Chef Alvaro Clavijo: the Colombian chef who changes the landscape of the culinary scene

 

 

• Restaurant El Chato, in Bogota
• 5th on Latin America’s Fifty Best Award in 2022
• Buy local, cook international approach

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Álvaro Clavijo is the chef behind El Chato, the successful contemporary bistro in Bogotá where a new chapter of Colombian cuisine is being written. He has made it his mission to redefine the local flavors by exploring his country and the endless list of produce it can offer, and through that, has become one of the best restaurants in Latin America.

Obsession can be an endless source of energy that results in great things. In the case of chef and restaurant owner Álvaro Clavijo, being obsessed with always doing things better and with discovering the infinite list of produce that his native Colombia has to offer has turned into the great success of El Chato. One of the two restaurants in his country to be included in the list of The World’s 50 Best—in the 80th spot—and in 2020 as a remarkable 7th in the same list for Latin America.

Clavijo attributes that success to his years of experience, that started as a dishwasher in Paris and took him all the way from Barcelona, back to Paris, to New York City and Copenhagen. To that and to an infinite curiosity that makes him go against the norm, that makes him go after problems and take harder ways, but that always results in wonders. It always results in dishes that reeducate the local palate, that put flavor first and that are created to highlight the ingredient.

In that way and little by little, he’s creating a new and exciting Colombian Cuisine at El Chato, a name he chose because it’s a term of remembrance used by rolos, the people from Bogotá, and that represents the love for his history and his intentions to honor it by finding new and exciting ways to highlight Colombian flavors.

 

 

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