Mexican hospitality, the Hacienda will bring together food, tequila, entertainment and design, with Zepeda developing a menu of familiar dishes reimagined through her own cultural lens.
Selected in collaboration with Curtis Stone, Don Julio's Global Culinary Advisor, Zepeda will serve her menu alongside Don Julio cocktails, with an exclusive five-course VVIP dining experience also on offer. From oyster mushroom birria tostadas to thoughtful tequila pairings, the menu draws on the chef's Mexican-American heritage and her belief that food is one of the most meaningful ways to bring people together.
Ahead of her appearances at Don Julio Hacienda on Derby Day and Melbourne Cup Day, we spoke to Zepeda about the inspiration behind the menu, the relationship between Mexican cuisine and tequila, and the Melbourne food experiences she's looking forward to revisiting — including a flat white and a croissant or two from Lune.
Claudette Zepeda
Concrete Playground: What was the vision behind the menu you've created for the Don Julio Birdcage Hacienda?
Claudette Zepeda: I wanted to create an experience that felt like being invited into someone's home in Mexico, but through a contemporary lens. Mexico is so much more than what people often expect to see on a plate. We are a country of extraordinary complexity, creativity, regionality, and hospitality, and I wanted the menu to reflect that.
What aspects of Mexican food culture and hospitality did you want to bring to this experience?
In Mexican culture, feeding someone is one of the purest expressions of love. It's how we celebrate, how we grieve, how we welcome strangers, and how we take care of the people around us.
There is something deeply beautiful about the fact that in so many Mexican homes, it doesn't matter how much food you have, there's always room for one more person at the table. Ultimately, I want people to feel taken care of, because to me, that's the greatest expression of hospitality.
Oyster mushroom birria tostada
Your food will be served alongside Don Julio cocktails. When you're creating dishes to pair with tequila, what flavours do you look for, and how can the right cocktail complement a meal?
I approach tequila pairings the same way I approach building a dish: through balance, contrast, and understanding how flavors interact.
Mexican cuisine has this extraordinary relationship with acidity, heat, richness, bitterness, and sweetness. Tequila brings another dimension to that conversation because agave has such a distinctive character. Depending on the expression, you can find beautiful notes of citrus, pepper, herbs, vanilla, caramel, or oak.
I love using acidity to cut through richness, or allowing the subtle sweetness in a cocktail to soften the intensity of chiles. A Don Julio Margarita or Paloma can bring this wonderful brightness to something deeply savory, while the more complex characteristics of Don Julio 1942 invite a slower, more contemplative pairing. Food and tequila are both deeply connected to celebration and gathering in Mexican culture. The experience should feel joyful, not like you're taking an exam.
Don Julio Hacienda cocktails
The menu puts your own spin on familiar Mexican dishes. How do you approach reimagining these classics while staying true to the flavours and traditions behind them?
When I approach a traditional dish, I first ask myself what makes it that dish. Is it the technique? The ingredients? The memory it evokes? The way the flavors build on each other? Once I understand its foundation, I can begin to explore.
Take our oyster mushroom birria tostada. Birria has such a recognisable flavour profile, that beautiful depth of chiles, spices, and slow-developed richness. By using oyster mushrooms, we're exploring a different texture and expression while still respecting the flavors that give birria its identity.
I think chefs have a responsibility to understand the history of what they're cooking before they start reinventing it. But I also don't believe we honor our ancestors by refusing to evolve. They were innovators themselves, working with what they had, adapting to their environments, and creating something extraordinary.
How does the menu reflect your upbringing and your own relationship with Mexican food?
I grew up in the borderlands, between the United States and Mexico, and that has shaped absolutely everything about how I see food. I was raised between cultures, languages, and identities, in a place where borders existed politically but culture moved freely between them.
I also think my upbringing gave me the freedom to see Mexican cuisine without rigid boundaries. Being a border kid meant living in the in-between, and I've learned to see that as a creative advantage. This menu is an extension of that identity. It's deeply Mexican, but it's also personal, curious, and unafraid to exist outside of people's expectations of what Mexican food should look like.
Australian wagyu rib eye with bean aligot, smoked cabbage and tortillas
What are you most looking forward to about sharing your cooking with Australian diners in Melbourne?
I'm incredibly excited to bring my perspective on Mexican cuisine to Melbourne, especially because Australia has such an interesting culinary identity of its own. I love the idea of bringing these two worlds together.
Using Australian wagyu alongside Mexican flavors is a perfect example. We're taking something exceptional from the place we're in and introducing it to ingredients and techniques that carry generations of Mexican history. That's where the magic happens for me.
What do you love most about Melbourne's food scene, and are there any local food experiences you're keen to try?
Food is such an honest reflection of migration, identity, adaptation, and community, and Melbourne has this incredible intersection of cultures that makes its culinary landscape so exciting. This will be my second time visiting; there were several food moments running through East Melbourne and the East End Theatre district that have stayed with me since.
I'm interested in revisiting little neighborhood restaurants, the markets, the family-run businesses, and the places where you can taste generations of history in a single dish. I'm especially excited to enjoy a great flat white with one of every Lune croissant on the current menu.
Experience Don Julio Tequila at this year's Melbourne Cup Carnival
Choose to DrinkWise
- A First-Time Snow Bunny's Guide to Cardrona Alpine Resort in Queenstown
- The Ten Best Hotels in Brisbane
- A Big Bucket List of All the Most Extraordinary Airbnbs You Can Book Around Australia
- The Best Boutique and Luxury Hotels in Melbourne
- The Best Glamping Sites Around Australia
- Predicting the Oscars: Who Should, Could and Will Win at the 2025 Academy Awards