i. Biography
Training in Fine Arts gives a cook another way to organize form, color, and cultural reference without turning the plate into decoration. Leonor Espinosa brought that discipline from the School of Fine Arts into gastronomy, alongside academic study at Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar, and applied it to the country’s ingredients, regions, and food memory. “Getting Colombia to be recognized for its gastronomy, to have the eyes of the world on our cooking, is a great achievement that I am very proud of today.” Leonor has said.
The Ascent
A practice built between Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar and the School of Fine Arts gave Colombian cuisine a framework that was both analytical and visual. In Leonor Espinosa’s work, that background became a way to read territory, culture, and ingredient use with the discipline of research and the compositional eye of art. Restaurant work at Claroscuro in Bogotá, Colombia placed that method inside service. As chef there, Leonor Espinosa began developing a local register that treated dishes as carriers of regional and cultural information rather than as generic fine-dining plates. Ownership gave the work a more defined platform. In 2007, Leonor Espinosa became chef and owner of Leo Cocina y Cava in Bogotá, Colombia, where national flavors and cultural references were made central to the restaurant’s identity. In 2015, she opened Misia, also in Bogotá, Colombia, extending that focus through a restaurant built around the country’s culinary expression.
The Current Work
A tasting menu built entirely from ingredients sourced across Colombia requires selection across territory as much as technique. At Restaurante Leo, Leonor Espinosa works with the nation’s regions as the organizing structure, with dishes drawing from ecosystems that include the Amazon rainforest and La Guajira. Gastronomy, in this model, is also a development tool. Leonor Espinosa uses her platform to reintroduce ancestral culinary knowledge and to support indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, connecting sourcing, cultural transmission, and restaurant practice without separating the plate from the people and places behind it.
Signature
Signature dishes include Achira “Canna Indica” bread.
Acclaim
Recognition for this Colombian-focused practice includes being named the Best Restaurant in Colombia in 2016 and earning a place among the 82 Best Restaurants in the World in 2007. Leonor Espinosa was named The World’s Best Female Chef in 2022, received the Chefs' Choice Prize in 2020, was awarded the Basque Culinary World Prize in 2017, and was named Latin America’s Best Female Chef in 2017. The through-line is a Colombian culinary practice that treats ingredients, territory, ancestral knowledge, and community support as part of the same working system. In Leonor Espinosa’s restaurants, national identity is not used as garnish; it is the operating material.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Leonor
Where did Leonor Espinosa train or study?
Leonor Espinosa trained at Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar and School of Fine Arts.
What recognition has Leonor Espinosa received?
Best Restaurant in Colombia (2016).
