00:00Do you know what marriages are? It turns out that in the Colombian Caribbean there are marriages that don't have
00:05No dress, no ring, no ceremony. They are the combination of bread and coastal cheese, two flavors that together
00:12They're practically inseparable. But what does marriage taste like? What does cooking really taste like?
00:19from the Colombian Caribbean? To try to answer that, we went to Barranquilla and talked to
00:24Chef Alex Kesev, one of the great figures in the region's gastronomy.
00:30Because to understand a region, sometimes you also have to sit down at the table.
00:41You go to a fruit stand and you say, "Give me a 'matrimonio' (marriage)" and they give you a piece of corn bun.
00:46and a piece
00:46of coastal cheese. Like I said, just a bite there to kill the hunger, literally. And it became immortalized.
00:51a lot at a fruit shop near the Church of the Immaculate Conception, where Carlos Vives used to arrive,
00:56When Carlos Vives was just starting out, but she was Carlos Vives, she would arrive and ask for marriage.
01:00My cooking draws a lot from that, from everyday life. My cooking isn't going away because
01:05far away, because in everyday life there are also the discourses that exist in the
01:09mountain, in the countryside. My cooking feeds off that, on what I see as I walk and on what
01:14that it brings to mind. So this marriage is the bun and the corn on the cob, but in the form of
01:18mille-feuille, very thin, breaded, cut diagonally like this, with some prawns in
01:24Tamarind sauce. It's like something as cool and popular as marriage, and something that
01:31It's rich and, let's say, somewhat associated with refinement, in the sense that not all the
01:36Some days we eat prawns because it's more expensive, for example, but they're just taking up space.
01:43Cooking can also be a way to tell who we are, and Alex Keseb has been doing it for over 20 years.
01:49doing it from the kitchen. For him, Colombian cuisine tastes like corn. Through Palo de Mango,
01:57His restaurant in Barranquilla has transformed the flavors, ingredients, and traditions of the Caribbean.
02:02Colombian cuisine that looks to the land and its roots. A perspective that translates into dishes
02:09such as the marriage with prawns, the sweet pork rinds and the famous Quilla paella.
02:16Palomango expresses what the journey has been like, the presence of what the cuisine is.
02:21that Caribbean one, enriched by many presences, enriched by the Afro, the indigenous, the
02:27Spanish, from Arabic origins, but also enriched over time, with what is learned and
02:31Palomango embodies that: flavors that have identity, that define a region, but that also
02:37They look to the world. A country's cuisine represents a bit of all that; it represents something personal.
02:47individual, intimate, collective, which also undeniably represent, represent regions and
02:54It also reflects the country and its diversity. So, it's like talking about myself, that is,
03:01It's like saying, Alex, who are you? Show me a little bit of yourself, tell me about your personality, your
03:12joys, your sorrows, everything.
03:16Alex has also taken this conversation to the page. With Dumio, his cookbook and literature collection, he brings together...
03:22Flavors, knowledge, and stories that run through Colombian cuisine. A look at the ingredients, the
03:28traditions and cooking methods that are part of our gastronomic identity.
03:33Where I grew up in Sucre, when we were all broke and everyone started arriving on the block,
03:40that we were in the street, on some corner or in some house, people were talking about it, it was formed
03:46The communal meal was when everyone gathered there. A group would arrive and at the communal meal...
03:50There was always something to eat; if it was at someone's house, there was something to drink and something to eat. There are 20 dishes.
03:57completely different stories from each other and with completely human situations
04:03different. So, from a very familiar, beautiful, everyday story, to a story,
04:09Let's say, human, and where it also shows a little bit what food means in that environment
04:15And it's with the homeless, for example. The book's main story is that we feed ourselves
04:20It is a common denominator that is mandatory in all living beings and in our species.
04:27And that's what truly makes us equal. We belong to the same species, but what makes us equal is...
04:33We cannot do without food. So, really, that gives us important meaning.
04:39and fundamental.
04:41And in the end, we all sat at the same table. But what does the Caribbean taste like to you?
04:47What does Colombia taste like?
04:57That?
04:57What does Colombia taste like?
04:58What does Colombia taste like?
04:59Thank you!
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