BEST CHEF: TOMÁS RUEDA

For more than a decade, Tomás Rueda, has been at the helm of Tábula and Donostia restaurants, sprung from the same culinary root, and grounded in a philosophy that gastronomy must transcend ingredients by respecting fundamental values. “You can’t cook with your eye on the cash register,” states Tomás, describing how some of the city’s restaurants treat the business of dining. Understanding the origin of food is a mission statement for the only Colombian chef who in 2013 was featured on Anthony Bourdain’s CNN successful foodie series: “Parts Unknown.” For Rueda, the opportunity to be presented by this celebrity chef, shows the acceptance his “new Colombian cooking” is having in the world of gastronomy. “At this historic moment with the peace talks in Havana, if chefs can unite to generate a consciousness of the abundance this nation has to offer, it’s an example others could follow.” Rueda’s self-coined “B-Side” of gastronomy is one committed to a sense of territory and the identity of the Colombian countryside. “It’s being able to show through dishes, what is Colombia,” states Rueda, as his cooks carefully prepare stews and sauces in an open kitchen. “As a people we are very fortunate. We have an abundance of foods, climate and topography,” states Rueda. “Our ‘B-Side’ likes to work recipes based on a sense of region and tradition. Our gastronomy must reflect our idiosyncrasies.” While many chefs seize the moment to talk about “gourmet” as if it were gastronomy, or “freshness” when their fish has traveled three days in a Styrofoam box before being frozen, for Tomás, part of a chef ’s responsibility is taking the same care with terminology as with perishables. “The best business in this country is honesty. I couldn’t sleep at night if I told my customers that my fish was fresh, or my vegetables organic, if I knew it wasn’t true.” Tomás isn’t into industrial cook- ing and churning out colorful lines and dots on plates. For this chef, the “imperfection” is as much a part of the Colombian identity, as the freedom it allows him with the kitchen. While molecular may be a culinary shooting star, and best of Europe is designing food with robotic precision, Rueda, breaks the paradigm, with one basic rule. “Everybody should learn how to cook. Everyone should learn to read poetry.”

A couple of years ago I decided to take a break from the stove and examine what I wanted out of life, both as a chef and a person with a certain responsibility towards my society. I stopped working and set out to wander, to walk. I needed to look at my surroundings and see what lies inside myself. I wanted to see new things, reflect, understand the relationship between my dreams, life and the kind of cooking I hoped to do. And if it meant that I only had a few pesos in my pocket, so be it! It was a question of rebuilding the foundations of my craft from the ground up and it is a beautiful one, no doubt… so long as it would allow me to express my great affection for the countryside and the farmer who works and lives in it. I believed that the world needs to change and bringing the best of Colombian products to our tables would be my small contribution to that. I sought to realize my ideal that the person who eats in a restaurant in the city might see the reality of rural Colombia in every dish that I serve: its rivers, seas, mountains and valleys. That he or she would be more aware of the peasant-farmer who plants native varieties of maize and cares for the seeds his ancestors handed down to him. I hoped that my clients would come to understand that the rhythms of the countryside are different than those of the city and it isn’t the end of the world if a certain kind of cheese or meat is not available on a particular day. Buying produce from the countryside and working alongside the small farmer is not the same as buying mass-produced stuff in bulk. Unexpected things happen when you work like that, and for me it’s great that not everything is parceled out and controlled. I wanted to find the possibility of building a better society…with my frying pan! And now that I am gathering the fruits of that adventure, I would like to invite all of you to join me in that quest this year. As the Colombian painter Pedro Ruíz says of his marvelous exhibition, Oro, I would like you to join me in “a joyful journey through this beautiful territory of Colombia. Because there is a big difference between a country and a territory, for the latter is much richer and more colorful.”