Leonor Espinosa, photo courtesy of Madrid FusiĆ³n
There are few things that connect us to our surroundings, experiences, and other cultures in the same way that food does. This is something that Chef Leonor Espinosa carries at the core of her relationship with cooking.
Named Latin Americaās Best Female Chef in 2017, Espinosa is a culinary powerhouse. She brings an anthropologistās eye to local flavors: through her restaurant, Leo, Espinosa uses fine dining to celebrate ingredients from the geographically and socially complex regions of her home country of Colombia. And by way of their foundation, FUNLEO, she and her daughter use food as a way to encourage progress and well-being in compromised parts of the country. āThrough Leo, weāve developed a relationship with these communities,ā she says. āWe have the opportunity to feature their ingredients and products, encouraging more outside interest in these regions.ā
Unfortunately, in the wake of the pandemic, Leo is currently closed for operations. āFine dining is an experience, and it wasnāt something we could replicate in a different approach like home delivery,ā says Espinosa. Like many restaurateurs, Espinosa also had to make the tough decision of closing her two Misia locations, restaurants that featured more casual environs and a menu of the food she grew up with.
But Espinosaās passion for food remains undimmed. She reports that the pandemic has accentuated her love for cooking, and has given her the space to continue building her creativity and knowledge. Here, she unpacks the role food plays in our lives, and how it can lift our spirits even in challenging times.
A Taste of Latin America
Latin America is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. With jungles in the Amazon, the Pacific and Atlantic oceans on either side, and the valleys and mountains of the Andes, the area offers a vast array of unique ingredients. āThis fusion of elements, combined with the fusion of cultures that took place in the discovery of Americaāand even before thenāis manifested in our food,ā says Espinosa.
To her, Colombiaās ingredients represent the unity and shared experiences of Latin America. āWe canāt talk about the Colombian Amazon without referencing the Peruvian, Ecuadorian, or Brazilian Amazon regions,ā she says. āThe same happens with the Andes: they provide ingredients that are very specific to their landāland that extends across borders.ā
These are the connections and relationships that chefs can feature in their cooking. āIn fine dining, we get to tell the stories of what we have in common,ā Espinosa muses. āNot just a territory, but a shared language, shared customs, and shared ingredients.ā
A Flavorful Foundation
As part of her journey with food, Espinosa has been continuously influenced by her roots. Growing up in the Caribbean coast region of Colombiaāa place that novelist Gabriel GarcĆa MĆ”rquez categorized as a ādifferent dimensionāāshe was exposed to a vibrant, energetic, fun-loving community. āThis attitude was reflected in our food,ā she says. āWeāre also connected to the rest of the Caribbean through the land and the sea, and thatās clear in the food we eat.ā
She also has clear memories of the flavors she would share with her family from the interior of Colombia. Smoked ingredients, coconut milk, peppersāthese are all flavors she continues to use in her home cooking.
Now, in a season where she has more time than ever to cook for herself, Espinosa continues to treat herself and her close friends and family. āMy connection to the action of cookingāand the action of creating and learning more about foodāhas grown,ā she says.
Finding Comfort in Food
As we continue to navigate uncertainty, food can provide us with comfort and a link to places and people weāve been cut off from. āThe food that connects us to familiar flavors, a specific place, a memory is comfort food,ā she says. āBy generating well-being and happiness, this food helps us nourish our souls.ā
For those who arenāt too comfortable creating these experiences for themselves yet, Espinosa suggests trial and error. āI think we can all cook: I find it hard to believe that anyone couldnāt boil an egg, at leastā she says. āItās important to try different things so that we know what we like and what we donāt.ā To her, a recipe is just a guideāitās up to the individual cook to add their own creativity and preferences to make the dish their own.
A New Path for Restaurants
While operations at Leo are paused, Espinosa and her team have focused their efforts on building a new brand that offers the food she cooks at her home. The food has Asian and Middle Eastern influences, and is delivered to customers in BogotĆ”. Meanwhile, she canāt help but think about the future of restaurants following the pandemic.
āThe pandemic has forced restaurants to go back to local ingredients and reconnect with rural regions,ā she says. āI expect that weāll see more of this change going forward.ā This will only be an opportunity to continue to celebrate the vast diversity of ingredients that exist in Colombia and Latin America.
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