His name may not sound (yet) in Spain, but in its Costa Rica Chef Randy Siles' native needs no introduction. Ambassador of the country of Pura Vida and one of the most promising chefs on the current scene, his culinary research philosophy conquers palates at the same time that It helps the community through a chain of initiatives that began a decade ago and continue to grow. But let's go by parts.
Loving his roots and kilometer 0, the path of life has led Randy to the luxurious Punta Islita hotel, a five-star treasure located in Guanacaste, in the northwest of Costa Rica. It is here, in front of his impressive infinity pool with direct views of the ocean, where, coffee in hand, he tells us that in 2015 he became the first ambassador of the National Plan for Sustainable and Healthy Costa Rican Gastronomy.
Two years later, Forbes would include his name, for two consecutive times, among the five most creative in Central America and the Miami Food and Wine Festival 2017 would do it among the 50 best chefs in the world along with Massimo Bottura or the legendary Japanese 'Iron Chef' Masaharu Morimoto. A great defender of an eco-responsible gastronomy, his merits, in fact, are not limited to just working with a star-worthy technique. Is this the story of someone who not only takes excellent care of the product, but also of the people and the country he proudly boasts about.
Dish at Aura Beach Club, Punta Islita.
A ROAD WITH CURVES
Tanned by the sun, tattooed to the core, and with a own smile of those who feel they have found his way, says the chef who started late in this kitchen. "He was around 26 years old. before i went professional boxer , I worked in a bank, I studied psychology… but none of that was my subject”, he sentences while he looks at what made him reach the kitchen: the sea.
“I am also a surfer and I wanted something that would take me to the coast. I saw that the kitchen was the key, Well, it was something that I had always liked and there were more and more hotels in Costa Rica”, he says. He enrolled in ARCAM Gourmet School in his native San José, financing his cooking studies with boxing and his salary from the bank. “I trained four hours early, worked at the bank and in the afternoon I went to the cooking university. It is an expensive study, but with both works I got it”.
The diploma would arrive in 2007 and, with it, Randy's opportunity to live next to that coast that he longed for so much. But before he would mark in the future path of him being the protects by two Michelin star chef Richard Neat, at his Park Cafe in San Jose. This mentor would help him define his identity and a culinary style with French overtones that today is still perceived in some dishes served in the hotel restaurant, where since last year serves as executive chef of this and the entire hotel group Enjoy Group.
Before arriving here, the chef would spend a good part of his career in Santa Teresa, favorite area for surfers, where Riles would find his place and the start of a solidarity path that he would never stop walking.
Riles hands to work.
A CARING SCHOOL
Being in this corner of the Nicoya Siles peninsula, I would see how “most of the local youth ended up out of everything, in precarious jobs or on the street, since it is an area where there are many displaced people working.” And neither short nor lazy he decided to start training young people with limited resources and opportunities altruistically in the restaurant of the hotel where he was at the time: the Shambala (Hotel Trópico Latino).
It was the year 2010. “They lent a hand and I taught them. The hotel was delighted because it gave it very good press, so everyone was happy”, he comments. And then, "four years after starting the project, one day the CEO and founder of X-treme Enterprise, Franck Bywalski. He loved the service, he came to ask and, knowing the idea, he became my benefactor the next day”. was born like this Gastronomy Artisan Academy, association that continues to function today in the restaurant where the project was born and that has trained more than a hundred kids for free.
Pure Costa Rican gastronomy.
"Without a doubt, this decision changed my life," says Randy proudly. Today he cannot be in charge of the school directly, but he does not lose track of what happens there. He knows for sure how many young people have passed through his school – 189 – and where most of them are. Some are in Austria, others in Spain... Of course, also in the country of Pura Vida. In fact, the chef of the Costa Rica Convention Center came out of Artisans of Gastronomy.
Also Roberto, “who the first day i quit four times because I was afraid to go to the tables. His mom was a housekeeper at the hotel and she asked me for help. He, who had never even left Santa Teresa, today he is in Austria and is manager of a barista company . Without a doubt, he is one of my great references for why I do this, ”he says. "If only with this we managed to change the lives of two or three people… imagine the long-term impact ”, he adds.
Far from wanting to only help the young people at the Academy, this year Randy decided to “prepare 28 kitchen modules and present the Government with the initiative of give cooking classes to young people deprived of liberty”. The idea is now a reality and this November the first graduation from Sustainable and Healthy Gastronomy, taught in a juvenile prison. And more will come soon, that's for sure.
Infinity Edge Pool at the Punta Islita hotel.
LOVE FOR THE PRODUCT AND HEALTH
Impossible to understand how he gives time to everything, "today the Academy or the new 'second chance at life' project are under the umbrella of a macro-project that I co-direct called Autóktono” Siles says.
“Five years ago a guy called me from New York, Carlos Coreano, and he told me that he had followed my career and that he had a project in hand that he wanted to offer me. It was about sustainability, health, product… everything that I had already been working on”. This stranger would soon become a friend and co-founder of this pioneering platform that seeks to “inspire, educate and empower the new generation of cooks in Costa Rica while transforming local and community food systems through a healthy and sustainable gastronomy”.
Aware of the importance of food in the health and development of the community, talks, conferences, classes and sustainable projects take shape in autochthonous For example, Randy points out that among the last things he has started up, and which has a direct impact on the kitchens of his hotel group, has been having achieved a network of local producers who practice responsible and sustainable fishing and agriculture.
“Fishermen usually deliver everything to a wholesaler and then it is distributed. This increases prices massively. I call it chieftaincy. So I chained the islands of Chira, Cedros and Lepanto and today they give us product directly at a fairer price. explains the cook.
Galician octopus in Alma.
Furthermore, "we brought a seed oyster from japan and the neighboring ones are the ones that are reproducing, helping to activate the zone. You need improve the quality of life of farmers to ensure a quality product”, he confirms. Thus, the aforementioned oysters, fresh fish, infarct ceviches and Even a Galician-style octopus reinterpreted with a local potato awaits at Alma, the name of the Punta Islita hotel restaurant.
The octopus thing, by the way, is the result of his friendship with Carlos Parra, chef at the Castelo de Maceda-Orense Monument, whom he met in Mexico and on a visit to Galicia some pulpeiras gave him a master class.
ALWAYS FORWARD
Born and raised in San José, the capital city of the country, “I have realized that this love and respect for the product goes back much further. From my Uncle Pancho and his orchard”. In fact, from his Uncle Pancho was the first thing Randy talked about in the interview . "He is my dad's only brother and I am his favorite nephew." farmer in Cartago, "where almost all of Costa Rica's potatoes come from, he sold in the street and I accompanied him. I am sure that the love for the product comes from this. Also respect."
enshrined as one of the most promising chefs in Costa Rica, In 2019, Randy launched the OS restaurant in Santa Teresa. presenting a signature cuisine menu focused on the philosophy of Kilometer 0, This place stood out for being the first restaurant under the philosophy of the ICT National Plan for Sustainable and Healthy Gastronomy (Costa Rican Institute of Tourism).
Randy Siles signature cuisine.
“It didn't work. The pandemic came and everything went to waste. Furthermore, this is a new country and avant-garde cuisine doesn't quite fit in”. However, in the hotel group in which he works these days he plays with pleasure with a kitchen that he considers "has been like a spearhead and there are a lot of chefs today that he has aligned himself with my way of cooking. They have dared."
“Things have happened to me that I never imagined. They are dreams of life." says this chef who, being as he is, predicts that his adventure has only just begun.