It is not his first visit to Ecuador, in fact he has come twice in the last seven years. This is Alan Espinoza, an expert Mexican chocolatier. This time he was in Quito, previously in Ambato and, among so many visits, he says that our country is like his second home.
He began his gastronomy career in 2006, when he entered the professional plan of the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana, in Mexico City. It was during this stage that she had her first contact with chocolate. “I remember watching two chefs make spectacular sculptures and I knew immediately that this would be my specialty; the characteristics of chocolate, with which you can do practically anything in the kitchen, convinced me that it would be my path”.
The chocolate industry is in constant development. In this sense, Alan works at the Chocolate Academy Mexico, an innovation center for the Belgian-Swiss manufacturer Barry Callebaut, whose Sicao brand was launched in Ecuador and will be distributed by Levapan. He offers training to other pastry chefs and has offered classes in and outside of his native Mexico.
At the end of his studies, he worked as a chocolatier in the then already renowned Da Silva bakeries (Mexico), which gave him the perspective of the world of baking and a new approach: cocoa could be mixed with flour.
In addition to possessing technical knowledge, he has developed an interesting academic platform that makes him one of the few master chocolatiers in Mexico. “At Barry Callebaut, a company with more than 175 years of experience, we are very concerned about innovation in the chocolate industry. 30% of our resources are dedicated to constant innovation. It is a 100% experimental laboratory. This time we came with a portfolio of nine products, including sugar-free chocolates, ruby (rosé)”.
Knowing the new trends in chocolate, bakery and pastry was the central purpose of his most recent visit to our country. “Deciding which new flavor to incorporate into chocolate is our day-to-day in our laboratory. How is that decided? Well, if we are in Ecuador, for example, we have to understand the tastes of the Ecuadorian and the locally rooted cultural part with the intention that, if I am going to add a product, it is one that is recognized in Ecuador. It is when you must decide what I am going to do to add and surprise the client. In the end we end up rescuing ingredients from other regions, as in the case of Ecuador, which has the Amazon, where I hear about some ingredients and say let’s work with them because I’m almost sure they’re not that common. So, for the Ecuadorian, you create an experience with the same culture, but with a product that they don’t consume on a daily basis. It is a sensory experience where you know that you must exploit all the senses and find what product to add”.
Mexico has renowned centers where chefs can specialize in chocolate. “In the case of the Chocolate Academy we have 26 training centers around the world. There is one in Mexico that serves the Latin American part and others in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Dubai, Singapore, Japan, China, Russia, Spain, South Africa, Turkey, Belgrade. “It is better if we have training that is much more attached to what our reality really is in ingredients, in the way of eating, the way of working with the utensils and equipment that we have around us. For me it is much more accurate to understand it this way: it is true that it is important to influence ourselves and that for this is the inspiration that we can find outside our countries, but once we return we need to have local raw materials. In other words, the training has to be very attached to what you can do in your country”.
The environmental impact is an increasingly important aspect for the chocolate consumer. What is being done to guarantee the traceability (certificates that certify the sustainable origin of cocoa) of chocolate? Alan replies that it is very important that Ecuador is a point of cocoa production. There is historical roots of cocoa, but there is also an interesting production from this country to the world. Near Guayaquil (in Durán) we have Taycán (of Barry Callebaut), a cocoa raw materials plant. There, a sustainability program is implemented where we are based on three pillars that revolve around what is happening in the environment: agricultural practices that, in the case of Ecuador, have excess capacity regarding this; ensure no deforestation, have a positive impact in terms of carbon emissions; training and economic support for cocoa-producing communities and, thirdly, our contribution, through average environmental practices to really ensure that there will be chocolate for many more years”.
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.
