CULINARY CAPERS
Latin American cuisine is getting a makeover and we’ve got first row seats
Colombia makes its mark on the culinary map
UNTIL NOW, Colombia has been known internationally for two things—magic realism and cocaine. While both of these things have spread far beyond the country’s borders, Colombia is no longer a major player in either of these categories. Instead, there are moves to promote something else as a reason to take heed of the country— its cuisine. The two dominant Latin American cuisines are Mexican and Peruvian, which now have restaurants throughout the world. The Colombian government and the Bogota Chamber of Commerce, in a bid to join the club, have sponsored Madrid Fusion, the leading avantgarde food festival, which put modern Spanish cuisine on the map. This culinary road show brought 20 of the world’s leading chefs to Bogota for workshops and collaborations with the best local chefs and food historians. The sheer diversity of the country makes it impossible to talk of Colombian cuisine as a single entity—rather like the same way as India has numerous cuisines. In Colombia, there is the cuisine of the Andes, the Amazon, the Pacific and Caribbean as well as the land in between. A decade ago, the most renowned restaurants in Bogota were Italian, French and Japanese but now there are
numerous establishments celebrating the local produce.
Leo
The best place to discover the diversity of Colombian produce is Leo, a restaurant run by Leonor Espinosa and her daughter Laura. Her menu displays 40 products unique to Colombia, including different species of edible ants, wild rodents and a giant freshwater fish called the Pirarucu, whose real delicacy is its tongue. To eat this 15-course dinner feels a bit like making an expedition to an edible rainforest—you are offered a local blackberry fermented drink along with Pacific clams and Yuca leaves from the Amazonian jungle. The waitress has an iPad with illustrations of all of the produce to assist anyone who needs to know more about what they are about to consume. They also serve the very best Latin American wines from Chile and Argentina along with those from Spain and France.
www.restauranteleo.com
Harry Sasson
Another established chef is Harry Sasson, who has 30 years experience and is the father of Colombian cuisine. From the outside, his establishment looks like a luxurious colonial villa but
inside is far more contemporary with a wall of greenery and lattice work which feels like being in the inside of a geodesic dome. Sasson champions the use of palm heart, which is like a rustic version of asparagus. In fact, Sasson has been instrumental in encouraging farmers who used to grow coca leaves for the production of cocaine, to convert to producing palm hearts for domestic consumption and even export. Other exceptional dishes include fresh crab and avocado with herbs or steamed grouper with succulent roast potatoes and grilled sweet bananas.
www.harrysasson.com
Prudencia
The hippest destination in Bogota is Prudencia, located in Candelaria, the historic colonial centre of Bogota. Run by Mario Rosero and his American wife Meghan Flanigan, this stylish destination is only open for lunch and serves a range of ingredients, which are cooked over open flame or barbeque. Changing daily, the menu features bold dishes such as pork shoulder with monta chilli, cumin, porter and whiskey along with wood-grilled corn with burnt onion sauce. There is always a vegan option too, such as wood-grilled eggplant and zucchini with minty spinach.
www.prudencia.net
Mini Mal
Mini Mal is another well-established local ingredient restaurant, which celebrates the diversity of Colombian cuisine. The menu includes fascinating background on the dishes served. Their peanut and mute corn soup recipe was given to them by a grandmother from the Inga tribe called Mercedes Tisoy de Jacanamijoy —“it is served at the festivities of the Sibundoy Valley and it is supposed to fill the other’s heart with one’s breath”. Or there is a rabbit and sweet chilli stew served with a sweet plantain and eggplant tamale and fresh greens.
www.mini-mal.org
IN COLOMBIA, THERE IS THE CUISINE OF THE ANDES, THE AMAZON, THE PACIFIC AND CARIBBEAN AS WELL AS THE LAND IN BETWEEN
El Chato
The other classic restaurant is El Chato, which an entire wall devoted to dozens of jars of different spices and herbal combinations. Chef Alvaro Clavijo has worked in a number of major international restaurants, including Noma in Copenhagen, Per Se in New York and L’Epicure in Paris. Again, he focuses on local ingredients with a twist—chicken hearts with local potatoes, sour cream and egg yolk dust or squid ink infused rice crackers with crab and mango.
www.elchato.co
Will Colombia emerge as the next must go-to Latin American food destination? It is certainly heading in the right direction but it will take more international exposure for people to be incentivised to travel there. Benjamin Lana, the vice president of Madrid Fusion and the organiser of the recent event in Bogota, has no doubt about the future popularity of Colombian cuisine. “These days, chefs are not just cooking products but also ideas. Fifteen years ago, it was molecular cuisine and science in the kitchen but that is now more or less over and instead, sustainability and the celebration of local products is paramount. On that score, there is hardly anywhere as diverse as Colombia, so this is only the beginning,” says Lana.