RODRIGO PACHECO THE PIONEER

AT HIS ECUADORIAN RESTAURANTS, CHEF RODRIGO PACHECO USES NATIVE INGREDIENTS GROWN IN REWILDED FORESTS OR SOURCED FROM INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY. 

- KATHERINE GALLARDO

“Gastronomy or conservation working alone doesn’t make sense any more. But these two working together: this is the way.” So says Rodrigo Pacheco, who, over the past decade, working with his wife and business partner, Dayra Reyes, has transformed several deteriorated parcels of land on the rural coast of Ecuador’s Manabí province into thriving habitats for wildlife and produce such as cocoa, soursop and yucca. These BCBs (Bosques Comestibles Biodiversos, which translates as ‘biodiverse, edible forests’) supply their 10-year-old restaurant, Bocavaldivia, and its neighbouring eco-hotel, Tanusas, with around 150 species of fruit, vegetable and herb.

At the 12-seat, open-air restaurant, Pacheco serves his creations on sustainably sourced tableware. Either carved from wood and seeds or made by the chef himself from clay dug on site, the bowls and spoons pay homage to pre-Hispanic traditions. And in celebration of Ecuador’s vast biodiversity, all ingredients are native. Desserts include melted cocoa with oatmeal crisps, presented in halved cocoa shells and eaten with spoons carved from the hard-shell fruit of a calabash tree.

The restaurant was the catalyst for a bioeconomy project that connects gastronomy and conservation with agriculture, education, science, tourism and local Indigenous communities such as the Chola-Montuvia, from which Pacheco sources seafood. His approach to conservation is productive and collaborative, not just to preserve. As such, Indigenous communities are consulted for their knowledge, land is often rewilded and ecosystems regenerated for food production, education and scientific research.