WHO I AM?
Welcome to my great Latin American table, my name is Mary Anne Peñaloza Villafuerte. I am a Colombian chef with a passion for Latin American gastronomic cultures, currently living in Bavaria, Germany, as a cook, I define myself as blending my Latin American roots with what I’ve learned in European cuisine. I was born in the most beautiful corner of the continent: Colombia, a country that beats by the Caribbean sea and two giant oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific. Its northern end is Punta Gallinas and Guajira which is distinguished by its desert landscapes, giant sand dunes. at its southern end we find the Amazon, which corresponds to 41.8% of the national territory. The country is crossed from south to north by the Cordillera de los Andes, which is divided into eastern central and western cordillera. In the Central Cordillera are the highest elevations and savannas. The páramo of Sumapaz, in the savannah of Bogotá which rises to 4,650 meters above sea level, and the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy reaches 5,493 meters above sea level. The diversity of landscapes has historically been one of the main causes of our culinary diversity, since having different altitudes throughout the country has allowed us to develop a fairly robust agricultural horizon. For example, 400 different native potato varieties ,from the potato producing areas of the country, or typical dishes of the guajira may include the unmissable iguana stew, the sweet and sour iguaraya flower found in the cacti of the desertic landscapes of the guajira; or Cuy roasted which refers to roasted guinea pig, one of the typical dishes of the southern Andean region of Colombia.
I was born in the capital Bogota, but my family has diverse origins. My diverse roots have allowed me to find in the kitchen the right way to draw my own family tree, to find the roots of my essence as a person and as a cook. My first steps in the kitchen began at an early age in the kitchen of my great aunt and my father, who are two of my greatest inspirations and teachers to this day. I remember my dad teaching me how to make sauces and meats at the age of 5, I am the oldest of my sisters, and he liked me to join him and get involved in the kitchen. When I was seven, I remember receiving one of my favorite Christmas presents: Barbie’s Magic Oven. I cooked with my toys, but also in the kitchen with my dad. I remember traveling during the holidays to my great aunt’s house in Bucaramanga in the north of Colombia (8 hours by car from Bogota), on each trip, my aunt Ana, kept recipe books from the local newspaper “La Vanguardia”, and gave them to me on each trip, we cooked together for as long as I can remember. During the year, my aunt always sent parcels from Bucaramanga to Bogota, she always sent me a note, where she told me where was “the hidden secret”, the genova, a typical sausage of Santander that she sent me specially in each box.
Otro subtítulo
I learned as much as I could in my country before deciding to become a professional in the kitchen. At the age of 17, I packed a suitcase full of dreams and started my professional career in Argentina, 6,778.2 km away from my home. In Argentina I built the ethical and practical pillars that accompany me in the kitchen today, in Buenos Aires I studied surrounded by people from various Latin American countries, which greatly enriched my learning and opened the first windows to the huge Latin American culinary universe. I had a great experience in renowned kitchens in Colombia, and also I had participated in several national tournaments of hot cuisine and pastry, always conquering the first places, including Compass Group & Unilever (2013), Chefs Rôtisseurs Competition junior Chef (2016) and Grasco’s Golden Bowl (2018). After a few years I started to feel a sense of urgency to explore more and I decided to embark on another journey that would change my life forever. I arrived in Germany a couple of years ago, once again with a small suitcase full of illusions and goals to achieve. And now here we go! I never imagined that the pandemic would change my life so much. My plan was to continue to travel elsewhere, sharpen my knives and try other cultures and cuisines , however, due to the coronavirus, I stayed longer than expected in Germany.
I fell in love with Germany in the heart of the Bavarian Forest. I learned in small and big kitchens each of the homemade recipes of Schweinsbraten and Kartoffelknödel or Semmelknödel, while I understood the true meaning of a good beer. Little by little, I learned to live the seasons that each year taught me more about myself and about the table during each season. In the summer I enjoyed fresh summer wine recipes and learned to enjoy myself by the lake, while in the winter I learned to appreciate the warmth of a good fireplace accompanied by a mulled wine. During these years I have experimented in my kitchen, mixing the traditional flavors that I have learned from the Germanic cuisine, with the strong and powerful flavors of the intertropical Cancer and Capricorn.
Last year was amazing. I started the year participating on San Pellegrino Young Chef. There I was able to show the judges my Latin American roots fused in my dish and in the end, I made it to the podium with the Fine Dining Lovers Food for Thought Award for my dish ‘Pork neck with ‘hogao‘, tamarind and guacamole’. I just put my heart into creating this dish, I decided to use pork and avocado as main ingredients (According to the records, Germany has a 40.2KG per capita consumption of pork and just 1.2 kg per capita consumption of avocado while Colombia just 13.KG per capita of pork and 3.8 kg per capita consumption of avocado), because I know that Germany is one of the biggest consumers of pork in the world. However, my intention was to create a bridge between my two homes that would allow me to show the judges how one of the most used cuts of pork in Germany could paint a totally different picture, full of flavors and textures typical of the Colombian intertropics.
I ended the year 2023, celebrating Christmas at The Taste semifinal. It was a roller coaster of emotions from start to finish. I shared set and kitchen with people of an impressive human quality, a diverse team that made me feel at home, even though we had different backgrounds, including other regions of Germany and even countries I long to visit such as India and Brazil. I fulfilled my dream of meeting and working with the best chefs in the world. Each of the steps and decisions I took during the competition in the company of my team and my mentor, the incomparable Tim Raue, allowed me to show in each of my spoons, my personal brand, rooted in the pure flavors of my land and my ancestors.
Thank you for coming here, that’s a brief summary about me and my career. As you can see, my heart is in many places at the same time, I hope I can continue to get to know in depth different places in the world, where there is a little space for my food. If you like it follow me on instagram https://www.instagram.com/chefmaryannep/ and on Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@chefmaryannep
To bring the flavours of Latin America to your home, I invite you to check out my services. For example, if you would like me to come and visit your kitchen, I can offer you my Rent a Chef service, I invite you to check out our Fine Dining Calendar if you would like to know about my private restaurant in my home or if you would like to learn on your own how to cook delicious Latin American recipes at home, we have cooking classes for you.
