Mexico’s cuisine has long been overshadowed by the greasy Tex-Mex burritos and nachos sold around the world, but efforts to refine its image are now beginning to pay off.

A new gastronomy festival in Morelia, Michoacan, in western Mexico, at the end of May, aims to give their efforts a further boost to be enjoyed by locals and tourists alike.

Five months after Mexican gastronomy joined the ranks of pre-Hispanic monuments winning special recognition from the UN cultural body, Unesco, a restaurant serving up Mexican dishes has for the first time been named among the world’s top 50 eateries.

The Pujol joins another restaurant also in an upscale district of Mexico City, which serves up Basque fusion cuisine, which made it onto the list last year. Since pre-Hispanic times, Mexican dishes have drawn on a wealth of ingredients, including many varieties of corn, beans and chili peppers, as well as native tomatoes, avocados or cocoa.

But top chefs are increasingly mixing up traditional recipes to give them a modern twist.

“People think that Mexican food is heavy, that you have to go on a diet of lettuce three days before you eat it,” said Enrique Olvera, owner of Pujol which made the S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in April.

“We’re looking for a new experience,” Mr Olvera said, using tweezers to assemble a starter of bean dip, roast tomato skin, zucchini, cheese, oil from the Pipicha herb – similar to cilantro – and tiny toasted Jumiles bugs.

The 35-year-old has inspired a generation of Mexican chefs and won widespread acclaim in the 11 years since Pujol opened.

The minimalist restaurant is located in the capital’s Polanco district, also home to Biko, a Basque restaurant and the only other one in Mexico ever to make the top 50 best restaurant list compiled by more than 800 industry experts.

Pujol recently received a visit from Irish rocker and U2 frontman Bono, who choose to celebrate his birthday there.

“The fact that there’s a Mexican restaurant in the top 50 means that the world is changing,” said Mr Olvera, who is at the forefront of a movement of chefs, professors and foodies altering perceptions of Mexican food and drink.

Smart restaurants and cooking schools here have long favoured foreign cooking, particularly from France, but Mexican cooking classes have increased in recent decades.