Nariño is a culinary treasure to be discovered thanks to the diversity offered by its territory, which is simultaneously Andean, maritime and Amazonian. A couple of years ago, a good friend told me this phrase when I embarked towards the mythical south: “When you leave the airport, look at the mountains, it is the closest thing to a manger I have ever seen. You will witness the Colombian smallholding, many small houses scattered on the slopes with their crops around them.”
It is not a visual fact, these smallholdings are among the reasons for the diversity of products that Nariño offers, where each farmer takes advantage of his little piece of land with the vegetables and animals that he gives him. Because one of the benefits of the department is its variety of climates and soils: mountains, sea and jungle, a rich territory that has earned it struggles, pain and abandonment, and that, at the same time, represents an opportunity still unknown.
Product and technique, winning duo from Nariño
For Juan Guillermo Ruano, that pantry has been a discovery. When he opened his restaurant El Migrante, on December 10, 2017, after returning from years of study and work in France, he was not yet inspired by his land, although he knew it well. Since he was little he traveled with his father, Guillermo, a hard-working merchant, and they visited all the municipalities of Nariño.
In his memory he harbored those memories while watching the Spanish chef Karlos Arguiñano on television and cooking tamales, quimbolitos and other delicacies with his mother Estela and his aunt Florcita.
Ruano did not have an easy time becoming a cook; His father supported him in studying a traditional career, so after an exchange in the United States he returned to Pasto to continue working in the family business and graduate as a business administrator.
He received the diploma and with his savings he went to France, where in addition to studying cooking he worked in various places, from a popular food trucks of hamburgers, where he met Anthony Bourdain – one of his references –, passing through Le Meurice, a two Michelin star restaurant, by Alain Ducasse, to L’Initial, with the Japanese chef Kazuyuki Fujinuma.
Return to the land of Nariño
He could have stayed longer, but just as he was heading to an interview he felt it was time to return to Pasto. He arrived rather young to work with the family before El Migrante came to life, a name that is a tribute to that merchant father who took him from town to town and allowed him to get to know his department, but it is also a look at food as something that changes, and to migrants who face harsh conditions in search of a better life.
“I imagined a name that when people heard it, saw the logo and associated it with food, they would think about traveling with flavors,” explains Ruano.
Blow to the ego, love for his land
He listened to his father in looking at what the market was looking for and not imposing his way of seeing cuisine after years of living abroad, but rather adapting to the culture, to the expectations.
He began making sausages and hamburgers at home, a little reluctantly, but with the clarity that it does not matter what cuisine is made, as long as it is conceived with the quality he learned.
The restaurant had a first menu of very familiar dishes that people would understand easily, “a big blow to the ego,” admits Juan, still connected to his experiences in Paris, but there he was adamant that everything be made at home, from scratch. , and with the best ingredients.
tradition bearers
Three years later, living up to the name of the place, its cuisine has migrated. Clinging to technique, he has rediscovered the territory, the producers with their diversity and the bearers of tradition.
It began by including weekend specials so that the public was open to other flavors and today it has a space for 44 diners in which preparations are served such as dried fish in a white bean casserole, yellow potato and roof grass, roast beef or brothy rice with prawns, thanks to the discovery he has made of the Pacific and its producers.
In his words, today his gastronomy is based on the department’s product, interpreted from his knowledge; It is not typical food, which he loves as a diner, but not to cook it.
“Nariño has a very large and unexplored pantry, there is a very long job to do; Apart from the abundance we have, we place great value on homemade food, an advantage when living in cities or small towns where we can still go home to eat, and that gives a different perspective.”
Unexplored gastronomy that transcends
John Edison Herrera Erazo, a countryman and contemporary of Juan Ruano, is another of the young people who have been responsible for highlighting the product and cuisine of Nariño, in this case from his restaurant La Vereda.
Born in Cumbal, a volcanic land located at more than 3,200 meters above sea level, he grew up in Pasto with his parents Gilma and Arturo and his siblings Sofía and Óscar, but having rural ancestry, he has always been in contact with food and its origin. .
Furthermore, his mother, a talented empirical cook, had stores and he accompanied her to the market to choose the products to prepare at home, in soups like locro, a common denominator of the Andean region that is prepared with whatever the garden produces: pumpkin, ahuyama, grasses or others, with a dairy and curd base. And this was what he missed most in Lima, Peru, because he says that the stews there are light compared to those in his memories.
It was not the first path
John also tried other careers before becoming a cook; He first studied sociology and then political science; He did not finish any, but in Popayán he was captivated by the world of cooking and decided to go to the Sena del Quindío, although he obtained the cooking degree in Lima, where for four years he worked in a Creole buffet.
Before returning to Pasto, he spent two years in Bogotá and was in the Nazca Group, in La Mar, Astrid & Gastón, La Despensa de Rafael and La Pesquera Jaramillo.
Upon his return he felt he had a good experience, but with limited possibilities and resources. However, she pooled his savings, joined his sister, found a small roadside establishment and created a restaurant.
They put together a menu related to the environment, focused on family weekend outings, with many soups and included products from the Genoy area, where they were located.
From a small roadside restaurant to one of the 50 best restaurants
Now, established in Pasto, they have an offer that draws on the different regions of Nariño. In seven years they have changed their menu six times, something that John considers part of the dynamics of La Vereda.
Today, with the focus on the three regions, mountains, sea and jungle, they have preparations such as yucca with concho – waste from cooking pork that they reduce; beef in mashed banana with grilled cheese or lobster or Pacific piangua, thanks to the work they do with a network of artisanal fishermen; In addition, they offer a tasting menu of five, seven or ten courses, with the option of pairing, in which they explore fermented local products such as chontaduro or beets, local beers and wines.
Triumphs and memories
He had a taste for ceviches from Lima, so the business, which his brother Óscar also joined, grew with the opening of the Limo cevicheria, in the same location in La Vereda, with a separate and more casual entrance, a success. which has helped sustainability in a difficult 2024.
With joy, John made it to the El Espíritu de América Latina selection of Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2021, a collection of restaurants without ranking that have had a positive impact on their communities and local cuisines, whether during the recent crisis or over a sustained period, as said organization claims.
A crossing through the lagoon
Food lovers who travel to Nariño will try not to return without stopping by Aníbal Criollo’s Naturalia restaurant, in El Encano, at the foot of La Cocha lagoon.
This chef, bearer of tradition and unifier of colleagues, conceives the stove as a symbol of unity, and this is exactly what is experienced at home, where sharing his chagra (garden) and his table is something as natural as his surroundings, which which he learned as a child from his mother, Jael Salazar Gayapotoy.
Where Aníbal lives the mindala, an exchange of traditional products in the region, a space for community gathering in their fight for autonomy, clean production and the consumption of organic foods.
This is how Naturalia was born, with Jael, in 1986, first only at parties and weekends, now in the hands of Aníbal, with the support of his niece Marcela.
“Nariño is unique”
They are always ready to receive colleagues and diners, but it is better to let them know so that they can prepare a reheated red wine or boiled fruit with chapil or brandy to mitigate the cold, followed by a soup, smoked trout or guinea pig – which, being a home-bred animal, linked to environmental and ceremonial issues, is not easily found in restaurants.
As Alexander Almeri, a Peruvian chef who has traveled through Colombia and was the promoter of Pasto Capital Gastrodiversa, says: “Nariño is unique, we must not forget that part of the south, of those Andean mountain ranges, reaches the Pacific Sea, to Tumaco, and has a variety of climates that provide a biocultural diversity and cuisines that other departments of the country do not have.
There are the vicheros masters represented by Onísimo González Biojó, from Tumaco, and the cuisine that comes from there, but also the cuisines of the Amazonian and Andean foothills, with guinea pig as their most ancient dish or ritual. All this, added to the new chefs who honor traditional cuisine from the Surprise City, results in an amalgamation of proposals from tradition that survives strongly.”
Other gastronomic alternatives
Kneading Workshop
María del Mar Lagos and Mario Mora have been in charge of the Amasijos Workshop for three years, thanks to their training as cooks and what they learned with their mothers Gloria Zambrano and Rosa María Unigarro, respectively.
Its proposal operates in four lines: research, to recognize the dietary diversity of Nariño; laboratory, in which they work with networks of seed guardians in 25 municipalities and with peasant families; publishing house, with the bibliographic record of its findings, and restaurant, with emphasis on traditional and wrapped doughs.
If you want to try quimbolitos, wrapped with yuca, corn, mote or discover their exploration of doughs in various leaves, doughs, fillings and recados – sauces or flavor enhancers –, visit their new headquarters, which just opens this month.
Pastusa Brauhaus
The precursor of craft breweries in Pasto was born in 2015, as a venture of five partners, with the aim of varying the offering of American Light Lager, the commercial ones
traditional.
Cristian Gómez, one of the partners, says that they make ale-type beers – of high fermentation –, with styles such as American Pale Ale, Wazen and Porter, for sale in several restaurants and establishments in Pasto and in five other departments of the country.
With an approximate production of 2,400 liters per month, they are betting on the growth of beer culture in Nariño through courses and tastings, and they see with optimism how, little by little, other microbrewery proposals are born that contribute to the process.
Classic doughs
To try other classic Nariñense doughs in Pasto, stop by the La Alsacia bakery and pastry shop and crave their cheesecakes, achira bread or baked bread; by Don Carlos Legarda’s bakery in the Obrero neighborhood, for flat bread and allullas, or by Café Central in the historic center.
