In Bogotá, chaos lives in the traffic jams, in the ad hoc urban sprawl—it’s even in the physics of the place. At 2,640 meters above sea level, water boils at 91°C, oxygen is a struggle, and the only certainty is that rain is coming. It is a city that defies the laws of the lowlands, commanding its inhabitants to either recalibrate or get left behind. And sometimes, it doesn’t let them leave.
That was the case for Alvaro Clavijo, the mastermind behind Bogotá’s El Chato—named the #1 restaurant in Latin America for 2025, who grew up in the city, then left to work in some of the world’s most cutthroat kitchens, from the French rigor of Robuchon to the Nordic vanguard of Noma. He came back to Colombia in 2013 only to wait for a Russian work visa. When the visa was denied for the third time, he stopped waiting and bought a motorcycle.
