A key figure in Colombia’s food renaissance, Espinosa relocated and reimagined her flagship restaurant just last year and it was subsequently voted #46 in The World’s 50 Best Restaurants for 2021. At the new venue, Espinosa has crafted a tasting menu with 100% of the ingredients sourced within Colombia and each dish forming part of a broader Colombian food narrative. The gastronomic experience focuses on the country’s varied ecosystems, exploring the ways new species can be utilized in the kitchen.

In 2008, Espinosa founded the non-profit Funleo with her daughter, Laura Hernández-Espinosa, Leo’s head sommelier. The mother-and-daughter team have helped to unveil some of the secrets of indigenous ingredients and ancestral techniques providing inspiration for Leo’s unique menus. Today, Funleo continues to identify, reclaim and promote the culinary traditions of rural and ethnic communities while promoting their wellbeing and health, with programs enhancing the use of autochthonous ingredients across the country and empowering the groups towards food sovereignty. Each ingredient’s origin is highlighted on Leo’s menu, such as pulantana from the desert and cacay and cnopio from the Andean foothills.

Aside from running Leo and Funleo, Espinosa has helped build support for the establishment of a Comprehensive Gastronomy Center in Golfo de Tribugá as an alternative framework for people affected by or involved in drug trafficking, and has also campaigned to raise awareness on Colombia’s culinary riches, with her work encouraging communities to turn their cultural heritage into a tool for socio-economic development.

William Drew, Director of Content for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, says: “Leonor Espinosa has become one of the most iconic Latin American chefs of her generation, championing both Colombia’s biodiversity and its cultural diversity like no other. We’re thrilled to be able to recognize her incredible work.”

The Best Female Chef Award series continues to recognize industry-leading female chefs blazing a trail for their peers.

Espinosa, who won the Latin America’s Best Female Chef Award in 2017, is renowned for her pioneering work to revive Colombian culinary traditions and for using food to promote cultural and social development in indigenous, afro-descendant, and rural communities. At Leo – ranked No.8 on the list of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2019 – Espinosa showcases little-known Colombian ingredients as part of her innovative ‘cyclo-biome’ menu concept, which explores Colombian ecosystems, seasons and species.

“I’m incredibly grateful to be recognized by my peers, which is one of the greatest honors,” says Espinosa. “While some traditional foods remain prevalent in Colombia, others have been lost over our history. For years my mission has been to increase the value of these foods and local ingredients to help restore culinary traditions and national pride.”

The Estrella Damm Chefs’ Choice Award is the fourth of a series of special awards announced in advance of the announcement of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants 2020, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, which aim to support the sector across the region amid one of the most challenging times for the global restaurant industry. Espinosa was further honored at the virtual countdown of the list that took place on December 3.

To spotlight the region’s diverse gastronomic scene and support its recovery, Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants will also present El Espíritu de América Latina, a collection of casual restaurants that have had a positive impact on their communities. To be announced on 24^th November, this unranked collection will sit alongside the list of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants to raise awareness of the broader range of local restaurants that represent the spirit of Latin American cuisine.

The Estrella Damm Chefs’ Choice Award is the only prize voted for by the chefs on this year’s Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants list. For more information on the selection process and winner, click here.

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (MINCIT) with Tourism promotion agency FONTUR, the Chocó Emprende Foundation, and FUNLEO, the Leo Espinosa Foundation are co-organizer of the event, which is part of Colombia’s annual late summer gastronomy festival session.  The Leo Espinosa foundation is the charity initiative established by world renowned haute cuisine chef Leonor Espinosa, proprietor of Bogotá’s famous Leo Cocina & Cava, voted one of the 50 best restaurants on the planet.

Traditional cooks from the area will gather and collaborate with national chefs to exchange knowledge, techniques and experience. Traditional foods from the region will be showcased, and local products available for commerce will be highlighted. Chocó is an underdeveloped, low-income department of Colombia that has too often been neglected when it comes to distribution of national resources and development.

Local restaurant and culinary center Zotea will be the center of activities, and visiting chefs include Julián Hoyos, from El Silo restaurant in Montenegro, Quindio, Colombian gastronomical researcher Charlie Otero, chef Alejandro Cuellar from 5 Sentidos Catering and Canasto Bistro, Eduardo Martinez from Mini-mal, Alvaro Clavijo from El Chato, and Yulián Téllez. In addition to dining, and its mission to support the local fishermen, agriculture and human culture, Zotea offers tourists cooking workshops, natural products such as cold pressed coconut oil, tours, and lessons in local knowledge.

With Chocó being one of the rainiest places on earth, Nuquí’s “hierbas de azotea” or raised gardens are an agricultural technique that the region can teach to the rest of Colombia, and may be a sustainable form of agriculture even for urban environments. Nuquí’s wet terrain makes it necessity to grow some vegetable and herb crops above ground for proper drainage, since lack of road access means the Pacific coast of Chocó lacks road access for affordable produce to arrive by ground. Colombia has built no roads to connect Nuquí and many other Pacific coastal towns to the rest of the country, so they must be supplied by boat or by air.

These chefs and restaurateurs will engage with local counterparts to discuss ways to advance gastronomy with tourism, and themes of entrepreneurship in the sectors.

Nuquí has been growing as a tourism destination due to the natural resources, nearby beaches, mangroves, Utria National Park, and relaxed atmosphere. The area is also growing as a source for vanilla,

Above Photo: Sunset over Guachalito Beach, just outside of Coquí (© Loren Moss)