Roots, Rhythm & Recipes: Exploring Cali's Food Heritage

In this episode, we take you to Cali, Colombia, a vibrant city filled with flavour, tradition, and culinary stories waiting to be discovered. We’re joined by Catalina García, Executive Director of the Cali Valle Bureau, who shares about the multicultural heritage that shapes the city's culinary identity and highlights how Cali promotes and protects the incredible biodiversity that makes this region so attractive.

Jessica Ferey: 
Today we take you to Cali, Colombia, a vibrant city filled with flavour, tradition, and culinary stories waiting to be discovered. In this episode, we have Catalina Garcia, the Executive Director of the Cali Valle Bureau, at the table with us. She will share about the multicultural heritage that shapes the city's culinary identity and highlight how Cali promotes and protects the incredible biodiversity that makes this region so attractive.

Catalina Garcia : 
Hello, my name is Catalina Garcia, and I am the director of the Cali Valle Bureau, the official organization in charge of promoting Cali and Valle del Cauca region as a destination for tourism, events and cultural exchange. In my role, I work at the intersection of travel, culture and economic development and food has become a powerful tool in how we connect people to our identity. So for us gastronomy is not only a passion, it's one of the most authentic ways that we tell the story of who we are in Valle del Cauca.

I've been living here my whole life. Cali, it is located in the southwestern of Colombia. It is nestled like between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. That's why we are called the capital of the Pacific here in Colombia. Our city, it is the third largest city in the country with around 2.3 million inhabitants. Cali is globally recognized as the capital of salsa also. It's not just a dance. Salsa is in our DNA. It's a way of life for Cali and for the people here in Cali. So if you visit Cali, you must experience the energy of a live salsa club, walk through the historic San Antonio neighbourhood and enjoy the stunning views from "Cristo Rey". And the sunsets here in Cali are really, really gorgeous. It is amazing to live here in Cali.

Our gastronomy brings together all the traditions of the Pacific Coast. It reflects our biodiversity, our mix of culture, and our strong Afro-Colombian and indigenous and Spanish influence. Here in Cali, we have this, I don't know, it's like a fruit It's called "Chontaduro". It's a fruit that is very typical from the Pacific Coast. When we give "Chontaduro" to the tourists, they do not like "Chontaduro". "Chontaduro" it has a very bright colour. It's like an orange, but also it's like a potato, but not a potato. It's like the texture. So it's very, when you get it to your mouth, it's very dry. So that's why the flavour is not that easy for people like to like it. So when people from outside from Cali come and taste "Chontaduro", they do not like it. But here in Cali, we love it. But it's because we are eating "Chontaduro" since we were born. You can find it in the market, you can find it on the streets. You can find "Chontaduro" in Cali in every little corner that we have. I have been eating "Chontaduro" since I was a child. I love it. I can eat "Chontaduro" all day long. 
Here in Valle del Cauca, we have a lot of coffee production. We are part of coffee cultural landscape, because we have the perfect weather conditions because of the mountains where we grow the coffee. We have very good and very nice coffee shops, so that's why coffee is very very important in our region also.

Cali is a city shaped by a rich multicultural heritage where indigenous Spanish and African cultures converge. It's different from other parts in Colombia, because in here we have the three influences from the Afro, from the indigenous and from the Spanish influence. So some of our iconic local ingredients includes "lulo", the plantain, all our Pacific fish and our herbs like "cimarron" and "hierba buena". These flavours are not just delicious, they carry all the history and the memory of this territory. So we have like the landscapes that were perfect for the sugarcane plantations. So we have lot of crops of sugarcane here in Valle del Cauca since the time of the Spanish colonization. We are very close to the Pacific coast, so all the boats came through Buenaventura, that is only two hours away from Cali. So all the slaves from Africa came through the port of Buenaventura and they came to work in all these sugarcane plantations. And also in Valle del Cauca, we have some of the most important groups of indigenous. So we have all these Afro community that were coming to help in the agriculture; then we have these indigenous groups that were settled here in Valle del Cauca, and we have these Spanish colonizers that were leading the sugarcane plantations that we have here in this region. So that's why we have these three mixtures of heritage from the Afro, from the indigenous and from the Spanish colonization.

The African cultural legacy in particular is foundational to our identity and pulses through our music, our rituals, our gastronomy and even our way of relating with the world. So for example, our salsa music and dance will not exist as we know them without the rhythms, the movements and the instruments that we have from the African tradition. So we have like this amazing festival called the Petronio Alvarez. It's a music festival from the Pacific. and it's one of the Latin America's most important Afro descendants festivals. We have a lot of special dishes from the Afro like the "encocado de pescado" that is fish in coconut sauce, or we have this " Aborrajados
de platano", and all these ingredients like coconut, smoked fish, these all like carry centuries of culinary wisdom from the Afro-Pacific communities.

Right now, we are building this amazing Afro tour, taking people to Buenaventura that is in the Pacific Coast, having this amazing gastronomy tour. We have called this gastronomy tour "Finding Encanto." We made it with an African chef that came here to Cali and Buenaventura, and we built a gastronomy route so that people could taste these unique flavours we have here in Cali and Valle del Cauca. So that's the way we are promoting our Afro heritage. For me in my daily work, this Afro cultural DNA we have, it's like the most important thing for us to promote Cali and Valle del Cauca as a tourism destination because that's what makes us unique, you know. So, when I go to other countries to promote Cali and Valle del Cauca, my main speech is based on my Afro cultural things. So, my dancing, my gastronomy, the fashion, you know how we dress, how we put our hair, everything is so influenced by the Afro community and the Afro heritage. That for me is like the most important thing to promote to get the people to know Cali and Valle del Cauca, because this unique thing we have with the Afro culture.

Jessica:
In addition to culinary and cultural heritage, Cali is also focused on protecting and promoting its biodiversity. Let's hear more about how Cali is advancing on this important topic.

Catalina:
In Cali, one of our main strengths is our biodiversity. Here in our city, you will find biodiversity everywhere. Cali is a city that is surrounded by seven rivers. We have one of the largest mountain ranges in Colombia, that is called "the Farallones." If you come to Cali, you are going to see a lot of nature. You are going to see a very tropical city, because we are always in summer, we have a beautiful weather with a lot of flowers, a lot of birds.  We have more than 900 species of birds here in Valle del Cauca. So, you're going to see a very diverse city, very green and full of colour and light. So that's why biodiversity, you can sense it here, you can live it.

One "Caleño" that goes for a 10-minute walk from, I don't know, their home to the public transportation can see more bird species than a Canadian going through all Canada. So just in a 10-minute walk, you're going to see a lot of bird species from Latin America. So, it's something really great because you are going to walk through Cali, you are going to hear our birds singing. And we have more than 300 different kinds of fruits. So, you can taste a different fruit every single day of the year. So that's the way we live, and we taste biodiversity here in Cali.

In October of 2024, Cali was the host of the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP16. This was very historic for us. It marked the first time this global event was held in Colombia and positioned Cali as a global voice in the conversation of nature, sustainability and the future of our planet. So, for us, it was more than a conference because it was a platform to showcase Cali's unique ecological footprint, our cultural richness, you know, so COP16 allowed the world to see Cali not just as a city of music and dance but also as a guardian of biodiversity. Because that's what our local communities, our Afro communities and our indigenous communities represent. They are the guardians of the biodiversity of the Pacific coast here in Colombia.

Organizing such an event as the COP16, it was very difficult, I can say, but we made a strategic decision to design the COP16 not only as a political or technical event, but as a cultural and sensorial experience. For us at the Bureau, it was very, very important that all these international delegations that were going to come to Cali and Valle del Cauca could live the best version of Cali and Valle del Cauca. First of all, for the COP16, the food experience was like a key pillar. We worked with the local chefs and producers to highlight biodiverse ingredients, ancestral recipes, because we have a lot of ancestral gastronomy here in Cali and Valle del Cauca, and the sustainable culinary practice that we also have. So, it was a lot of work, but it made us, public sector, the private sector, we were like mobilized to work together to get the best event for the city and for these 180 delegates, cities delegates that were going to come to Cali.

The first meeting that we have with the UN about the hosting the COP16, they told us that we were expecting like 7,000 people. But we made such good noise about Cali and the biodiversity in Cali, and the cultural things that the people were going to find, that the final number was 23,000 people visiting Cali for the COP16. It was a great challenge, but you know now we did that, so we can do anything from now on.

Maybe my advice for other cities that want to host this kind of event is, first of all, find out and be very proud of what makes you unique and the DNA you have as a city and promote that. You know, for me as the director of the Cali Valle Bureau, that is the most important thing. Always, always, always promoting my cultural identity. And then embrace it and make it embrace it to your local chain, you know, from the airport to the taxi drivers to our students in the universities and on the schools, every single people here in Cali knew that we were going to host the COP16. And we were all talking about the same things and having the same information so that we have like a unified message about what is Cali and what you will find in Cali. So, I think that was very, very important for Cali because we were working together for the first time. It changes also our perception as "Caleños," not only from the outside, but also in the inside. So right now, after COP16, people were so driven about the city, about our gastronomy, our biodiversity, that it changed the narrative of the city. So, for us in tourism, it changes everything because people now know where is Cali and they know us because of the good and the positive things that we represent. So, it really helped us to promote the city in a different way.

Tourism has been growing in the city since COP16. Now Cali, it's becoming the host of more events. They're asking more for us, and they're taking their chances to come here and to host big events here in the city.

Jessica:
As more visitors, events and international attention arrive in Cali, the city now faces the important challenge of growing sustainably. The city is taking this very seriously by implementing specific strategies to address this.

Catalina:
We do think about how we find the right balance between promoting the city and making more people to come to Cali and Valle del Cauca and how we protect our biodiversity. But I think like the most important thing is not the amount of people that are going to come to Cali. It's the kind of people that we're going to bring to Cali and Valle del Cauca. So, we are bringing more events, but these events are for people that are very conscious about biodiversity, sustainability, you know, and how to preserve local communities. We are not seeking more numbers of tourists coming. We are seeking for more conscious tourists to come to Cali and Valle del Cauca. So, I think that's like the difference because we're bringing more events, not with the same amount of people that were in COP16, so much smaller, you know, but we're bringing events that represent something that are going to help us to protect and to preserve our local cultural heritage.

Before COP16, we didn't give our biodiversity the importance that it must have. After COP16, we are more aware that it's the most important thing for us here in Cali and Valle del Cauca. So, we need to preserve the biodiversity. That's where we take our food, that's where we take our cultural heritage, that's what makes us what we are and that's what makes us different from the others here in Colombia.

Food has the superpower to travel through generations of our local gastronomy heritage.

Thank you very much, Food Capitals by Délice, for this moment of speaking about Cali. And I'm inviting you all to come to Cali and Valle del Cauca so you will find the Cali spirit, you know, refreshing, full of flavour and ready to dance.