Ancestral
Bolivia
Fire gives Ancestral its organising principle. Founded in La Paz in 2019 by Mauricio López and Sebastián Giménez, the restaurant builds a contemporary Bolivian menu around embers, a clay oven and wood-fired cooking, drawing attention to the character of locally sourced ingredients. The kitchen works with meat, fish and vegetables, supported by herbs grown in the restaurant’s own garden. Ingredients are prepared from scratch, with smoke, roasting and char helping to build flavour. A published example pairs grilled Black Angus rib-eye with smoked tomato and huacataya dressing, cauliflower in contrasting preparations, and wood-cooked mange tout with chilli crisp. It captures the restaurant’s combination of familiar centrepieces with herbs, vegetables and accents rooted in its surroundings. The chefs bring experience from international kitchens and Bolivia’s own evolving restaurant scene. For visitors interested in that development, Ancestral offers a direct introduction through ingredients and technique, with a meal whose identity is built around the grill and the produce passing across it.