Quick summary: International Chefs Day falls on Tuesday, October 20, a date created in 2004 to honor the craft and pass it on. At Restaurante Fusión Los 3 Soles we’re using it to introduce Anthony Mora, Luis Miguel Méndez and Karen Cruz, the team behind every plate and glass.
Almost nobody sees a restaurant kitchen at 11 in the morning, before the first guest walks in. There are broths that have been simmering for hours, sauces tasted three times over, mountains of chopped onion and someone checking that the goldenberries are ripe enough. What lands on your table is just the visible part of a day that started long before.
International Chefs Day is the perfect excuse to tell the other part of that story. And since at Restaurante Fusión Los 3 Soles we cook three traditions at once, Colombian, Mexican and Peruvian, the people who make it happen deserve a proper introduction, first and last names included.
October 20: where International Chefs Day comes from
The day was created in 2004 by chef Bill Gallagher, then president of the World Association of Chefs’ Societies, better known as Worldchefs. His idea went beyond a round of applause for the profession. He wanted cooks around the world to spend the day teaching: kids, students, anyone who wanted to learn to eat better.
Today it’s celebrated in more than 80 countries with workshops, open classes and school visits. In 2026, October 20 falls on a Tuesday, one of the days Los 3 Soles is closed, so this story is our way of marking it: telling you who’s cooking for you.
We love that teaching mindset because it’s pretty close to how our kitchen runs. On our website we describe the team as skilled hands, young talent, wise women and students who learn, test and dream with every recipe. In our kitchen, teaching is an everyday thing.
Anthony Mora, the executive chef behind the fusion
Anthony is the creative heart of the kitchen. He designs the recipes by pairing local and international ingredients, always with one foot planted in Latin American roots. If a dish on the menu brings two countries together without either one getting lost, chances are it went through his hands many times before it reached yours.
His approach has a healthy streak of stubbornness. A curuba sauce, made from the tangy Andean fruit known in English as banana passionfruit, doesn’t come out right on the first try. Neither does a lulo tiger’s milk, the citrusy ceviche marinade we make with lulo, a tart Colombian fruit that tastes a little like rhubarb meets lime. It has to be sharp without getting aggressive. Taste, adjust, taste again. That patience is why the pork shoulder, the ceviche and the fish with copoazú butter taste exactly the same on a rainy Thursday as on a packed Saturday night.
Muysquynsuca, the dish that made Anthony a 2026 finalist
At the 2026 Chía Gastronomic Challenge, a local culinary competition, Anthony was a finalist in the contemporary cuisine category with Muysquynsuca. The name means “growing” in Muysc cubun, the language of the Muisca people who lived on the Bogotá savanna long before the Spanish arrived. The dish lives up to it: an arepa made from nixtamalized black corn, a mosaic of pork and mojojoy (an edible palm grub prized in Colombia’s Amazon and Orinoco regions), a plant-based cheese made from Andean ingredients and a preparation of angel’s hair squash.
Making the final round takes work, but what we’re proudest of is something else: the dish was built with produce from our own garden and from local suppliers, with a no-waste mindset. It’s the same way we cook for the everyday menu.
Luis Miguel Méndez, the head chef who protects every plate
If Anthony dreams it up, Luis Miguel makes sure it comes out the same way a hundred times in a row. As head chef, he helps create and fine-tune the recipes, but his real job is something else: making sure every process works, every ticket goes out on time and every dish leaves the kitchen with the quality, flavor and presentation that define Los 3 Soles.
It’s a less glamorous job and a much harder one than it looks. On a Sunday brunch, with the open-air kiosks full and families ordering all at once, somebody has to keep calm and hold the standard. That somebody is Luis Miguel.
These are details that depend on a sharp kitchen lead, the kind diners might not notice but definitely feel:
- The exact doneness of the tuna in the tataki, seared medium-rare.
- The temperature of the ajiaco, Bogotá’s chicken and potato soup, which should never arrive lukewarm.
- The 250 grams (about 9 ounces) of beef in the lomo saltado salad, which means 250, not “more or less.”
- The order dishes leave the kitchen for a big table, so nobody waits while everyone else eats.
Karen Cruz and the bar: signature cocktails with local roots
Behind the bar, creativity has a name. Karen Cruz, our head bartender, knows local and Latin American ingredients inside out, and she used them to build a menu of signature cocktails and modern takes on the classics. The goal is for every glass to complement the food, never compete with it.
The current menu has clear examples of that thinking. The Xue mixes gin, goldenberry and lime with a pinch of Tajín, the chili-lime seasoning. The lulo gin and tonic gives a British classic Colombia’s most iconic fruit. And the Sol de medianoche, or “midnight sun,” blends vodka and white wine with notes of pineapple, rosemary and peperoncino. Several of the signature cocktails are also two-for-one.
Solanum Andino, the winning cocktail of 2026
Karen won the mixology category of the 2026 Chía Gastronomic Challenge with her Solanum Andino cocktail. It’s a trip across three Colombian regions in a single glass: it starts in the Andes with tree tomato and quina, the bitter bark behind tonic water, moves to the Pacific coast with aged viche, a traditional Afro-Colombian sugarcane spirit, and finishes in the Amazon with copoazú and cacao.
To us, that award confirmed something we already suspected. Signature work at Los 3 Soles lives behind the bar too, with the same research into ingredients and territory as in the kitchen.
Awards earned in the kitchen and at the bar
Awards aren’t the reason we cook, but they help explain the level of the team. Over the past two years, Los 3 Soles has picked up:
- Winner, 2025 Chía Gastronomic Challenge, contemporary cuisine category.
- Winner, 2026 Chía Gastronomic Challenge, mixology category, with Karen Cruz and the Solanum Andino.
- Finalist, 2026 Chía Gastronomic Challenge, contemporary cuisine category, with Anthony Mora and the Muysquynsuca.
- Finalist, 2025 Porkcolombia Challenge, a pork cooking competition run by Colombia’s pork producers’ association.
- Participant at Gastrofest in 2025 and 2026.
How to celebrate Chefs Day when you visit Los 3 Soles
Since October 20 falls on a Tuesday and we’re closed that day, we suggest celebrating it later that week, Thursday through Sunday. Three easy ideas:
- Order something you’ve never tried and ask how it’s made. The team loves explaining where each ingredient comes from.
- Let the bar choose. Tell the bartender what you’re eating and ask for the cocktail that pairs best with it.
- If you loved something, say so. It sounds small, but a “compliments to the chef” makes it back to the kitchen and gets celebrated.
Short on time? Order this at Los 3 Soles
If you want to taste the whole team’s work in one visit, this lineup from the menu sums it up:
- Bondiola in curuba sauce: 250 grams (about 9 ounces) of pork shoulder marinated in white wine for five hours, seared in butter and served with papa criolla mash, made from Colombia’s buttery little golden potato, and a banana passionfruit sauce.
- Ceviche in lulo tiger’s milk: your choice of tilapia, shrimp or mixed, with red onion, sweet pepper, avocado, sweet potato purée and toasted corn.
- White fish with copoazú butter: 250 grams of fish of the season flambéed with tequila, served over papa criolla mash and finished with copoazú, an Amazonian cousin of cacao.
- Xue: the bar’s mix of gin, goldenberry and lime with a touch of Tajín, triple sec and soda.
Chefs Day at Los 3 Soles: frequently asked questions
When is International Chefs Day 2026?
Tuesday, October 20, 2026. The date is the same every year, and it was created in 2004 by chef Bill Gallagher, then president of Worldchefs.
Is Los 3 Soles open on October 20?
No. It’s a Tuesday, and we’re open Thursday through Sunday plus Colombian public holidays. Hours: Thursday, noon to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, noon to 11 p.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and holidays, noon to 7 p.m.
Who is the executive chef at Los 3 Soles?
Anthony Mora. He designs the restaurant’s Colombian, Mexican and Peruvian fusion recipes and was a finalist at the 2026 Chía Gastronomic Challenge with his Muysquynsuca.
Who makes the cocktails at Los 3 Soles?
Karen Cruz, our head bartender. She created the signature cocktail menu with local and Latin American ingredients and won the mixology category at the 2026 Chía Gastronomic Challenge with the Solanum Andino.
What awards has Los 3 Soles won?
It won the 2025 Chía Gastronomic Challenge in contemporary cuisine and the 2026 edition in mixology. It was also a finalist in contemporary cuisine in 2026 and at the 2025 Porkcolombia Challenge, and took part in Gastrofest in 2025 and 2026.
The Los 3 Soles team is waiting for you at the table
Behind every ajiaco, every taco and every cocktail there are people with names, skills and a lot of hours of practice. This October 20 we’re celebrating them, and the best way to join in is to come by, taste their work and tell us what you think. If Bogotá is on your travel list, make a stop at Restaurante Fusión Los 3 Soles part of the plan.
