The Colombian Rubén Darío Rivera, founder of the Citurna restaurant in Playa Blanca, has represented Lanzarote in the latest edition of the Barcelona gastronomic week “Tast a la Rambla” and has talked with Carlos Chavaud about his cuisine of global inspiration and Canarian product, as well as the evolution of Lanzarote cuisine in recent years, in the radio space Más de uno Gourmet with Radio Lanzarote.
- How did you get to Lanzarote and when did you open Citurna?
We are of Colombian origin, actually the restaurant is mine in partnership with my sister. Our family has always been dedicated to hospitality, we studied different things, but we have always had the bug. When we came to live in Spain, first in Madrid, we had a business, and when we came here we started working in different hotels and restaurants until we opened our own business four years ago.
- What type of gastronomy does Citurna offer?
It is difficult to fit Citurna into a type of gastronomy. What we do is food with global inspiration, we call it. We really like to travel, so we have been inspired by dishes that we have tasted around the world and that we like.
When I went out to eat on the island I often found standard menus with very similar dishes and I said well, maybe there are more people like me, who have other culinary concerns and I started to make dishes more or less what I wanted to eat.
We have Korean, Japanese dishes, fusions with South American food… always with Canarian touches. We always try to use products from here and we play around.
- Any specific examples to whet your appetite?
The most popular dish is a crispy prawn taco and then the Korean chicken is also one of the best sellers. These are two dishes that I can't take off the menu. (laughs). We change the menu every four or six months, but there are three or four dishes that we never change, people would kill us (he jokes).
- Where is the restaurant?
We are in Playa Blanca, on Correíllo street, number 54.
- This month you represented the island at the Barcelona gastronomic week “Tast a la Rambla” what dish did you prepare there?
We prepared a dish of ramen, with Canarian black pig and chickpeas from here on the island. Our goal was to prepare a ramen broth using Canarian product. So of course, we decided on this dish that I don't have on the menu, I made it especially for that event.
- Are you considering including that dish on your menu?
What happens is that I have to adjust the dishes very well in my restaurant because it is a very small place and my kitchen is small. That is why there are certain types of dishes that I cannot prepare on a daily basis, because the service would be complicated for me and this is one of them. It needs a very long cooking time, but well, at some point I might have some time and I'll do it because I'm half crazy (laughs).
- As a cooking professional, how do you think the island's gastronomy has evolved?
Here there has always been a wonderful product, but in the last 5 years there has been a very big evolution, a lot of small businesses have opened, of cooks, who maybe before we were working in hotels and other restaurants. Right now you can find a very good restaurant in Haría, in Órzola, in Playa Blanca there are a few, in Arrecife…
Previously everything was very standard. It was basically the same menu in all the restaurants. The product here is good so the food was good, but now it has been revitalized and modernized. Now it even costs you to choose where to go to eat.
- For people who want to go to eat at Citurna, is it necessary to book?
We recommend making reservations, since the place is very small, they can do it from the Google reservations button or on our website.
