Cooking with a conscience
> A new culinary award honours chefs who make a difference through their craft
LEONOR ESPINOSA, a Colombian chef known for sourcing local ingredients and giving back to the communities that supply them, won the Basque Culinary World Prize recently, a 100,000 (RM506,910) prize for chefs who make a difference.
Espinosa, the head chef at LEO in Bogota and founder of the Funleo foundation, received the award in Mexico City from a star-studded jury presided by Spanish chef Joan Roca, whose restaurant El Celler de Can Roca has twice been named the best in the world.
“She’s a person with tenacity, perseverance, and commitment to preserving her country’s diversity,” Roca said at the award ceremony.
The jury called Espinosa “one of Colombia’s most celebrated chefs and a key figure in its gastronomic renaissance”.
The winner was chosen from a field of 10 finalists, which included well-known chef/ activists including José Andrés, Daniel Patterson, and Roy Choi, as well as established figures from around the world, as well as a few up-and-comers, such as Dan Giusti, the former Noma executive chef who is trying to reinvent public school lunches in the US.
Espinosa won for her work promoting Colombia’s culinary biodiversity, as well as her leadership in communities still rebuilding from the turbulent drug wars.
In announcing the award, the organisation said: “Espinosa has revived the ancestral knowledge and know-how of mainly indigenous and Afro-Colombian people.
“She supports rural development based on food sovereignty, and promotes routes to market for small producers.”
The prize was launched last year by the Basque Culinary Center and the Basque government in northern Spain.
The Basque Culinary Center is a gastronomic university born off the back of a revolution in Spanish cuisine, epitomised by the Basque country’s plethora of Michelin-starred restaurants and by Ferran Adria, the father of molecular gastronomy.
The first winner was Venezuelan chef Maria Fernanda di Giacobbe, for her work to make the world a better place through chocolate: namely, by improving conditions for farmers of cacao, one of her signature ingredients.
As last year’s inaugural winner, Giacobbe served as a judge in this year’s contest.
The rest of the jury included Roca, Jeremiah Tower, Enrique Olvera, Dominique Crenn, Yoshihiro Narisawa, Gastón Acurio, and Michel Bras.
Espinosa is known for her highly artistic take on culinary traditions from across Colombia, from the ‘conchadores’ who gather shellfish on the Pacific coast, to the recipes inherited from African slaves on the Caribbean coast, to the flavours of the Andes highlands.
Of the 2017 finalists, Awards officials announced: “These chefs have focused on everything from innovation to education, health, research, sustainability, social entrepreneurship and philanthropy, and the preservation of local cultures.
“They are building on the work of a pioneering group that started this movement ‘beyond the kitchen,’ which include Gaston Acurio, Dan Barber, Heston Blumenthal, Massimo Bottura, Claus Mayer, Jamie Oliver, Rene Redzepi, and Alice Waters.”
Upon winning the Basque Culinary World Prize, Espinosa, 54, said: “The award shines a light on those communities that for years have struggled to be recognised for their ancestral value and their contribution to national cultural identity.
“It is a way to mitigate the silence generated by armed conflict, injustice and exclusion.
“In this process of reconciliation, the country is beginning to understand the importance of placing faith in gastronomy as a significant tool for the economic development of those populations where the real wealth that generates wealth is found.”
The prize money is for Espinosa to devote to a project or institution of her choice. – AFPRelaxnews