A Restaurant, A Community
Corn Envuelto Corn Envuelto
It was the call of his “happy place” that drew Colombian chef Chef Alejandro Gutierrez back to the kitchen, abandoning a major in Biology mid-way. After several stints in professional kitchens including the well-acclaimed Veritas in New York and Central in Peru’s Lima, Gutierrez made his way back to Bogota in Colombia, hoping to shape a restaurant of his own. A stumble into a barista manned by Juan Manuel Ortiz, was where, for the first time, he saw someone make filter coffee in Colombia. “Most of the coffee produced in Colombia is exported and unfortunately, what Colombians are left with is a burnt, plain coffee. This wasn’t like that,” says Gutierrez.
Ortiz had learned the intricacies of brewing coffee in Australia and on his return to the country put together, Salvo Patria, in 2011. The barista, at the time, served “food that was quite simple,” adds Gutierrez. So, the two joined forces in 2013 to offer modern Colombian dishes. “Colombian food, in its essence, is hearty, meant for peasants. So, the rations are huge and it is loaded with carbs. We have reinterpreted those dishes to put them in an urban Colombian context. Because after that meal, you can’t go back to office and work. You’ll pass out on your keyboard,” says Gutierrez, with a laugh.
It is Colombian food, that speaks with a contemporary twang, which is served at Salvo Patria. Now the the duo is recreating it for the Indian palate with Machan’s Chef Arun Sundararaj at Delhi’s Taj Mahal Hotel. The menu, replete with Colombian delicacies, including the filling soup, ajiaco, ceviche, corn evuelto, fish in ecocado, among others, bears resemblance to Indian food but the permutation of ingredients tells a different story. “Both countries are diverse, have similar climates and topography, and we use similar spices – cumin, all spice, cinnamon and even turmeric. But Indians are more liberal with the use of spices,” Gutierrez notes.
His reinterpretations of a classic Colombian fare, constrained in both flavour and form, are owing “to the professional kitchens I worked in outside Colombia. They helped develop techniques and learn from the way they treat produce,” says Gutierrez. But his big takeaway from his time at Central, “was the pride Peruvians have for their food. That was something that us Colombians didn’t have till very recently, even though we have the potential. It made me realise that we didn’t have to be cooking Japanese fusion or Italian or French food in a fine-dining space; that you could have a fine-dining space that serves our own cuisine,” he adds.
Colombian food’s amour prope shines through their menu, which integrates indigenous ingredients into its regular fare. This further enables a push to small-scale farmers. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, 70 per cent of food in Colombia is cultivated by small-scale farmers. “Till a few years ago, we didn’t even have the chance to know all the ingredients grown in our country or how people fed themselves. Now, with the peace-building project and increased access to areas that were earlier completely cut off, we’re slowly finding out about the immense potential of Colombia’s produce,” says Ortiz.
They employ the same philosophy, and attention, to the coffee they serve at the restaurant. “95 per cent of coffee farms are small holdings and are below five hectares and 50 per cent of that is less than a hectare. We have been working with these farmers to find sustainable ways to ensure an income for them,” says Ortiz, adding, “with greater access to the areas that were earlier really hard to get to, we’re finding that the soil is very rich still. There has been little abuse by the use of fertilisers and these small farmers in isolated areas are growing very special coffee.”
But their challenge now are the middlemen. “It is hard to cut them out. The farmers find the business aspect of it all very difficult because they’ve never done it before. But it is our responsibility to work with them and build relationships of trust,” he says.
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