Tina in plain action

Geneva, Switzerland – Geneva might have one of the highest rates of restaurants per capita in Switzerland but few to none true Latin American cafeterias or restaurants. One of the few in town is a three-in-one store, cafeteria and restaurant run by a Colombian woman better known to her patrons in the St Jean neighborhood as Tina.

El Paraíso de Tina, or Tina’s Paradise, saw the light of day seven years ago when Eucol Marchino—Tina—seized the opportunity to bring the flavors of the tropics to Geneva.

“I wanted to show that Latin women can also be entrepreneurs in Geneva,” she told GenevaLunch.

“I have worked very hard to show that an immigrant woman can be successful if she is constant and disciplined. I’ve proven that, but I’ve worked very, very hard.”

At the cafeteria you can sip a glass of Lulo, Maracuya and Curuba – different types of passion fruit – made in agua o leche (water or milk).

Other tropical flavors at Tina’s include Guanabana and Guava which can be complemented with Colombian snacks such as fried plantains (patacón or tostones), meat and potato empanadas and buñuelos (a cheese-and-flour, deep-fried dumpling).

The restaurant showcases Colombian and international food.

The day I visited her store the lunch diners were in Latin paradise with vegetable cream, white Colombian rice, fried green-plantains, and prawns in ginger.

Lulos for sale in Geneva

If you have frequented Latino restaurants in the US you might be in for a bit of a shock as prices are more in range with Geneva, than with the cafeterias in New York/New Jersey, Houston and Miami.

More than food: helping children in need

In addition to her restaurant, Tina also runs a non-profit organization, Terre Oubliée, or the “forgotten land,” which collects money to build schools in Colombia.

“It has been a labor of love,” she says. “There is so much poverty and so much work to do,” she says referring to the efforts of Terre Oubliée in Chocó, the region where Tina was born, and the poorest one in Colombia.

“Anyone who wants to know how to help should contact me,” she says.

Colombian colors

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