If you're in South America, go to La Paz and eat at Gustu. If you're not in South America, go to La Paz and eat at Gustu. Owned by Claus Meyer (the other founder of Noma you probably haven't heard of) this restaurant showcases Bolivian produce and cooking in an exciting, adventurous, and exemplary fashion. Whilst on the hunt for a new country with great produce to open a restaurant after Noma became such a success, the story goes that Claus stopped at Bolivia first, and needed to look no further. Bolivia is definitely a bit of a secret on the gastronomic circuit, with Argentina and Peru dominating the discourse in South America. However Gustu very much wants to, and definitely is, changing that. On arrival at the restaurant in a more affluent area of La Paz, we were rather unexpectedly led to the chef's table in the kitchen. The manager, Bertil from Copenhagen, ensured that the level of service is impeccable from the start. We were set for the full tasting menu with alcohol pairing (note, not simply wine pairing). Everything in the restaurant is from Bolivia, including the staff (but excluding Bertil), so we assumed alcohol pairing was due to the lack of Bolivian wine production. We were wrong. Bolivia has a thriving wine community, albeit too small in scale for international export. Rather like at Noma, the first number of small dishes come out very fast. Bertil personally explained every dish and the story that accompanied the ingredients. A fresh local San Javier cheese canapé was followed by cured trout from Lake Titcaca wrapped in a local vegetable that was described as the love affair between a cucumber and a green pepper. Then a nutty anticucho morsel, a play on a common late night street snack, which was a roast potato stuffed with peanuts. Then as if to satisfy the desire to eat real anticucho, a small but utterly delicious rabbit heart was served with a simple twist of local citrus fruit, a part of the rabbit usually destined to be thrown away. Spring onion three ways, then a slither of smoked Amazonian catfish which tasted like bacon. One of the most interesting dishes of the evening was up next. Alligator ceviche with cured watermelon rind and strawberry. This dish was aimed at sustainability as it apparently had only 0.5% waste. Interestingly, although the alligator is endangered in the wild, the restaurant pays the farmers double what they would normally get in a bid to encourage them to hunt less thereby saving the species from extinction. At some point in the evening we surely had to be served llama, and sure enough llama tartare with unripe Bolivian peaches, and an extremely nice peach and custard flavoured Bolivian white wine accompanied it. To show off his ability as a sommelier and mixologist, Bertil then topped up our glass with the same wine, but added beetroot juice, producing something tasting and looking like a red wine. The emphasis at Gustu is not just on Bolivian produce but also on local produce, which you might imagine is hard to find in a big polluted city like La Paz. However they have found an excellent tomato producer within sight of the restaurant who now produces just for them. A plate of superbly cooked and locally sourced beef, then pork, followed with more excellent wine. As if to prove the simplicity of wine knowledge in Bolivia, one producer still calls his red wine 'Bourganaisy', a misunderstanding from when the Burgundy grape was brought to South America a few hundred years ago. A breakfast cereal tasting, congee-like savoury porridge preceded the desserts, which started with a milk whey sorbet with smoked egg yolk and black limes dried on the restaurant roof. Then coffee mousse with brazil nut ice cream and burned meringue was accompanied by a dark local stout brewed in La Paz.
The amazing experience was concluded with a tour of the kitchens and various other spaces the restaurant now occupies. As with many recent top restaurants, the kitchens are as much a laboratory and research centre as they are a kitchen. The restaurant is also involved in a number of positive initiatives in La Paz, including an award for local stalls or restaurants which attain an extremely high level of hygiene (such as the delicious choripan stall we ate at in Mercado Lanza). Many thanks to the Gustu team for a really great and informative night, and congratulations on some of the best food we have eaten on our trip. 6/9/2022 02:32:05
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AuthorsRob & Charlie's travelling adventures on their long journey back to London after living in Hong Kong. Four continents, twelve countries, lots of experiences. Archives
July 2017
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