Marsia Taha Mohamed is an acclaimed chef celebrated for preserving indigenous culinary heritage and more.
When did you start your journey as a chef?
My professional journey began in Bolivia, where I trained at the Escuela Hotelera de La Paz. Cooking became a way for me to explore questions of identity, culture, and belonging. After working abroad, I returned to Bolivia and joined Gustu, where I spent more than a decade, eventually becoming executive chef. Today, as chef and co-founder of Arami, my work focuses on the biodiversity of the Bolivian Amazon and the knowledge of the communities who live there. That relationship between people, territory, and food continues to shape my journey.
When science, sensory perception, and artistic imagination converge behind a bar, where does the boundary between beverage craftsmanship and fine art truly disappear?
For me, that boundary becomes less important when a drink can communicate something beyond its ingredients. Science helps us understand texture, temperature, aroma, and transformation. Craft allows us to work with those elements precisely, while imagination gives them meaning.
I approach this from the kitchen, but I think the connection is very close: a drink can evoke a landscape, awaken a memory, or make someone reconsider an ingredient they thought they knew. There is an artistic dimension to creating that experience. What interests me most is whether the person tasting it feels that connection.
As contemporary bars reinterpret classic cocktails through fermentation, distillation, and unconventional ingredients, how can bartenders innovate without erasing the historical authenticity of the original drink?
Innovation starts with understanding. Before transforming a classic, you need to understand its origins, its balance, and the ingredients that give it its identity. That knowledge gives you a foundation for making thoughtful changes.
In my own cooking, I work with traditional knowledge and contemporary techniques, and I believe it is essential to acknowledge where that knowledge comes from. The same applies to cocktails. Fermentation or an unconventional ingredient should have a clear purpose in the glass. Being transparent about what you have changed—and crediting the original—allows tradition and new interpretations to exist together.
In an increasingly experience-driven hospitality industry, what will ultimately distinguish a genuinely extraordinary bar from one that merely follows a global trend?
A strong sense of place and sincere hospitality. Beautiful interiors, exceptional sound, and theatrical presentations can all contribute to an experience, but what stays with me is how a place makes me feel and what I discover there.
An extraordinary bar has a clear point of view. You can recognize it in the ingredients, the drinks, the music, and the way the team welcomes you. It has a relationship with its surroundings and something meaningful to share. Consistency also matters enormously: the care behind the experience needs to be there on an ordinary evening, for every guest.
What makes you unique and different from others?
My perspective comes from the meeting of different cultures: I was born in Bulgaria, have a Bolivian mother and a Palestinian father, and grew up in Bolivia. That background has shaped my curiosity about identity and belonging.
Through my cooking, I explore Bolivia, particularly its Amazonian territories, lowlands, and Chiquitano dry forest. Much of that work begins outside the kitchen, listening to producers, fishing communities, and people whose knowledge comes from generations of living with their environment.
At Arami, I bring those encounters into a personal culinary language. My cooking reflects the places I have lived, the people I learn from, and my desire to share a side of Bolivia that many people have yet to discover.
