The best of Lima, chef by chef

In Italy it happens too, that a chef has more than a restaurant. Usually two, combining the first one, of the highest quality, with a simpler one, something more of a trattoria. The mind goes immediately to Carlo Cracco and Claudio Sadler, with due locations each, in Milan, and Cristina Bowerman in Rome, Moreno Cedroni who in the Marche divides himself between Senigallia and Mount Conero, Gennaro Esposito in Campania between Capri and Vico Equense, Davide Scabin in Piedmont, between Rivoli, north of Torino, and Ivrea.

Then there’s Iaccarino, Heinz Beck, Enoteca Pinchiorri with multiple establishments around the world, and not just in Italy. I’ll stop here. The concept is clear and shared with Peru, even though most people in Italy wouldn’t expect it. However, even there, as soon as chefs are successful, they become a brand. In this, they are also helped by the fact that Spanish is spoken across Latin America except for Brazil. Yet for someone like Gaston Acurio, and those who followed his example, the problem of different languages and cultures our patrons seem to face when in Paris, London or Berlin doesn’t exist.

This piece wants to highlight what we recently found out in Lima. In some places we dined. Others were recommended by colleagues. «Are you going there? Perfect, so I’ll go to this other place and then we’ll find out who made the best choice».

A list of the Peruvian capital’s excellences has to start with Gaston Acurio and the Astrid y Gaston’s new location in Casa Moreyra where the format works perfectly, so much so the kitchen can count on 61 cooks, 41 employees and 20 interns. Of course they rotate depending on day off, outdoor services and holidays but it’s still impressive. Yet Gaston can boast 19 restaurants in Lima, a whole fleet. Two stand out: El Mar and Panchita, both in Miraflores. The first offers superb seafood, the second creole flavours, rich dishes, sometimes cooked slowly, sometimes on a naked flame. Homely cuisine from Lima.

Mitsuharo Tsumura, aka Micha, is the master of ceremonies at Maido, which entered the World’s 50 Best thanks to Micha’s skilful interpretation of nikkei cuisine with Peruvian ingredients. A brilliant restaurant, there were no slow moments. Outside, lots of Japan, inside, lots of informality. I recall with extreme pleasure the sushi with very lightly seared sweetbread.

While Micha opened my series of meals, Virgilio Martinez ended it. Unfortunately he was missing from Central as he was travelling back from Spain. I would have greeted him with extreme pleasure. Putting the tasting aside, as well as the high quality of the preparations, I also visit a place for straightforward emotions. Now, on top of the perfection of the whole machine, to which I cannot imagine what Virgilio could have added if there if not his presence, that is, I was extremely tired. In another occasion I would have fastened, preferring a bed to a table. Not there. Not everyone is capable of captivating someone who’s half-sleeping.

It’s like those chefs who delight you with ingredients you usually avoid. Virgilio in Lima means Central. Perhaps he’s the only one who can compete with Osteria Francescana and Massimo Bottura for the first place in the World’s 50 Best in New York in June. And then there’s London, three places: Lima London, Lima Floral and Lima Harrods.

Maido is the third restaurant whose popularity crosses the Peruvian borders, mostly thanks to its being among the 50 Best. Its owner is Mitsuharu Tsumura, aka Micha. It is located in a 3-floor building in Miraflores, less than a kilometre’s walk from Central. Japanese sobriety outside, lots of South American liveliness inside. It looks more like an osteria than a 50 Best establishment. Luckily all this ease is combined with an excellent and attentive service. Nikkei cuisine, given the chef’s distant roots, Japanese techniques and Peruvian products. You should visit Maido twice in 48 hours: the first time you understand the strength, the second you go into detail.

The fourth stop was at Hector Solis. He comes from the north, from Chiclayo. So do his cuisine and products, something he’s proud of. An ambassador of tradition, he charmed me both at lunchtime at the Picanteria, in the popular Surquillo neighbourhood - fish on top of fish, rich portions and flavours - and in the evening of the same day, at Fiesta, his flagship place. He opened it 20 years ago and it gradually grew in importance. His hot ceviche (I left the chargrilled one for the next trip) was charming. You wouldn’t expect it to be hot. The rice and duck are also delightful. Rice and coriander, from which it takes the green colour. The grains are well separated, almost crunchy. The rice is served in the heavy aluminium pan in which it is cooked, stuck to the base but not burnt, with the chunks of meat added at the end. A great, important and real dish.

Four days can be too many or too few, depending of what you need to do. For sure they were not enough to visit all the places I was recommended, starting from Josè del Castillo’s Taberna Isolina which opened little over a year ago. Then Rafael Piqueras’s Maras and Rafael Osterling’s two restaurants, El Mercado and Rafael. He’s a restaurateur with a few things in common with Gaston Acurio, his father an important politician, the culinary basics learnt at Cordon Bleu, in London and Paris, and perhaps it is for this reason that there’s not much feeling with Gaston.

Finally IK, a place with a sad story as IK stands for Ivan Kisic, a chef who died in a car crash in 2012, a few months before the opening. Instead of giving up, his family, especially his twin brother Franco, went on, opening the next year. Success was almost immediate and has grown in time also thanks to the collaboration with Argentinian Sebastian Mazzola, creative director at IK, who trained at El Bulli and still follows the Adrià brothers between Barcelona, Ibiza and the world.

Then you get into a popular market and eat very good food and think about the strength of this country’s culinary movement.

5. To be continued
The previous four episodes: first, second, third and fourth.