For a couple of hours, Costa Rican singer and songwriter Debi Nova forgot about music to learn how to cook a delicious dish from Guanacaste gastronomy: a new version of corn rice, guided by chef Paulo Valerios.
The experience was lived at the invitation of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) as part of the actions generated with the communication strategy “Costa Rica, a country of flavors to discover” and the “Flavors of Costa Rica” tactic, which invites Costa Ricans to carry out tourism motivated by the dishes, products and recipes of each place, with the support of the National Association of Chefs.
In the case of Nova and Valerios, they shared the experience of meeting each other, talking about their careers and Tico cuisine, while they cooked corn rice with chicken.
“I loved cooking corn rice with Paulo Valerios, he is a super good teacher and I learned a lot about our cuisine, the ingredients, where they come from and the importance of eating local products. I love this ICT initiative because I think there is a lot to rescue and not only because of the food that we are going to discover, but also because of the stories behind the dishes,” said Nova.
“El Chunche”
For his part, Mauricio “El Chunche” Montero learned how to make a vinaigrette with the guidance of chef Adriana Sánchez, from the “Hands in the dough” restaurant.The dancers Lucía Jiménez and Javier Acuña, also teachers of the “Dancing with the stars” program, prepared, between the mixture of flavors and the dance, green papaya mincemeat and another arracache with MónicaPeñaranda, from the “Fyah to go” restaurant.
“I invite people to order dishes with Costa Rican products when they visit places, we have a country where we produce everything, we don’t have to envy anyone anything,” said Montero.
