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Back in 2014, diners booking a table at Nuema were often let down to find that salmon wasn’t on the menu, and even confused that there wasn’t a menu of which to speak. Working with strictly Ecuadorian ingredients, native where possible, was the concept behind the Quito-based restaurant, a little-used philosophy in the South American country for the time. After passionately sticking to the mantra for almost a decade, Nuema’s co-owner Pía Salazar was rewarded with the World’s Best Pastry Chef prize at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants this year, a rapid follow-up to the regional prize she received in November 2022 from Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants. This individual recognition proved to be an epic double win for Ecuador, given that Nuema also became the first Ecuadorian establishment to ever rank in the prestigious global list.
A mother of three, and married to fellow chef Alejandro Chamorro, Salazar was born in Cuenca, a region she says is climatically cold, “but architecturally and gastronomically wonderful”. Her close-knit family have always got together, especially in February during the carnival period, her grandmother preparing sweets; Salazar picked up her love for desserts from her. She says: “At family gatherings, we kids would peel peaches and figs to make brevas (jams) with our grannies and aunties. My family has always loved to cook together.”
One of Salazar’s first foodie memories is what she calls embracive food: “My grandma’s cooking. It’s very much a part of me and carries a lot of nostalgia. I yearn for her tender pea stew (locro), and when she’d send out us kids to pick them, or a tasty mote (peeled corn dish) with salt and pork. These dishes truly fill me with memories and I’d love to serve them at my dining table again; but that one dish that I’d love to have again is my grandma’s because she was always there with her arms wide open to give us the very best of her, and she shared her warmth, her love, via her food.”
White seaweed, black garlic, yeast
Striking a balance
While the first dessert Salazar ever made was a moist chocolate cake for her dad – “it never came out that well in the early days!” she admits – attending culinary school meant she quickly entered the world of confection. But it was her first job, working for a Swiss chef, that was a baptism of fire for the young Ecuadorian chef.
“The Swiss are very good at making desserts, but as I preferred herbs and other aromas rather than sweets, I had to try very hard to balance out flavours from day one, so that desserts weren’t oversweet and that diners would finish them. That was one of the most complex jobs I ever had,” she says.
Her chosen path also led her to Astrid & Gastón in Quito, another excellent training ground, under the watchful eyes of German pastry chef Astrid Gutsche and her Peruvian chef husband Gastón Acurio.
“That’s where I really started to understand what was going on, in terms of aesthetics and flavours. Every time I had to create a new dessert it was like passing another grade exam they had set me! The truth is, both Astrid and Gastón were very important for me and they left a mark on my career.”
The Peruvian restaurant also defined her personal life. When Alejandro undertook work experience there, Salazar had already worked there for three years; she was his boss. Today they have three children – Nuria, Emilio and Martín; Nuema is named after all three.
After working for Acurio’s gastro-empire, opening an array of restaurants in Ecuador, the time came for the pair to fly the nest and branch out on their own. “Our objective at Nuema was to show Ecuador’s incredible diversity and enormous pantry,” she says, “at a time when Ecuadorian diners were just starting to value our country’s food and were proud of what we were doing.
“After undertaking various launches for Acurio, we felt it was time to move on and start our own project. One day, we made that decision, and I said to Alejandro, ‘Hey, let’s get to work’. We did everything ourselves, decorating the space and making all the furniture.” Then there was the challenge of the diners. “They were basically used to ordering salmon from menus, but little by little they started to understand us,” she says.
To date, Nuema has operated out of three locations, the family-run business in its current location on Bello Horizonte street since 2022, the dishes prepared in the open-plan kitchen and cocktails prepared in the first-floor bar emoting diners and drinkers with their strictly Ecuadorian pantry philosophy. On occasion, usually weekends, you might see Salazar’s 12-year-old son Emilio prepping with the chefs, though he loves to cook (but not books) so much, he’s been known to skip class.
“I’m very proud of him,” Salazar says, “but school has to come first! I tell the chefs not to let him in. But, of course, our kids have seen all this from a very young age; they were born into it. The kitchen was their first home, they were raised in a restaurant, so it’s a natural instinct. While Martín is studying for a sound engineering degree, he loves to cook with Emilio when he comes back home for holidays.”
'Andes latitude'
Leading in LatAm
As one of South America’s leading female protagonists in gastronomy, earlier this year Salazar hosted a stellar cast of colleagues from around the continent, including Pía León of Kjolle and Central, Janaina Rueda of A Casa do Porco, Marsia Taha of Gustu and Leo Espinosa of Leo Restaurante among others. Besides sharing three very different sides to the little-known country in capital city Quito, Guayaquil and the Galápagos Islands, including an Andean immersion and attending a womb appreciation ceremony guided by a female shaman, as well as a visit to Hacienda Victoria cacao plantation, there was also an academic angle when the chefs and accompanying journalists from the region, including this writer, were invited to participate in talks at San Francisco de Quito University.
“We want the next generation to be proud of Ecuador’s gastronomy, and believe that we have to show ourselves and our pride to the world,” she says. “This 50 Best prize isn’t just for me, it’s for the whole team, and while it brings a lot of joy at the same time, it means further commitment, working harder, continuing to research, and pushing ourselves even harder as Nuema, not just as a team but as a united country.”
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