{"id":4491,"date":"2022-06-29T22:07:20","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T20:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/?p=4491"},"modified":"2022-06-30T19:51:58","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T17:51:58","slug":"chef-mario-castrellon-gastronomy-is-a-tool-to-tell-different-stories-and-motivate-the-desire-to-visit-other-destinations-in-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/2022\/06\/29\/chef-mario-castrellon-gastronomy-is-a-tool-to-tell-different-stories-and-motivate-the-desire-to-visit-other-destinations-in-the-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Chef Mario Castrellon: “Gastronomy is a tool to tell different stories and motivate the desire to visit other destinations in the country.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Panamanian gastronomy has been growing impressively in recent years to the point that it is part of the tourist attractions that many visitors want to experience during their stay in the country. The creativity, innovation and teamwork of many of the players in this Industry is beginning to bear fruit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our guest of the month is one of the professionals who started the concept of New Panamanian Cuisine, an International Ambassador of Panamanian gastronomy and Executive Chef at Maito, the only restaurant in Central America to be selected by The World Best Restaurants, as one of the 50 best in Latin America since 2016, being awarded again in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chef Mario Castrellon is passionate about Panama and\nall that its gastronomy has to offer and a tireless worker to turn the country\ninto an international culinary destination. In this exclusive interview, he\ntells us his analysis of what we have advance as a country, what we still have\nto do as a gastronomic destination and how it is possible to enhance it while keeping\nour Panamanian identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chef Mario Castrellon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What do we need to do to achieve that signature\ndish that people abroad say “that’s Panama?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What we need more is for people when trying our\nfood abroad to say that’s Panama!. More than what we can do here in Panama is\nthe time when Panamanian food is exported abroad. The revolution of all these\ncuisines that are well known in all parts of the world is because whether they\nare chefs, restaurant owners, head waiters or people looking for work in other\ncountries, they ended up opening a restaurant with their culture in another\ncountry. For example, Peruvian cuisine started the revolution and then today\nyou see Peruvian restaurants all over many countries and that is when you get the\nwhole world to recognize a gastronomy. When people leaves their country and\nrestaurants are opened with that concept and ideas abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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How can Panamanian gastronomy promote tourism\nbeyond taking people to restaurants, both culturally and artistically?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGastronomy today is a tool and an opportunity to tell\ndifferent stories, therefore, in a cultural way, if restaurants are using local\nproducers, they are replicating original recipes, and incidentally the service,\nthe waiter, the cook do the work of telling that story to customers of: Where\ndoes it come from? How was it done? Who did it? We are bringing culture to\nthose tourists who may suddenly be interested in visiting a region, if it is a\nproduct that comes from Chiriqu\u00ed, Los Santos, or comes from Darien. Through the\nsensory nature of food, we can motivate that desire to visit other destinations\nin the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maito Restaurant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Boquete has become a pole of gastronomic\ndevelopment, thanks to its renowned chefs and culinary offerings. What places\nin Panama do you see going down a similar path and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn addition to Boquete we also have Bocas del Toro\nwhere the entire Afro culture is found, all those flavors are as Panamanian as\nour country. There is the great Joseph Archbold, a super chef who has two\npoints of sale, a sophisticated restaurant and a food truck where he expresses\nthe recipes and flavors of Bocas del Toro. And in the same way, the hospitality\nindustry has been growing in this region, bringing five-star hotels and\ntherefore clients who know the Panamanian culture. In the same way, what has\nbeen happening for a long time is reflected in Playa Venao, as well as in the\nCentral Provinces, where you can feel that more traditional food of Panama.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Chef Mario Castrellon <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The food and ingredients of our indigenous people\nhave enormous potential to create an original and Panamanian culinary proposal.\nHow can we expand and enhance this food and make it more accessible?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNative food definitely has a space and a\ncommunication that Panamanians themselves do not know, nor do we understand,\nnor of the tradition or the ingredients used by these communities. Personally,\nI have had the opportunity to work a lot for many of these communities and each\none has its secrets, its ingredients, its way of manipulating it. At Maito we\nhave made the effort to bring those ingredients to the city when they are in\nseason or when we can, to be able to demonstrate them, to say where they come\nfrom, who harvests them, what they are like, so that they know them. I believe\nthat the intention would be to encourage that Panamanian or tourist to look for\nthat native food in the same native communities, rather than bring them to\nPanama.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What do you feel is what tourists like most about\nour food and what perception do they get when trying it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThrough the tasting menu we can tell a little about\nthe interpretation of Panamanian gastronomy and its mixtures, cultures,\nidentities and races. At the end of the day, the foreigner leaves when the menu\nends with the concept that Panama from its beginnings is a Melting Pot of\nraces, flavors, with many techniques and many cultures that allow us to have a\ntotally varied cuisine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mario Castrell\u00f3n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What is your favorite Panamanian dish other than\nMaito’s and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy favorite Panamanian dish is really sancocho, all\nof Latin America has a sancocho that is very similar, since it is based on\nvegetables and meats that are in the fridge, all in a single mixed soup.\nHowever, the Panamanian sancocho has a very strict structure, since it has to\nbe chicken, yams and coriander. Hence, if you add onion or some oregano, and\nthat makes it different from the rest of the continent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panamanian gastronomy has been growing impressively in recent years to the point that it is part of the tourist attractions that many visitors want to experience during their stay in the country. The creativity, innovation and teamwork of many of the players in this Industry is beginning to bear fruit. Our guest of the month […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4491"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4599,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4491\/revisions\/4599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}