I’m from Ecuador, but I grew up in Madrid. At 14, I left Ecuador and started school in Madrid during the significant migration. With no prior knowledge of cooking or working in restaurants, I took a job that allowed me to travel across Spain, selling furniture in small towns and cities. This sparked my passion for trying different dishes across cities and villages, making me fall in love with food and Spanish cuisine.

When I returned to Ecuador, I knew exactly what I wanted to do: enroll in culinary school and become a chef. I worked in a Peruvian restaurant and did a stage in some hotels. However, my heart was always set on Spanish cuisine. Later, I joined a project to open a Peruvian restaurant in Ecuador, and one of the chef partners had a Catalan restaurant, @niukitchen , in Miami. This led to the opportunity to work for him, and now I’m here, cooking and learning refined techniques and flavors of Catalan cuisine, bringing me full circle.

Some people ask, ‘If you’re Ecuadorian, why don’t you cook Ecuadorian food?’ But we don’t need a passport to cook other countries’ food. It’s about taste and preferences. While mixing cuisines and techniques can be done, it’s essential to pay respect and do it in a way that makes sense. Some things are perfect just the way they are.

Working in the kitchen is tough; it takes passion to keep going. I’ve been in kitchens that never slow down, but I’ve seen a clear difference when the owner is a chef who has been in the trenches versus a businessman who hasn’t. You can keep your business open all week, every single shift, but how long can you maintain quality and keep your team thriving? To succeed in the long term, you must understand what’s sustainable – not just in food, but also in the overall well-being of your team.