Life is the celebration of pain and death is the celebration of joy. This is the great lesson learnt by Leo Espinosa (Cali, 1963), who grew up in the Caribbean, on her relentless pilgrimage to discovering the thousand cuisines of the country of magical realism and to introduce them to the world over a low heat with an erotic touch.
Fish wraps, rice with raisins and snails from Cartagena de Indias, breadfruit cone, blue crab and olive pearls from San Andrés and Providencia, mature plantain boronía, smoked aubergine and onion from Santa Marta, quails eggs, coriander sour cream and longaniza sausage from Bogotá and tamalito de achira con hogao de cerdo (a tuber tamale with pork in an Colombian Creole sauce) from Medellín are just some of the culinary delights from the regions of Colombia offered by this former economist and plastic artist, who has gone on to become the World’s Best Female Chef 2022.
What is an economist and publicist who aroused people with erotic videos doing in the kitchen?
More than an economist I believe that I have an intense artistic vocation in my DNA, and I’ve always been interested in erotic art. One day I decided that I wanted to move that rebellious and even irreverent artistic language into the kitchen.
What kind of art do you do?
My cuisine is contemporary art that arises from experience, research and the need to convey messages.
And what is your message?
My message is Colombia, my country, a multicultural land of diverse anthropological history with impressive cuisine that, despite its wealth, is yet to be explored. Colombia is the country of a thousand cuisines, thanks to its megadiversity and mixture of cultures.
How does the ingredient of eroticism fit in to your cooking?
Very well. The kitchen is erotic; you have to know how to handle the love over a low heat. But if in my life I am rebellious, in the kitchen I become traditional and even purist.
How do your Spanish, Irish and indigenous origins influence that culinary art?
I am a descendant of the first Espinosa de los Monteros who arrived in Colombia, a family of writers, doctors and artists who I inherited my creative streak from. On the Irish side, I only have the genes left: my red hair, my fair skin and freckles. I am also indigenous, like most Colombians, and perhaps for this reason I like to delve so much into the most remote ecosystems of my country. I am a fun combination.
Colombia is the country of a thousand cuisines, thanks to its megadiversity and mixture of cultures
What remains of the cuisine from the conquest of America in the Colombian food?
60% of our cuisine is of Spanish origin. The conquerors brought all kinds of aromatic herbs, the cow, the pig, the birds and something that is very important for our recipes: coriander. The Spaniards also brought a multitude of Arab products with them.
How do you advocate for indigenous food now?
There are very few recipes left from before the conquest, only corn-based preparations, tamales, wraps, buns and tubers. The indigenous cuisine uses everything provided by Mother Nature. They are foods based on endemic and medicinal species that demonstrate today more than ever that natural food is also a medicine.
What have the African slaves who arrived in Colombia left behind them?
Fruit-based sweets, food fried in palm oil and the colours. In the Afro-culinary culture, much importance was given to the dishes being vibrant and colourful.
How did your grandmother influence your love of cooking?
I owe my love of Colombia, love of cooking and of local and ancestral recipes all to her. My grandmother always knew how to lead, she had to manage the hundreds of employees working in the cattle ranches they had in the Sucre savannah region. She was always ready with a meal to feed the children of the poorest families. My grandmother taught me the taste of Colombia.
What is the taste of Colombia?
Wood-cooked and smoked. At my grandmother’s house in the Caribbean, the wood stove was turned on every day to cook and feed anyone who needed it.
What’s in the Colombian pantry?
Colombia is the second most biodiverse country in the world and the only one that surprises with the emergence of new animal and botanical species every so often. We have 55,000 botanical species, of which 33,000 are endemic and almost all are used in the kitchen, such as the hoja Santa Maria anise, pipilongo (long pepper), copoazú (a tropical fruit), mortiño (Andean blueberry), mangroves fruits and all kinds of rhizomes.
How did the serious problem of coca laboratories affect this pantry?
It was a drama, an attack on something as patrimonial as the indigenous culture of my country. The narcos and all kinds of armed groups hid in the depths of the Colombian pantry and bribed the people of those communities who had lived, in some way, detained in time. Coca is medicinal and sacred for the indigenous people, who have used it since the pre-Inca period. For them, coca is the sacred tree of life. The illicit substance created by the narcos is something else entirely.