Gone are the days when Guayaquil native Wilson Velasco del Pozo participated as an amateur cook in one of the most important international gastronomic competitions. His time in those kitchens left him with pleasant memories.
With the same smile, pompadour and charisma, shown in the third season of Master Chef Ecuadorreceived us at his restaurant together with his partner, Diego Ronquillo Albuja, one day before the reopening, which will be this Friday, August 12, at 7:00 p.m.
“Siwichi is an entrepreneurship that started before the pandemic. It started as a food trucks (food truck); then I wanted to take him to a restaurant. In its beginnings it had a very good reception. I learned to cook Peruvian food because I worked for a Peruvian company in Guayaquil, not as a cook, but as a waiter.. I never studied gastronomy; in fact, that is one of the requirements that are demanded to be able to participate in MasterChef. In that company I began to practice until one day I said to myself: ‘I’m going to start a business’, with money I had saved. Obviously afraid, because he had never owned a restaurant. I made the food trucks along with my dad. We start with the restaurant. Those trucks were kept, but the pandemic came and everything was screwed up. We closed Siwichi, and from there we went on to sell all the kitchen implements, the furniture. I remember that I was about to sell my ceviche freezer, which cost me $2,500; but, due to the need for money and to be able to survive, I even asked for $400 for him. I needed money to be able to support myself in times of pandemic,” recalls Wilson.
But since everything in life is up and down, Wilson was presented with the opportunity to be part of MasterChef. “In that money crisis and before entering the contest, he had created a hamburger brand. I always liked the kitchen, and my thing is not to fall asleep. But this business ended when I entered to compete. Came to MasterChef already with Siwichi created”.
The word siwichi means ‘fresh fish’ in QuechuaWilson says. “The name, like the good guy I am, had to be one that encompasses both cultures, the Peruvian and the Ecuadorian. It also means ‘ceviche’. That’s how the name was born.”
The former cooking contest participant says he needed money to get Siwichi off the ground. “I was looking for an investor. Thanks god, MasterChef gave me the title of ‘the king of sauces’. That’s how I was able to launch another venture: Nino’s Sauce. That name is a game between the king of salsa (due to the pronunciation of willow), Sauces: I am from Sauces. It was at a barbecue that a friend told me to invest in Siwichi; this was a month ago, and we both decided to open the restaurant. We got the premises and, from the first moment, to work so that Siwichi grows again, to go out!”.
People who visit the restaurant will also be able to enjoy the famous sauces that convinced judges Carolina Sánchez, Irene González and Jorge Rausch. “It was always my dream to enter MasterChef. During my stay that season, I prepared some Siwichi dishes, such as lomo saltado, tacu tacu, ceviche, fettuccine a la huancaína with lomo saltado (a reason for a fight between Wilson and Kléver Solís in one of the episodes of the program), the loin with pepper. These prepared dishes had base sauces and are the ones I presented on the show. One of them is the seafood sauce that has coconut and peanuts, which I created in the contest. Another dish is panko fish fillet on this sauce. Why did I use peanut and coconut? Because it is part of the idea of Siwichi, that is, to combine Peruvian and Ecuadorian flavors: leche de tigre, papa a la huancaína… Everyone asked me the reason for those Peruvian dishes: it’s because I had Siwichi in mind. I was already focusing on the restaurant. Now you can try these and other dishes”, says Wilson excited.
Siwichi’s menu consists of twelve to fifteen dishes. “I remember winning the pin challenge. MasterChef when I prepared my famous Peruvian-style beef heart anticucho. It will also be on the letter. That is why I want the diners to be the judges of my food now”.
After ‘MasterChef’
The “drawer question” could not be left out: what about María Laura Sotomayor, with whom Wilson had a relationship during their participation in MasterChef? “Actually we see each other with all the boys. I have invited some of them to the inauguration of Siwichi, such as Kléver, David, César, Kerly. With María Laura, everything is fine, everything is calm. Of course, she took on her side and I on mine. We have a beautiful friendship between all of us”, she says.
In other words, the romance didn’t spill over after the show? “No, no, everything was there, but we continue to see each other as friends; we wanted to see what would happen, but everyone decided to do their own thing on his side, ”says Wilson.
Velasco also comments on the pressure that the contestants feel in this type of program: “The viewer doesn’t see everything that really happens there. I mean, it’s all real, but the issue of pressure, adrenaline make your emotional state change. For a while I could be a clown, but a moment passed and I was pissed off. The competition was very tense; To some extent, it bothered me. But hey, I’m not complaining about the program; On the contrary, it is spectacular. The issue rather is that it was a healthy competition in which, if you had to take someone out, you did it. Everyone wanted to take the top prize.”
To this must be added the pressure of the judges, such as that of Jorge Rausch, who at the time of qualifying either highlighted a dish or tore it to pieces. “He gave me the title of ‘king of sauces’, but that way he also gave me a hard time, he brought me down; at times, he wanted me to leave the competition. Sometimes the dishes didn’t come out the way I wanted; you were blocked, you don’t know what to do. I even got to cook ugly, now I see those chapters and I say to myself: ‘What a joke I had cooked!’ Cooking in 30 minutes with certain ingredients is very difficult, you must have an arsenal of recipes in your head so that you can have a dish that can please the judges.”
In one of the chapters, when the romance between Wilson and María Laura was already known, he did not save her from cooking and preferred to save César Sahona. In networks, viewers told him until scoundrel. “You have to speak the truth. I remember that one day César told me, crying on a Sunday, that he was afraid to leave. María Laura, César, David (Barzallo) and I were together. There they told me to save Cesar. Yes, it’s true, I forgot about María Laura’s sciatica problem, but until minutes before entering the kitchens we knew that she was going to save César, including María Laura. She knew, but she made her hurt woman drama out of her when she said: ‘What do you expect from a man who does that to you…’. I followed what we planned; They were just strategies. The rest of the competitors and the production believed it was a joke, but María Laura did know. But I was like the bad guy”.
The general public can go to the reopening (7:00 p.m.) of Siwichi, but it will attend from 6:00 p.m. this Friday, August 12. During normal hours it will open Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 08:00 to 23:00, and from Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 22:30 in the cdla. Guayacanes, III stage, av. José Luis Tamayo and Manuel de Jesús Real Murillo (in front of El Progreso grills, six blocks from the Narcisa de Jesús highway).
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
