In the box a couple of coins. “They were our only savings,” Jorge recalls. They had used everything else to create Espresso Sanduchería, a brand that today is transformed and becomes Apilados de Autor.
Jorge and Camila López had just graduated from the Colombian School of Cooking and Gastronomy. His dream was to create a gastronomic proposal in which "we could express our love for cooking and let our imagination run wild." In their heads they were very clear that the use of local, agroecological and seasonal products had to predominate.
With these premises the creative work began. Although the haute cuisine path seemed the most obvious, they dropped the idea because "we always dreamed that what we made was for everyone". After a list of products, they arrived at sandwiches, a universal product that, at first glance, seems simple, "but doing it well is a whole science," they explain.
The ingredients here were the key to understanding how to approach this fast food from another perspective. Thus, each product has the magic of freshly baked bread, long cooking, fresh and natural vegetables, local products, handmade and minimally processed.
Now, Espresso Sanduchería changes its name, but not its essence. Apilados de Autor appears, a new idea. "We don't make sandwiches anymore, we make stacks, and that's where our new name comes from." A Stacked, are ingredients, one on top of the other in the middle of two slices of bread. With this change, moreover, comes a new vision: "we found that what we do is so unique that it should have its own name, so we left behind the name that saw us born and decided to start again, wiser, more authentic and full of personality. Of course keeping intact our essence and everything that has made us unique”.
Apilados de Autor is a warm, close and welcoming space. Its menu is inspired by seasonal products, it is constantly evolving, preparing each food meticulously, seeking a correct balance between health and well-being, "we take the time to prepare everything at home, because we know that food tastes better when it is prepared by hand known”. Each dish has its own character and life, it is the result of research and is a mixture of contemporary cooking techniques and artisan processes.
The bread, which was previously made on the premises, comes from Tres Trigos, a sister brand in which artisanal is what rules.
Although the Stacked are the essence, for Jorge and Camila "food is the most powerful human connector and it is our job to defend the integrity of food." From the premises they seek to share their vision that food is a dialogue, an opportunity to shorten geographical, cultural and ideological distances.
Medellin, June 2019
Tettay