Traditional dishes and family recipes to pay tribute to the roots, the new proposal of the El Mangle restaurant, of the Radisson hotel

The best recipes in the world are those that are prepared around the family kitchen. Those dishes that were learned at home and that are often learned from generation to generation. Those that with the mere fact of preparing them dust off the memory of a loved one or a moment that is recorded through a taste, a smell, a shared dish. That same experience is what the Guayaquilian proposes Xavier Estevez, executive chef of Radisson Hotel, with the new letter El Mangrove restaurant.

“We want to exploit that name of our restaurant El Mangle and that everything is united, that everything is linked and that each dish is linked to the name. We had a very marked Peruvian influence, beautiful and elegant dishes, but my current proposal is to change those flavors and bring typical flavors, flavors of our own and of our city, that take us to Guayaquil and the Coast, always respecting the traditional ones presented in an innovative way” , mentions Estévez, with twelve years of experience in the gastronomic branch.

In this new stage of the El Mangle restaurant, local ingredients such as crab regain prominence. The idea, says Estévez, is to allow the diner or guest to assemble the dish according to their preferences. “That was one of the changes in the menu, we left the dishes prepared and we give many protein options to the client, so that he can choose two side dishes to his liking, we have fourteen varieties”, he says.

Estévez, who was also a professor at the School of Chefs, mentions that among the garnishes that have been prepared for the new menu are green plantain gnocchi, creamy rice dishes and more seafood options. “Now we have more preparations with octopus, squid, fish and shrimp in different textures,” he points out.

Reinvent recipes

The salchiparrillera is a sausage that combines all the flavors of a barbecue, details the chef. “It combines roast beef, with roast chicken, roast sausage, served with two varieties of potatoes, French and traditional ones that are baked and then fried, bathed in cheese sauce and chimichurri,” he explains.

The creamy ones are another of the present alternatives. They have creamy lentils or beans (a kind of Moor), with creamy bases of cheese and white sauce.

With a menu of approximately 40 dishes, including hot and cold starters, sandwiches, salads, soups, Estévez highlights three dishes that are the restaurant’s new flagship. poached caesar salad (variation with romaine lettuce, Caesar dressing with capers, encapsulated in a cheese bubble). “All these changes are so that people feel them as an experience at the table, that they be surprised, it is a challenge to manage to change the dishes and that the diner can have fun watching what he eats”; he adds.

Another of the dishes he mentions is the donburi Salad, a tribute to his father Jaime, who supported him to specialize in gastronomy. “Donburi is a Japanese dish that is served in a bowl and our salad is also served in a bowl, with very typical ingredients that my dad liked like quinoa, avocado, seafood, it was like capturing that little dish and giving it that identity alluding to my dad,” he says.

Estévez, 39, shares in addition to his creative skills (he is also a graphic designer) part of his family history in the recipes. Lola’s stew is a tribute to his maternal grandmother. “This is a very simple dish, not often seen in hotels, but it is a beef parlor stew. I learned how to eat this from her, my mom used to prepare it but it was her, my grandmother, who taught her how to do it. The idea of ​​the letter nowadays is that it be very familiar”, she emphasizes.

His relationship with the kitchen is the example he received from his father, who cooked at home. “My dad was the one who taught my mom to cook, in fact my mom never had that denial to me learning to cook. I come to the kitchen by chance of life, after a love break. My dad, in order not to see me badly, decided to give me what he had always liked, which was to study gastronomy, so that I would forget the moment I was going through. He paid for my studies, since then I have not stopped cooking. I am a graphic designer by profession, a graduate in fact, but since I came to the kitchen everything changed, it was truly true love, in which my previous profession was left aside, which I complemented with my dishes and their presentations, but always remembering the unconditional support from my parents. (YO)