El Cielo, Bogota

Today Juliana and I met with Pedro Chadid, general manager of one of Bogota's top restaurants, el Cielo, to discuss a Bogota version of the successful London fundraising event "Dine for Colombia".

Juliana Araujo will be in charge of the organization of the event on the ground. She is currently responsible for communication and marketing for Enseña por Colombia and if she wasn't busy enough, now I have even given her an extra job ... event management!

Pedro Chadid has a vast experience in the gastronomy field, he managed several large events in Colombia like for example the Bogota Food Festival. For the past 3 years Pedro has been working for Juan Manuel Barrientos as PR, communication and events manager.

EL CHEF JUANMA: Juan Manuel Barrientos Valencia - known in the gastronomic world as Juanma, was born in Medellín in 1983. He is a Colombian chef, entrepreneur, and peace leader. He is the creator and founder of ElCielo restaurant chain (Medellín, Bogotá, Miami).

Juanma has been ranked among the 50 best chefs in Latin America by the San Peregrino 50BestLA List, the youngest included in the ranking, in 2013, 2014 and 2015. He is one of the five chefs with the most Influence and followers in social media.

He began his career alongside the renowned chefs Iwao Komiyama (Argentina) and Juan Mari Arzak (Spain). At age 23, when he returned to Colombia from Europe, he opened the doors of his first ElCielo Restaurant in Medellín. He created it inspired by the Colombian cuisine using his creativity, avant-garde cooking techniques and his neuroscience knowledge to create a unique offer with tasting menus that arouse emotions.

The first time I had a full 5-sense (Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste, Touch) dinner was 10 years ago at Heston Blumenthal's "Fat Duck".

I will never forget this experience, I had just moved to London, started a job in finance when a friend managed to get a last minute booking. Little did I know it was practically impossible to get a table at the Fat Duck and that this experience was going to change my perception of any future dining experience.

10 years later, many many top restaurant visits later, I still use the the Fat Duck as my benchmark to compare.

El Cielo is situated in one of the trendiest gastronomy areas of Bogota, la zona G.

The restaurant gets extra brownie points for their interior and exterior design.

Juan Manuel Barrientos wants his guests to have the full experience, he aims to stimulate all five senses, like Heston Blumenthal!

Ofcourse everybody agrees your taste buds and eyes are key and Juanma makes sure these are therefor massively spoiled but he equally aims for his dishes to have a unique smell that will bring you back to your past, your childhood for example, think of the Madeleine of Proust.

JuanMa plays with colors and texture, this fully decomposed piña colada was a treat:

My favorite though was the bellini with fresh Colombian peaches.

The second Amuse-Bouche and home made bread (pandebono) brought some Colombian spirit to the table.

As a starter we had a delicious spinach soup:

Bogota is known for its meat, after 5 days of eating meat for lunch and dinner, I decided to take a break and order the shrimps.

The shrimps were giant, the green colorful couscous was a great combination with its lobster bisque sauce.

I could not possible leave without trying JuanMa's desert:

We really didn't have much time as I was on my way to the airport to catch a flight to London but Pedro insisted on ordering coffee. I agreed as after all I had a 12 hour flight and best if I didn't sleep too much.

The coffee ritual - because it is an actual ritual- was one of my favorite parts of the lunch!

It started with the coffee plants that were placed all over the table to make you feel you were on an actual coffee plantation.

The coffee is brewed in front of you, while the waiter gives you the full explanation of the history of the coffee beans.

JuanMa spent his childhood around coffee plantations with his grandfather, it was therefor very important to him for the coffee served at el Cielo to not only represent his roots but also his values and principles through his gastronomic vision. He found the prefect partner at café Matiz, with the same levels or excellence, quality and social responsibility.

To finish the coffee experience - story...

While the coffee is brewing, you get hypothetically taken to ... heaven (el cielo)... words will not do justice to this stimulating experience so here a picture and video clip:

I had a unique lunch experience at el Cielo and look forward holding Enseña por Colombia's fundraising dinner at this exclusive venue.

A Special thank you to the incredible Karen Attman, Founder of Flavors of Bogota and writer of Permission to Slurp.

* Note that this whole blog and this article is based on my personal opinion only.

#topchef #gastronomie #juanmanuelbarrientos #elcielo #foodie