Before she thinks about a single dish, Andrea asks questions. A lot of them. Not because she lacks inspiration, but because for her a menu is never just a list of pretty plates: it's the translation, in flavors and service timing, of what a group of people is actually celebrating. Designing the menu for a wedding at Club Náutico Hansa has nothing to do with designing one for a corporate dinner aboard a Sailing Hotai yacht, even though both happen on the shores of the same Tominé Reservoir. That, at its core, is the craft: listen first, cook second.
Andrea almost always starts the same way: what are you celebrating, who's coming, and how do you want to feel by the end of the night? Simple questions, but they change the entire direction of the menu. Designing for a wedding where grandparents and grandchildren share a table is nothing like designing for a wellness retreat where guests arrive craving lightness and calm. She also asks about dietary restrictions, about the pace she wants the event to have — is everything served at one long table, or are there stations that invite people to walk around and talk? — and about details that seem minor but aren't: whether there are children, whether someone is visiting from abroad and wants to taste real Colombian flavors, whether there's a family story behind a particular ingredient. A well-designed menu always begins in conversation, not in the kitchen.
Cundinamarca gives Andrea a generous territory to work with, but every setting has its own logic. A dinner aboard a yacht on Tominé calls for dishes that can be served elegantly in tight spaces, with flavors bold enough to hold their own against the wind and the view. An outdoor wedding at Club Náutico Hansa, on the other hand, allows for longer courses, for a table that can linger through the sunset. If the event is paired with a wellness day at Club Duchi, with its thermal waters in La Calera, the menu leans fresh and herbal — nourishing without weighing anyone down. And if the celebration includes an afternoon on horseback or planting trees at La Tartaria, in Tena, she designs something more rustic, with ingredients that smell like the farm and the season. The season decides plenty too: she doesn't cook with the same produce during cold-climate fruit harvests as she does in the drier months, because for Andrea freshness isn't a luxury — it's the starting point.
Group size isn't a logistical detail to sort out at the end — it's a variable Andrea builds in from the very first sketch of the menu. For an intimate dinner of ten or twelve, she can think in terms of a chef's-table menu, with courses served almost like a conversation, with room to explain each dish at the table. For an event of a hundred guests, as often happens at Club Náutico Hansa weddings or Club Náutico El Portillo corporate events, the challenge is different: keeping the same soul and the same care, but with kitchen logistics that guarantee plate number eighty arrives just as hot and just as beautifully plated as the first. That's where her real experience comes in — knowing which techniques hold up at volume without losing their character, and which dishes, however beautiful on paper, simply don't work outside a small kitchen.
In the end, what sets Andrea's work apart isn't a technique or a trendy ingredient — it's her insistence that every menu tell something true about the people living it. A carefully designed menu is remembered not because every dish was perfect in the photo, but because it made sense: because it fit the place, the people, and the exact moment being celebrated. That's the difference between a meal that's well made and an experience that stays in guests' memory for years.
If you're planning an event of your own — a wedding, a dinner on the water, a wellness retreat, or a family celebration — and you want the menu built around your story, write to us and let's talk with Andrea about how to shape your experience.