The Colombian Leonor Espinosa is recognized as the “best female chef in the world”

The “best female chef in the world”, according to a prestigious British firm, is a Colombian and anyone who listens to her story will realize how extraordinary her rise to the top of it was.

To begin with, Leonor Espinosa dedicated the first stage of her life, that is, her first 35 years, to studying economics and art, and then to working as an advertising executive.

It wasn’t until 2007, after self-taught to cook, that she opened her first restaurant, Leo.

But, according to the British events and data firm of the food sector William Reed, in the last 15 years, the Colombian chef “never stopped practicing the arts or studying the economy: she simply began to do it through gastronomic eyes”

Today, 15 years later, Leonor Espinosa is considered the best female chef in the world, according to The World’s Best 50 Restaurants list made by William Reed.

Her choice is due, the organization explains, to her “strong sense of social responsibility and humble attitude,” which have made her “a global benchmark for aspiring chefs.”

The newspaper El Espectador, from Colombia, quoted Espinosa in allusion to her art: “Like all Caribbean women, cooking is the continuity of a girl’s experience.”

“In my case, in my grandmother’s kitchen when I directed the daily preparations of the family meal. However, although the kitchen-woman relationship was inherent in my training, the trade manifested itself in me the moment I decided to return to the arts plastic”.

According to the Colombian media, Espinosa has stood out for “highlighting the flavors of the sea, mountains, moors, jungle and mangroves, in each of her proposals she manages to make the country visible.”

In addition, through her foundation Funleo (which she created with her daughter, also chef Laura Hernández-Espinosa), Leonor “works to vindicate the gastronomic traditions of Colombian communities, based on the heritage biological and immaterial part of it”.

The chef’s restaurant, Leo, in the city of Bogotá, also became the first Colombian restaurant to reach the ranking of the 50 best restaurants in the world in 2019, and has been on the list of the 50 best restaurants in the world eight times. Latin America.