Paris, Oct 10 (EFE) – After positioning bananas and cocoa in Europe, Ecuador now wants to conquer it with haute cuisine that fuses styles of both sides of the Atlantic, as several chefs have shown this week in a demonstration of products, techniques, and talent in Paris.
Ecuadorian product “ihave been already positioned” for years, explained to EFE on Tuesday Santiago Granda, director of the Technological Institute of the School of Chefs of Ecuador, who highlighted the South American country’s cocoa.
In addition, “we are the leading exporter of shrimp, bananas and many fruits … we already have a very advanced field and the world already knows us, and in Europe, the Ecuadorian product is widely used,” added the chef, who gave as examples the fried bananas, sweets, and other processed foods.
The task now is haute cuisine, said Granda. For this reason, they made a tour that began on October 5 in Madrid and ended Tuesday in the French capital, at the Institut le Cordon Bleu.
In addition to showing their capabilities in this tour, the promoters of this gastronomic presentation wanted to train buyers and intermediate users of European gastronomy on the uses, techniques, and versatility of Ecuadorian ingredients in everyday cooking.
They also sought to boost demand for Ecuadorian products in the service food, gastronomy, and tourism sectors.
Consumers are “really very surprised and very happy, especially because when they can identify their tradition, and then taste it (made) with an exotic product, it attracts a lot of attention, and they like it a lot,” said Daniela Valverde, executive chef of the CORDEX project.
“We did a ‘masterclass’ at the hotel school in Madrid where there were the classic croquettes (made) with banana flour,” Valverde exemplified.
On Tuesday, they captivated the Parisian professionals with a salty “crème brûlée” made with pangora (a variety of crab), followed by a shrimp wrapped in green banana paste and ended with the typical French madeleines, but cooked with green banana flour, cocoa and passion fruit.
Granda explained to EFE that this mission has been underway for three years and that his medium-term objective is to consolidate the Ecuadorian product in Europe and conquer the sector with chefs from his country. “They are at an excellent level. There is a compelling new generation,” he said.EFE
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