Lima was not always an A-list destination and it still has its struggles. But after decades of violent civil war, the country is finally enjoying peace and stability. There are still great disparities in this city of nearly 10 million, but on the modern, creative, and gastronomic side, there’s no place like it. Learn about indigenous foods, from ancient corn and potato varieties to rain forest roots, and meet some of the world's top chefs.
Cinda Chavich photos
by Cinda Chavich
I’ve been in Lima for just 48 hours and already I’ve consumed 65 creative courses — four ambitious tasting menus from a quartet of the city’s most celebrated chefs. Lima is the latest mecca for food lovers. In 2015, new spots were named to the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list including Central (#4), Astrid y Gastón (#14) and Maido (#44), with Malabar (#7) already among the 50 Best Latin American restaurants.
And I’m determined to taste it all.
The Peruvian food revolution started with chef Gastón Acurio, a mentor to many of the current crop of top chefs and a promoter of all things Peruvian. His elegant flagship restaurant, Astrid y Gastón, was one of the first to break through more than 20 years ago.
Now with dozens of restaurants around the world, he’s a local celebrity known as “the king of Peruvian cuisine.” Some even suggest he should be the country’s next president. His wife, Astrid Gutsche, is the queen of cocoa, working with small Peruvian communities to develop top quality chocolate, and creating the amazing finales to your meals — think chocolate spheres filled with cinnamon-scented sweet potato ice cream in a toffee sauce with salty Andean corn.
Whether it’s this upscale molecular gastronomy, a modern take on Peruvian-Chinese food (aka Chifa) at Madam Tusan, his famed cevicheria La Mar, or the rustic anticuchos and causa at his casual, Creole-inspired Panchita restaurant, Acurio has built an empire by celebrating Peru’s varied traditions and flavours.
“It’s a chance to showcase our culture.” — Muñoz.
TUCKING IN AT ASTRID & GASTON Acurio’s head chef, Diego Muñoz, greets us on the colonnaded balcony of Casa Moreyra in San Isidro, the elegant 17th-century hacienda and national monument that was recently restored and re-imagined to house Astrid y Gastón (astridygaston.com). Like the décor, the elaborate, multi-course menu is both avant-garde and rooted in Peruvian tradition, offering a journey through the country’s geographically diverse pantry. “It’s a chance to showcase our culture,” says Muñoz. “Biodiversity in Peru is huge — it’s one of the strengths of our cuisine — and there are so many amazing different cultures here that have influenced us. I’m here discovering my own country.”
Below us, in the hacienda’s original courtyard, a glass-walled kitchen houses their “science lab” where local plants, roots, tubers and other indigenous foods are investigated. From the deep fried arracacia root chips to the frozen orb of frizzled leek and artichoke, a rillette of cuy (guinea pig) set on purple corn and razor clam escabeche, a series of small starters begin the tasting menu. By the time we finish the spiral-cut avocado ceviche in “tiger’s milk,” a lime and chili marinade used to cure raw fish, rustic golden huancaina sauce ground tableside in a stone batan with potatoes roasted in a simulated pachamanca oven smoking in the middle of the table, five desserts followed by chocolate and lucuma truffles with a cold Peruvian coffee topped with warm foamed milk, I’ve counted 30 courses.
Dining in Lima is serious business.
CENTRAL EATING
Chef Virgilio Martínez is slight and soft spoken, the lithe body of a dancer or marathon runner beneath his long denim apron, and the measured speech of an intellectual. The large, modern kitchen of his award-winning restaurant, Central (centralrestaurante.com.pe), sits behind a wall of glass, an appropriate setting for his creative cooking that combines both culinary and performance art, plates inspired by Peru’s unique terroir.
From below sea level to the 3900-metre Andean plateau, Martinez gleans his ingredients and ideas from the land. And so tonight we dine on lettuce, scallops and granadilla, foraged at “0 metres;” wild yacon root, smoked duck, fig-like zapote fruit and peppery nasturtium from the high altitude rain forest (860 metres); lucuma, cacao and chaco clay (an edible medicinal mineral that’s part of indigenous diets) from the Green Highlands (1050 metres), and tunta (dried Andean potatoes, 3900 metres) on his 11-course Mater Ecosystems menu.
Martinez is one of the most celebrated of the new Peruvian chefs. He combines classic French and modern molecular technique with an almost scientific approach to Peru’s vast array of indigenous ingredients. He studied cooking at Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa and London after attending law school, and honed his restaurant chops as executive chef for Astrid y Gastón locations in Bogotá and Madrid.
“Different altitudes, different ecosystems, different ingredients,” he says, as we tour the kitchen, a space that is literally open to the sky, encircled by an open walkway that leads to a rooftop garden. He points out the drying cabinet, where wild-crafted herbs hang in bunches, and a massive white board, covered with sticky notes and photos, where the menu at Central evolves daily.
Ascending the wide staircase in the sleek, modern dining room, we reach his laboratory where the collection of plants, leaves, roots and bark he’s gathered from the Andes to the Amazon are dried, preserved and catalogued. It’s all part of his Mater Inciativa, a project to “link the cultural and biological diversity of Peru with the culinary experience,” he says.
The chef speaks of scientists and villagers, local lore and ancient history, when he describes the process of creating the odd and inventive dishes that have been laid before me. In this hyper-local world of food foraging, there are roots and herbs with traditional medicinal value and others with properties and flavours yet to be discovered. It’s late, and though there is much more to explore, the team of waiters do their best to explain all of the unusual ingredients on the plate, whether it’s the juicy yacon, reminiscent of Asian pear, or the fuchsia flower petals of sangre de grado. It’s an intellectual pursuit as much as a meal.
NIKKEI CUISINE AT MAIDO At Maido (maido.pe), chef Mitsuharu Tsumura laughs easily and exudes hospitality. He is the face of Nikkei cuisine, a melding of Peruvian and Japanese flavours that’s evolved naturally here over a century and is now on the cutting edge of what diners in Lima love. Tsumura, or Micha as he’s known to his friends, and his convivial restaurant have rocketed to the top of the food world’s radar with a #44 nod on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
Why is this traditional Peruvian/Japanese food suddenly so popular? Perhaps it’s the connection with Nobu, the famed Japanese chef who opened his first sushi bar in Lima in 1973, or the endorsement of top chefs like Spain’s Ferran Adrià, who now serves his own version of Nikkei at Pakta in Barcelona (they both write forwards in Micha’s massive new book, Nikkei es Peru). Or maybe it’s just because Micha does it so well. At an epic 16-course Nikkei Experience lunch in this contemporary space, there is nary a misstep — just tiny, beautiful bite, after beautiful bite. Each little plate is a study in colour and texture. The Japanese sensibility, be it brought to cuy san, confit of guinea pig, tossed with soy and sugar and deep fried, then served with yucca cream and sprouts; a perfect ball of rare rib eye in an ethereal tempura crust; a single prawn with tobiko and quinoa cracker in a slurry of corn chichi; or the tiger’s milk of ceviche turned into a cold citrusy crumble with liquid nitrogen and topped with raw fish and avocado.
“Traditionally Nikkei is comfort food,” says Micha, stopping to pose for a selfie with a satisfied customer. “It’s a Peruvian stew with steamed rice or a Japanese ceviche, the citrus just added at the last minute. We’ve taken it to the next step.”
FOOD FIESTAS Get your Limeñan culinary legs with a walking tour of foodie hot spots with Da Lima Gourmet Co. (limagourmetcompany.com; from US$40). It’s a food tour and a city tour rolled into one, and includes a visit to a local food market to sample exotic fruits, sip an addictive lucuma smoothie, shake up a perfect pisco sour and even create a DIY ceviche lunch. The weather in Lima is warm and dry year round, but if you want to eat well, plan your trip to coincide with Mistura (mistura.pe, website in Spanish only), Latin America’s largest food fest, scheduled for September 2 to 11 this year. The outdoor event features demonstrations from top local and visiting chefs, tastings of Peruvian specialties from cacao to ceviche, popular street food vendors, entertainers, and farmers at the Gran Mercado offering hundreds of varieties of potatoes, chili peppers, exotic fruits and colourful corn. Download the festival app from their website for daily updates.
Cinda Chavich photos
THE VOCABULARY OF THE PERUVIAN FOOD REVOLUTION
LUCUMA: The lucuma is an Andean fruit with a rich, orange flesh. Whirled up in smoothies or ice cream it has a pure, sweet butterscotch taste that’s addictive. But beware of the calories: like an avocado, lucuma is high in (healthy) fat and calories.
SERIOUS CEVICHE: Raw fish is quickly “cooked” in fresh lime juice with chilies called Tiger’s Milk. Peruvians lay claim to first creating ceviche and in Lima, it’s become a way of life. Locals advise that you hit a ceviccheria for lunch — by dinner time it’s too late to get really fresh fish. You’ll find ceviche from food stalls to high-end restaurants, but the reigning hot spots include La Mar, El Mercado and Chez Wong, where chef Javier Wong makes his daily ceviche feature with whatever fish is freshest.
PERUVIAN POUTINE: At some intersection in Peruvian gastronomic culture, the French fry hooked up with the Chinese stir-fry and the Spanish sofrito — the result being lomo saltado, a quick red pepper, tomato, onion and steak sauté, seasoned with soy sauce and served over fried potatoes usually along with the carb overload of steamed rice. Available on menus of all kinds and surprisingly tasty.
ONE POTATO, TWO THOUSAND POTATOES: They literally grow thousands of varieties of potatoes in Peru. To see the tubers at their peak, head to a local market — high in the Andes if there’s an opportunity — and watch women selling their starchy wares.
Make sure to order roasted potatoes with golden huancaina sauce, a spicy puree of queso fresco, garlic and the local Amarillo pepper. Also try causa, a beautiful cold dish of mashed yellow potatoes seasoned with chilies and layered with tuna, avocado, egg or chicken.
PISCO: Peruvians created this type of brandy and popular Pisco Sour cocktails are served before nearly every meal. Though Chileans like to lay claim to pisco, too, in Lima they’re quick to point out that Pisco is a Peruvian city, located in the Peruvian province of Pisco, where grapes are grown and the brandy was first distilled and exported. The sweet, frothy cocktail is shaken with lime juice, egg whites and a dash of bitters, but beware, it’s a potent mix and one is quite enough. Visit the Museo del Pisco in Cusco to learn more.
NOT YOUR AVERAGE PIG: Often cooked on a spit and served whole, guinea pig has a gamey taste, a bit like rabbit. While you’ll get the whole beast in rural homes or rustic roadside restaurants, upscale city spots offer cuy slow cooked, pulled into shreds and piled elegantly onto appetizers.
INCA CORN: The corn that’s indigenous to Peru is a maize that you don’t see much outside central America. It’s not the sweet corn we eat from the cob in August, but rather multi-coloured with giant starchy kernels ground into meal or roasted for crunchy snacks.
ANCIENT GRAINS: You’ve likely already enjoyed Peru’s famous ancient grain, quinoa, grown high in the Andes. But the latest export is kiwicha, a healthy grain you’ll find popped into breakfast cereals, baked into bars or breads. We know it as amaranth. Like quinoa, it’s high in fibre and protein, and perfect in pilafs and porridge. We watches farmers winnowing their quinoa by hand along a roadside field high in the Andes.
ANTICUCHOS: The classis street food of Peru is the skewered and grilled beef heart or anticuchos de corazon. Maybe it’s the vinegar and hot pepper marinade, or the hot sear on a charcoal grill, but these meaty brochettes are a popular Creole specialty, served from smoky carts, with boiled potatoes and corn on the side (and sometimes with pink hot dogs, too).
CHINESE FUSION: Chinese immigrants came to Peru as labourers in the mid-1800s, and soon added their flair to the culinary culture. Now there’s a Peruvian Chinese food called “Chifa,” a style that combines Chinese cooking with typical local ingredients like pineapple and orange Amarillo peppers. It’s a cheap, family-style way to eat in Lima. Look for Gaston Acurio’s take on chifa at Madam Tuson or, for a quick meal, find a friendly spot on a local corner for arroz chaufa, a typical Peruvian fried rice dish with strips of egg, green onion and chicken or pork.
This story first appeared in Doctor’s Review magazine
copyright Cinda Chavich
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