Bolivian meats, delicious...
Who was going to tell us when we sang like innocent souls that great song from Sesame Street: "Me and my llama, well, his name is, let's go to the dental clinic...", that we would end up eating our nice roasted friend , as the elite athletes of the Dakar in Uyuni (Bolivia) have done these days.
That because? because it is already the new exotic meat that has reached some of the menus of the best restaurants to stay. In its favor: it has more protein than many others and a low fat content (even less than chicken). Its flavor is delicious and, above all, different and unique . And since the global gastronomic trend is going back to the origins, this ancient Andean indigenous dish has been given a twist (imagine the possibilities of llama carpaccio, for example).
The Gustu restaurant, cradle of the Bolivian gastronomy movement
But the auction of the tomato and the true thinking mind of all this Bolivian gastronomic (and social) revolution has been one of the best chefs in the world, Claus Mayer (of the Copenhagen Noma), which Bolivia chose to mount the one that it is predicted to be the new best restaurant in the world or that he will soon be among the best.
Claus has been visiting Bolivia since 2012, researching, testing, testing... to offer the keys to the new Bolivian cuisine. With the kitchen as a flag, Claus Meyer has removed many young people from the Bolivian unemployment lists, from boredom and absolute precariousness. convinced that haute cuisine can be a social weapon of the first order (in the image and likeness of what our Ferrán Adriá and Gastón Acurio are doing in Peru), Meyer first launched a foundation, The Melting Pot, with which in his own country, for example, is improving the quality of life for prisoners in Copenhagen jail through cooking classes that help them integrate into society.
Pacai stuffed with ganache and passion fruit
Next, it would land in a neighborhood in the southern part of La Paz, in Calacoto, where the Gustu restaurant has already been open for a year. At Gustu, Bolivian products are the absolute protagonists. In its three tasting menus of 5, 7 and 12 courses with Bolivian wine pairings, of course, it offers dishes from coca leaves to fish from the Amazon rivers, passing through the famous llama meat. And to snack on a bit of cassava zonzo (a delicious boiled cassava cake) , humitas (wrapped corn paste) , masaco con charque (banana-based dish with dehydrated meat) , tucumanas (matambre meat empanadas) , salteñas (another type of meat empanadas) , chicken anticuchos (a kind of skewer), chola sandwiches...
Candied beetroot with smooth potato and crispy hibiscus.
In addition, this year at Madrid Fusión (from January 27 to 29), two Gustu representatives, Kamila Seidler together with Michelangelo Cestari, promise to present in great detail the keys to this new successful cuisine that aims to be part of a movement of South American cuisine that is developing with the work of the incombustible Gastón Acurio, Peruvian super chef, with restaurants in Lima, Madrid, Bogotá, Santiago de Chile, and Alex Atala's famous D.O.M in Sao Paulo.
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Tucumanas, Bolivian dumplings