In Spain there are 123,736 Ecuadorian residents. But if we add those who already have dual nationality, the figure rises to almost half a million. We then talk about the third immigrant community largest in the country, only surpassed by Moroccans and Romanians.
It is not surprising that there are so many Ecuadorians with dual nationality: it was the first Latin American community to emigrate en masse to Spain, due to the crisis that devastated their country in the late 1990s. It was during these years that the family of Miguel Angel Mendezchef at Ayawaskha, a restaurant located in the heart of the Salamanca district, in Madrid, which was born to revive a cuisine that is as interesting as it is unknown in Spain.
“In the Ecuadorian community we do not have a discourse of protection of our identity, unlike Colombians, Venezuelans or Peruvians,” explains Méndez. “Venezuelans kill for their arepa. We, being the first community to land in Spain, have developed a lack of identity. We need to find each other and this is exactly why Ayawaskha was born”.
More than a restaurant, a movement
The restaurant is Méndez’s personal project, seasoned in the kitchens that his father runs in the Mostenses market: a small stall with a traditional recipe book focused on the Ecuadorian community that ended up conquering the palates of everyone who visited it.
“Over there We haven’t stopped working.”Mendez explains. “I was practically born in the hospitality industry. My mother was the cleaning girl in a hostel and we lived there. I started when I was 15 years old to earn a few euros”.
But, although his father’s restaurant is going from strength to strength, it has arrived, explains the cook, “as far as we can imagine we could go.” And now he played try something new.
“It is not only a restaurant, what we are doing is create a movement: tourism, product, fashion, music research…”, explains Méndez. “Ayawaskha is a digital and R&D movement. Anyone who listens to me will think that I am a pretentious freak, but it is what we are doing. We are investigating our own culture, we are developing it and we are innovating in the restaurant itself with an appetizing project”.
“We have a very mestizo gastronomy but at the same time very pure”
Aside from all these developments, more difficult to observe in the restaurant –but which are shared on their Instagram–, the truth is that we are facing a unique proposal in Spain, with recondite dishes of a gastronomy already unknown in itself, and that has quite a few differences with those of other Latin American countries.
“There are similarities, but we have nothing to do”, explains the cook. “In that we use many of the same ingredients, there is no resemblance. We are a gastronomy with a lot of Spanish influence, a lot of African influence, a lot of pre-Columbian influence. Ecuador was one of the main nodes where it was commercialized at the pre-Columbian level. We have a very mixed cuisine but at the same time very pure. A gastronomy that is discovering things about itself that no one knew before”.
A twist on traditional flavors
In Ayawaskha we find the most emblematic dishes of Ecuadorian gastronomy such as onions or dried chickento which Méndez has given a twist –“reinterpreting traditional dishes that we elevate to haute cuisine”–, but also more or less his own creations based on old dishes that are now forgotten.
The cook is currently investigating the manabi gastronomywhich is based on a type of wood-fired oven that, although it cannot be installed in the restaurant at the moment, it is trying to recreate in some dishes.
Although Mendez has high aspirations, he also keeps his feet on the ground. “Beyond the romantic discourse, we are a company and we are only two, we cannot afford to have eight cooks”, he explains. And, furthermore, he does not want to leave the Ecuadorian community aside at any time. Ayawaskha, he insists, has to be a restaurant where his compatriots can eat without any problems. which includes having a restrained ticket: you eat luxury for around 30 euros.
“There has already been someone else who has tried to be super haute cuisine, but by forgetting their community, or throwing it aside, you don’t have a feedback of the sensation of your people”, explains Méndez. “I don’t have a tasting menu because the community is not used to having a closed menu, it is more used to going to a place like my father’s”.
Beer from Ecuador, Cervecería Nacional SA, 4% vol, Bottle 330ml – PILSENER Beer
Ayawaskha has only been filming for half a year, but Méndez considers that he has already achieved one of his main objectives. “A lot of young Ecuadorian people are coming, third generation, like me, between 25 and 30 and they bring you the Spanish”, he explains. “The other day a very crazy thing happened to us. 15 people came and 14 were Ecuadorians and one Spanish, who was the one who brought the 14 Ecuadorians. What this tells us is that communication is being productive, the message is getting through.”
What to ask for: Ayawaskha’s letter is short. If you go with a group of friends you can even try it all. Everything is fine, but don’t leave without trying the Morocho empanadas, bolones, ceviche and onions. To drink, they have a small menu of cocktails and Ecuadorian Pilsener beer. Very few wines.
practical data
Where: C. of the Duke of Sesto, 40. Madrid
Half price: 30 euros.
Bookings: 635 62 46 18
Schedules: Closed Monday and Sunday for dinner.
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