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 Chefs at the restaurant, Gustu, in La Paz expect Pope Francis to
receive the wafer during his visit to the Andean country later this
week, the second leg in the Argentine pontiff's three-nation
"homecoming" tour of South America.
The idea came from a group of quinoa producers. The restaurant's
chefs said the wafers have been delivered to the government to give
to the pope.
"I'm quite nervous about what he will think," said Monica Marquez,
the restaurant's 25-year-old pastry chef with a small tattoo of the
Christian cross behind her ear.
Gustu is the brainchild of Danish chef Claus Meyer, widely known for
his restaurant Noma in Copenhagen which is ranked third in The
World's 50 Best Restaurants list. On the menu is Llama tartare and
trout from the water of Lake Titicaca served with llullucha, a South
American seaweed. The restaurant opened in 2013 to wide acclaim.
Unlike neighboring Argentina and Peru, Bolivia is not especially
known for haute cuisine. With Gustu, Meyer sought to reinvent the
country's culinary traditions and take them global. On its menu are
Bolivia's little known wines and liquors grown at high altitude in
the Andean highlands.
The quinoa wafers cannot be used in communion like the unleavened
wafers prepared by laymen. But they could raise the profile of the
Bolivian seed.
Gustu's chefs experimented for days before settling on a recipe
using ground black, red and white quinoa to produce different
colored wafers.
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"We thought we'd just see what would happen. We're used to
experimenting with new recipes," Marquez said.
Quinoa, called a "super food" because it is a rich source of
vitamins and minerals, has been the staple of Andean farmers for
thousands of years but has taken health-conscious Western nations by
storm more recently.
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Richard Lough and Jeffrey
Benkoe)
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