Nuema

Nuema is a tasting-menu restaurant in the Bello Horizonte area of Quito, Ecuador, devoted to the produce of the whole country. Alejandro Chamorro leads the kitchen, and his partner Pía Salazar, co-owner and pastry chef, makes the desserts.

The two opened Nuema in 2014 as a bistro in the business district, serving quick lunches to office workers. A move into a hotel with lower costs gave Chamorro room to experiment, and the bistro turned into a restaurant serving only a tasting menu. Salazar, born in Cuenca, studied gastronomy in Quito and Mexico City and learned from chefs such as Astrid Gutsche. Nuema became the first Ecuadorian restaurant on the Latin America's 50 Best list, and later the only one from the country on the global World's 50 Best list. Salazar was named the best pastry chef of Latin America and then of the world.

The menu runs to about a dozen courses and travels from the Pacific coast through the Andes to the Amazon. Chamorro likes to use familiar local ingredients in unexpected ways, as in bone marrow with lentils and a fudge made from black clams, or a tuna course with peanut, its oxalis petals laid out like scales. Salazar's desserts use strawberries, sacha inchi and a horchata of local herbs and flowers, and she colours some of them with u'kuisi, an Amazonian fruit. To get such produce, the team had to convince remote suppliers that everyday crops were worth buying, and Chamorro sees the kitchen as a way to strengthen Ecuadorian identity. The menu works as a map of the country, with each course pointing to a different region.

The dining room pairs red brick and white walls with wooden floors, an open wood fire and large black-and-white portraits, with touches that echo the landscapes of Ecuador. During the pandemic, the waiting list for a table stretched to half a year.