Culinary traditions of the Ecuadorian coast with Valentina Álvarez

What inspired you to become a chef, and how did you learn to cook?

I’ve never called myself a chef. I see myself more as a cook, an open-fire cook. Everything started with the horno manabita – the Manabí oven. My great-grand-mother had a typical rural house, and in the kitchen, there was a giant open-fire oven. I was always cooking with her. I learnt about the foods she was preparing from her. I can vividly remember the smells of her kitchen. My mother is also a great home cook. I used to prepare corviche (a fried or oven- baked savoury treat made with plantain, peanut dough and a fish filling) with her, and we would sell them in the local community to help our family financially.

In the coastal region of Ecuador, we tend to eat corviche with coffee in the afternoon; we call it café mascado. I was always my mother’s unofficial sous chef. I remember one day, when I was eight years old, my mother was so exhausted that she couldn’t get out of bed, so I decided that I would cook that day. I’ve always loved cooking for others. Whenever I went to friends’ houses as a kid, I loved going into their kitchens and seeing the produce they had. They always had more than my family did at home. My passion is to change the Manabí province through food.

Why are you so passionate about Manabí and the coastal region?

Manabí has been known for its social problems and its poverty, but it’s rich in so many ways. It’s right on the equator. There are two marine currents that flow past: the Humboldt Current, which is cold and flows north, and the El Niño Current, which is warm and flows south. Add to that the coastal mountains and you get the microclimates that make Manabí so abundant in terms of its produce and ingredients. The soil quality is rich too. This rich soil makes for special pottery and ceramics, and it is what we use to build our Manabí ovens. In 2016, Ecuador suffered an earthquake, and Manabí was at its epicentre.

At the time, I was running the restaurant at my in-laws’ hotel, Cocosolo, and the hotel was severely damaged. After the earthquake, I was scared to go into the kitchen, so I decided I wanted an outdoor kitchen with a big outdoor oven. After the earthquake, several initiatives surged to encourage local people to transform Manabí. One of them was the foundation FUEGOS in my town of San Vicente, which seeks to turn culinary endeavours into a driving force for social transformation. We focus on young people from rural areas, particularly women. They work alongside me and fuel my passions, which are to cook, teach and study. My life goal is to continue showing women in Manabí that they are capable of being whoever they want to be and that they should show their identity through food.

Tell us about your restaurant, Iche.

Iche is a restaurant, a school, a laboratory and an incubator. It’s a really interesting ecosystem. We’ve created a network of cooks who learn together and develop their skills. We focus on Manabí cuisine and work to bring ingredients that might have been forgotten to the fore again in our ever-changing dishes. In our ancestral culture, the word ‘iche’ means peanut. In Manabí, we have 18 different varieties of peanuts and more than 300 recipes that include peanuts. We eat a lot of peanuts in Manabí, and they have been credited with improving the health and cognitive function of our people.

What dish do you recommend people try when visiting Ecuador?

Everyone should try viche soup. It has more than 25 ingredients, including pumpkin, four types of beans, cucumber, seafood, yuca, sweet potato and herbs. For me, it’s the queen of Ecuadorian soups. We say that you must come and try a viche at Iche!

How can people taste your cooking?

People should come to Iche in San Vicente to try Manabí’s ancestral flavours for themselves. They can also experience Manabí flavours and comfort food at Montuvia Raíces Ancestrales, my restaurant in Quito.