Andrews Arrieta, the chef who adapts the cuisine of the Amazon jungle to the common palate

Image provided by the establishment.

42.3% of Colombian territory is Amazon rainforest, one of the most biodiverse places in the world in fauna and flora, but also in raw materials.

However, not many people, national or foreign, have been lucky enough to travel to this region to find out what is inside.

This is what chef Andrews Arrieta seeks to show at Açaí Gastronomía Amazónica, a restaurant located in Bogotá where he tries to democratize the cuisine of the Colombian jungle from the capital of his country.

His arrival in the jungle was fortuitous.

Arrieta went from managing a restaurant to being asked by his boss to make Amazonian cuisine without having the slightest idea about it.

For this he went to Leticia, on the border with Peru and Brazil, to discover its products, its techniques and an ancient knowledge that changed his life and the way in which he prepares dishes for his guests.

“When I arrived I realized the deep and ancient wisdom that the communities have and the amount of inputs that we have and are unaware of in our own country.

I began to think about how to make it understood that in our Amazon there are wonderful people who know how to subsist, survive and transform by taking care of our jungle,” explains the cook.

And it is no coincidence that a large part of the substances that make up the medicines consumed in the world come from this jungle, nor that its indigenous population is one of the longest-lived on the planet: “Their cuisine uses profound techniques, but very practical, they cook to feed themselves, not to make it delicious.

They eat little, but very healthy.”

With all this wisdom, Arrieta sought to give life to a gastronomic project conceived around raw materials from the jungle.

River fish, tubers, fruits, insects and plants were some of those foods with which he began to give life to his menu.

He wanted to do it respecting that ancestral knowledge and in a way that is friendly to the palate, understandable, in order to invite all those who do not know it to understand this territory.

Canned Amazon products.

Image provided by the restaurant.

Beyond R&D

More than a restaurant, Açaí Gastronomía Amazónica is a place where the culinary traditions of the Amazon are researched and preserved.

“We have an inventory with 149 registered products, from insects, worms, roots, spices and herbs to fruits or fish,” says Arrieta.

It could be said that his work in the kitchen is, in addition to culinary, educational.

In his words: “We are the means to show people how rich we are.

We seek to publicize the products that the indigenous people work on and we pay them up to seven times their value so that they obtain more income, for this reason than for the production of coca leaf.

That is, we train communities so that they charge what is fair and do not have to go through illegal ramifications and do things that have nothing to do with their culture,” he comments.

Arrieta defines himself more as a researcher than as a cook and in his work he follows a maxim that the Colombian chef Leonor Espinosa taught him: “Never put on the table something that you do not know, that you have not investigated and that you have not worked with.”

From the Amazon to the table

As soon as you enter the restaurant, the diner is perplexed by a display case where the jungle is felt up close.

On the shelves there are surprising jars of pickled chili peppers, tucupí, cacharana, camú camú, lemon ant, big-headed ant, aguaje, cocona, cacay nut, tonka bean, mambe, pipilongo or ishpingo, although what draws the most attention is its breeding site. Live mojojoys, the aguaje palm worm, rich in protein, which has been consumed since ancient times in the jungle.

A product that has become one of its star dishes.

Cured piranha.

Image provided by the restaurant.

“At Açaí we try to make you like something you don't know about.

The mojojoy, which in the jungle is eaten roasted, in broth or alive, we serve it filled with the same fat, pirarucú (also called paiche, the largest fish in the Amazon) and Amazonian herbs and we bake it and assemble it on casabe with tucupí black with lemon ants,” explains Arrieta as an example.

But this is not the only dish that he has tried to adapt to unfamiliar palates.

Pirarucú, which in the Amazon is eaten roasted, in Açaí is found in different versions: “We make chicharrones with the belly, raw pirarucú, in cream with mushrooms, in fillet or ribeye grilled with yarumo bark or charcoal” .

The indigenous people do not eat raw fish, and in the case of piranha, “they cure it with catara—a ferment made from yuca brava juice, 15 varieties of chili peppers and culona ant—and it is served as if it were a tartare.”

They also apply indigenous cooking techniques to their seasonal fish, such as moqueado, which consists of wrapping the fish in banana leaves and cooking it underground, giving it a very special flavor.

As for the vegetables, “we bring the Putumayo palm heart directly from there, it comes from a project to restitute coca leaf crops for chontaduro and we cook it like a patarashca,” explains Arrieta, specifying that throughout his letter This product is found in different versions such as in a salad, accompanied by cured pirarucú ham or with a creamy tree bread, tucupí honey, huacatay and cocona ice cream.

Chuchuguaza, Amazonian ginger liqueur, cocona soda, smoked black tucupí syrup, ishpingo and tonka bean.

Image provided by the restaurant.

The sweet section and the cocktails are an ode to the fruits of the Amazon and the preparations of fermented drinks based on these fruits.

San José del Guaviare cocoa is present in all desserts because it is “one of the ancestral seeds that Colombia has” and because it is the only restaurant that receives it in the country.

The

sweet and coca Casabe

is a nod to the Colombian indigenous people closest to Brazil, who consume yucaditos that Arrieta accompanies with tucupí ice cream of coca and millet from Montes de María.

"Our cocktails are made with ancestral Colombian drinks such as chirrinchi, ñeque, viche, chuchuguaza, ginger liqueur, chichas and fruit-based ferments, which is why most of the drinks are thick, because their base is tubers, they are flavored with fruits from the territory and are finished with liquors made by them,” Arrieta concludes, revealing that his entire menu is a trip to the Amazon without leaving the Colombian capital.

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