Celele

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Blue House in Getsemaní

In the traditional neighbourhood of Getsemaní, a small blue house on Calle del Espíritu Santo has become one of the most important addresses in contemporary Caribbean cuisine. Celele opened in 2018 as the direct expression of Chef Jaime David Rodríguez Camacho's years of fieldwork along Colombia's Caribbean coast — a research project he called Proyecto Caribe Lab, during which he spent two years travelling the territory, cataloguing edible biodiversity, documenting recipes at risk of disappearing, and building relationships with the communities that keep this food culture alive.

The Research Behind the Plate

That investigative spirit is not a backstory — it is the ongoing engine of the restaurant. Around 90 per cent of the products on the menu come from the Caribbean region, with roughly 70 per cent sourced from wild harvests. Celele works directly with farmers' associations, small producers, fishermen, foragers and artisans, and maintains active research partnerships with the Jardín Botánico de Cartagena "Guillermo Piñeres," biologists and educational institutions across Colombia. The menu responds to regional seasonality as well as fermentation processes and preparations built entirely from fresh ingredients that arrive from across the Colombian Caribbean.

What Reaches the Table

The à la carte menu introduces diners to ingredients that rarely appear in a restaurant context: orejero tree seeds worked into a sweet paste, guaimaro (maya nut), pomarrosa — malay apples with a rosewater flavour — and jumbalee, a wild fruit from the region. Dishes include a Caribbean flower salad with pickled cashews and passion fruit dressing; squid and mussels with a mussel broth reduction and plantain dumplings; and the signature Celele de Cerdo, a confit pork terrine with preserved sweet peppers, Caribbean beans, cabbage and pork broth. Fish salpicón arrives with yam and coconut béchamel and a local cheese crumble.

Desserts are equally rooted in place. A chocolate preparation from La Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is served with a tropical dry forest crumble and borojó gel, while a yuca leaf and mambe cake — mambe being toasted coca leaf powder — is presented tiramisu-style with hibiscus leaf sorbet.

Drinks follow the same logic: regional craft beers, cocktails made with Colombian fruits, fermented spirits and wines accompany the food.

Recognition

Celele's trajectory has been consistent and swift. From the Latin America's 50 Best "One to Watch" award in 2019, the restaurant climbed to No. 6 on the Latin America's 50 Best list by 2024 — the same year Chef Rodríguez received the Best Chef Terroir distinction. In 2025, Celele entered the World's 50 Best Restaurants at No. 48, a recognition that places this corner of contemporary Caribbean cuisine firmly on the global map.