Editorial

Domingo

Production desing: fff / photo: felipe soto / art: david vargas / Production desing: fff / photo: felipe soto / art: david vargas / Production desing: fff / photo: felipe soto / art: david vargas / Production desing: fff / photo: felipe soto / art: david vargas / Production desing: fff / photo: felipe soto / art: david vargas /

viche

Catalina Velez invited me to co-produce a TV series about Pacific cuisine in Colombia with Telepacifico. We receive a cultural found price and filmed Saboresencia along the occidental coast. It’s an eight-episode series that showcases the African American cimarrones who protect one of Latin America’s best hidden cuisines. We won a first prize jury selection at the Montevideo Film Festival, which led to the birth of FFF. Big start.

mise en place

Four years later, Catalina and I decided to start a book about Cali & the valley, where we both live. We got some great material from Domingo, a new upscale version of her restaurant over El Peñon. Now, on a beautiful colonial house in San Antonia, they’ve built one of the most tasteful places in the valley.

viche

Catalina’s work always focused on where ingredients come from and ancestral processes that preserve them. She was the first chef in this latitude to embrace respectful fair trade and concern about ethics props and utensils. Every dish she designs is a complete geographic region on the plate. Its delicate process needed to be shown.

abrebocas

We also went to COP16 in Cali and documented the banquets she offered, leading a great team of Colombian cookers. Celele’s chef Jaime Rodriguez helped out with the desserts, attending big food personalities like Mauro Colagreco and regional presidents. Now, we’re starting “Sabores del Valle” with her.