Colombian Traditional Cook | Tradition Bearer | Teacher and Transmitter of Culinary Knowledge
Zoraida “Chori” Agámez Rodríguez is a Colombian traditional cook and bearer of culinary knowledge built through a lifetime of practice, observation, memory, exchange and teaching.
She was born in Barrancabermeja and grew up between El Llanito and her family farm, Vida Tranquila, on the banks of the Sogamoso River. She began cooking as a child, learning from her mother, María del Tránsito Rodríguez, her grandmothers, other cooks and the everyday life of the countryside. River fish, rice dishes, stews and sancochos, corn, cassava, bollos, envueltos, leaves, embers and wood-fired cooking all formed part of her earliest culinary education.
That territory is the foundation of her cooking, but it does not define its limits.
Over the years, Chori expanded her repertoire by learning preparations and techniques from different regions of Colombia. She participated in culinary exchanges and training connected with the cuisines of Santander, Norte de Santander, Cundinamarca, Boyacá and other regions, while also beginning to share her own knowledge in culinary schools, universities and educational settings.
Her way of learning remains deeply practical. Chori observes, asks questions, tests, compares and cooks again. Encounters with other traditional cooks have always been part of that process. She brings her own knowledge to the kitchen while remaining open to other techniques, preparations and ways of understanding food.
For this reason, her experience should not be confined to the cuisine of the Magdalena Medio. Her roots are territorial, but her repertoire has grown through decades of movement and culinary exchange throughout Colombia and abroad.
She has participated in food festivals and gatherings across the country, presenting foods associated with Santander and the Magdalena Medio while sharing kitchens and knowledge with traditional cooks, students and culinary professionals from other regions. Her international journey includes gatherings of traditional cooks in Mexico and cultural activities representing Colombian cuisine abroad.
Zoraida “Chori” Agámez Rodríguez is a Colombian traditional cook and bearer of culinary knowledge built through a lifetime of practice, observation, memory, exchange and teaching.
She was born in Barrancabermeja and grew up between El Llanito and her family farm, Vida Tranquila, on the banks of the Sogamoso River. She began cooking as a child, learning from her mother, María del Tránsito Rodríguez, her grandmothers, other cooks and the everyday life of the countryside. River fish, rice dishes, stews and sancochos, corn, cassava, bollos, envueltos, leaves, embers and wood-fired cooking all formed part of her earliest culinary education.
That territory is the foundation of her cooking, but it does not define its limits.
Over the years, Chori expanded her repertoire by learning preparations and techniques from different regions of Colombia. She participated in culinary exchanges and training connected with the cuisines of Santander, Norte de Santander, Cundinamarca, Boyacá and other regions, while also beginning to share her own knowledge in culinary schools, universities and educational settings.
Her way of learning remains deeply practical. Chori observes, asks questions, tests, compares and cooks again. Encounters with other traditional cooks have always been part of that process. She brings her own knowledge to the kitchen while remaining open to other techniques, preparations and ways of understanding food.
For this reason, her experience should not be confined to the cuisine of the Magdalena Medio. Her roots are territorial, but her repertoire has grown through decades of movement and culinary exchange throughout Colombia and abroad.
She has participated in food festivals and gatherings across the country, presenting foods associated with Santander and the Magdalena Medio while sharing kitchens and knowledge with traditional cooks, students and culinary professionals from other regions. Her international journey includes gatherings of traditional cooks in Mexico and cultural activities representing Colombian cuisine abroad.
Within El Toque Colombiano, Chori occupies a central role as a tradition bearer. Her practical knowledge has been essential to documenting preparations, techniques, ingredients and memories that had previously circulated largely through oral transmission and family practice. Through the project, this knowledge has also become workshops, publications, research and materials that can be passed on to new generations. el toque colo;biqno qportes cqd…
One of the most important areas of this work was the research into Colombian envueltos. What began with family memories developed into a broader process of identifying regional preparations, reconstructing recipes and studying leaves, techniques and cooking methods. This work eventually became the book Envueltos de plátano, yuca y maíz en las cocinas tradicionales de Colombia.
The book received international recognition at the 2021 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards, receiving both worldwide recognition within its category and continental recognition.
Recognition and Public Trajectory
Chori’s work has been documented and recognised by cultural institutions, media organisations and national and international bodies.
Marca País Colombia has featured her as a Colombian traditional cook and bearer of culinary knowledge, also documenting the circulation of her teaching through educational and culinary institutions.
In 2018, Chori was part of the Santander group “Del río a la olla y el fogón”, which received second place in Colombia’s XI National Traditional Cuisine Award for Arroz de pescado salado del Magdalena Medio santandereano. The award recognised not only the preparation itself, but also the transmission of knowledge, culinary memory and the safeguarding of cultural heritage.
In 2019, the National Gastronomic Congress of Popayán honoured her with a Lifetime Achievement recognition, publicly acknowledging several decades devoted to Colombian traditional cooking. Santander was the guest department that year, and Chori took part as one of its culinary representatives.
The Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also included her in its official publication Colombian Cuisine for the World, presenting her as a traditional cook from Barrancabermeja associated with El Toque Colombiano and documenting her experience as a workshop leader and speaker in national and international settings.
Her international work has continued in cultural and diplomatic settings. In 2025, Chori and Heidy Pinto presented Colombian traditional cuisine in Washington through an activity connected with Colombia’s Permanent Mission to the Organization of American States. In 2026, during Colombia’s Cultural Diplomacy programme in Panama, the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented them as “master bearers of the nation’s gastronomic heritage.”
These recognitions document a journey that began long before public awards or institutional visibility.
Chori’s authority does not come from an academic title. It comes from decades of cooking, from learning by watching and doing, from exchanging knowledge with other cooks, and from remaining willing to learn throughout her life.
Within El Toque Colombiano, she represents tradition as lived knowledge: knowledge that moves from memory to the hands, from the hands to the stove, and from the stove to the generations that follow.