Leonor Espinosa

Leonor Espinosa, the World’s Best Female Chef 2022 according to World’s 50 Best Restaurants, is coming to Croatia again, as the guest of honour of the Festival Taste the Mediterranean 2023. This time she will cook  and, together with her team, will prepare an exclusive gala dinner on the occasion of the Colombian day. The unique culinary experience will take place on Thursday 5th October at the Heritage Hotel Martinis Marchi, in Maslinica, on the island of Šolta.

After being the keynote speaker at the Conference Redefining Success in Zagreb last year – organized by the association Mediterranean Women Chefs – the chef returns to Croatia to present her culinary skills. However, in addition to cooking, in Split she will also present her non-profit foundation FunLeo, which in Colombia promotes the agricultural development of rural and ethnic communities in a healthy and environmentally friendly way, as well as the preservation of numerous culinary traditions.

“Gastronomy is the driver of economic and social development, and cooking is a tool for transformation”, believes Leonor Espinosa, a great gastronomic innovator and owner of the restaurant Leo in Bogota, who established the foundation in 2008 together with her daughter Laura Hernandez Espinosa, a famous sommelier.

Chef Espinosa, who graduated painting at the Cartagena Fine Arts School, applies the same principle in gastronomic expression as she had in artistic expression. In her restaurant she introduces guests to the traditional Colombian cuisine, which she interprets in her own way. Her work, research, observation and experimentation have been recognized on a global level.

The attendees of the exclusive gala dinner in the magnificent atmosphere of the Heritage Hotel Martinis Marchi will have the opportunity to taste her cuisine in a Mediterranean entourage.