Interview with Andrea López, Executive Chef for República del Cacao

We believe in the talent, creativity, and resilience of our chefs and allies, for this reason we have developed interviews, where we will present various gastronomic projects that will inspire our community.

On this opportunity, we have created an alliance with the segment “Who is Who”, alongside our communication ally, Juan Carlos Castillo, where every week we will talk about well-known chefs, their stories, creations, formation and inspirations.

To begin with this series of professional chefs, lovers of sweet gastronomy, we had the participation of Andrea López, at our Cacao Workshop located in Quito’s Historic Center. Andrea studied Culinary Art and Food and Beverage Management at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) in Ecuador. After finishing her studies, she specialized in French Culinary Arts at the Paul Bocuse Institute and in Chocolate Management at L’École Valrhona in France. Her excellence and passion for the profession made her part of one of the most well-known French restaurants in Ecuador, Chez Jerome, after this, she became the Sous Chef and Pastry Chef for the Marcus Restaurant. Nowadays, Andrea is the Executive Chef and Research & Development Chief for República del Cacao’s Chocolate Laboratory.

 “Chocolate and pastry have turned from being my profession into being my passion and my everyday life. It is the medium through which I’m able to express my creativity, my way of thinking and feeling. I have fun, I laugh, I get stressed, I get worried, I get surprised and I discover, I love all of that. Pastry and chocolate are now part of who I am and of my life.” – Andre López
 
República del Cacao’s Chocolate Lab is a place where ecuadorian chocolate is respected and admired. The objective of this center is to develop the knowledge about chocolate making and fine pastry. Through this concept, a lot of tourists, fine chocolate lovers, gastronomy students and professional chefs have crossed its doors in order to received workshops on this noble art, and on this way expand the world of the sweet world with their creations and new ideas.

During Andrea’s interview we witnessed the step by step of her elaboration of delicious passion fruit with white chocolate bonbons, and also of one of our most characteristic desserts, the Sacha. This treat is a mousse composed by our Amazonia 75% chocolate, accompanied by an almond biscuit, crunchy almond coverture, chocolate ganache Ecuador 56% and candied hazelnuts.

 
We invite you to watch the interview made by Juan Carlos Castillo, where you’ll learn more about Andrea and the life of a passionate chocolatier and our characteristic desserts.

 
“For me chocolate is one of the most representative ingredients of our country, I feel it is part of our identity. I can’t imagine my life without chocolate. I feel that one of the first and most important qualities one must have to be a chocolatier is to have passion. For me República del Cacao means much more that just a bran of fine origin chocolate, but it is also a bran that has a triple impact through one single product.” – Andrea López