After a serious mountain-bike ride, we decided to stop for a picnic in the meadows in L’Aubrac. Before we left, we made some bulgur wheat and added some fresh vegetables, shallots, radishes, squash, and bacon.
Once we sat down we seasoned our salad with what we found around us: “sistre,” a plant in the dill family (the symbol of Michel Bras) and some flowers like “pensees” and “potentilles”. It felt just great to give this special touch to our meal, taking only what we needed and enjoying it in the freshest way possible. It is great to be surprised by simplicity.
Rodrigo Pacheco is a top-notch Ecuadorian chef who bases half his time in Quito and the other half in Banos, where he prepares meals made from fresh organic ingredients at Casa del Abuelo Art Hotel & Restaurant. He is also the executive chef at Cuisine Standard in Quito.
He has studied with some of the best, including Madrid Fusión in Spain, Alain Ducasse Formation in Paris, the Institut Paul Bocuse in Lyon, France, and the Instituto Inacap in Santiago, Chile among others.
He has done a Government Cultural Exchange in Canada and the Masters of Food and Wine tour of the world in Buenos Aires, Argentina,
representing Ecuador as an invited chef. Rodrigo was also a Culinary radio show host on Saberes y Sabores.