Leonor Espinosa, the cook who has defended the culinary value of Colombian biodiversity, has been chosen as the best female chef in the world by the organization of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Leo, as everyone knows her, will officially receive the award on August 18 at the ceremony that recognizes the best restaurants in the world, in London.
“I would like this award not to infect me with ego or pressure. Let it be a recognition of the work in Leo for 16 years and the opportunity to make Colombia visible, ”she told WRadius after the ad. He also sees it as an opportunity to give women the place they deserve in haute cuisine. “They are the midwives, the ones who run the Creole, popular and traditional kitchens, but the world of haute cuisine belongs to men; this is a way of showing that women also belong to this world”.
She had already been recognized as the best cook in Latin America in 2017. Her restaurant Leoone of the most prestigious in Colombia, has also occupied prominent places on the famous list, and its Funleo Foundation received the Basque Culinary World Prize that same year.
Leonor Espinosa’s mission “goes far beyond applying haute cuisine techniques to Colombian ingredients. The chef’s ‘cycle-biome’ philosophy uses gastronomy as a boost for the social and economic development of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities”, points out the profile on the official website of 50 Best announcing the recognition. Funleo, values the organization, empowers marginalized farmers by putting in the foreground products such as Santanderean ‘hormigas culonas’, Amazonian mojojoy larvae or fish from the pirarucú river.
The cultural diversity of Colombia is reflected in the enormous amount of preparations, techniques and ingredients found in each of the corners that make up a “country of a thousand kitchens”, Leo reflects in the statements collected by the organization.
“Undoubtedly, cooking is a political act that embraces food production, and even more so when factors such as climate change, deforestation, improper exploitation of natural resources, war and monopolies, among others, affect sovereignty and food security, as well as local consumption. In this way, gastronomy can contribute to reducing existing economic and social conflicts”, he points out.
Espinosa also works to vindicate the gastronomic use of the coca leaf. Last February, an impasse with a US diplomat, who was upset because they served him fermented coca leaves in the restaurant’s pairing, raised the chef’s voice. “Apparently [el diplomático] ignores the multiple traditional uses of coca in indigenous cultures, unrelated to cocaine. Coke is not cocaine,” Leo wrote.
For her, chefs, as actors and representatives of the production chain, are agents of change. “Our commitment is to support the knowledge of this sacred plant, change paradigms, connect territories of conflict and with serious food security problems,” Espinosa said last February in a conversation with this newspaper.
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