25-03-2017
Palmiro Ocampo, 30, chef at 1087 Bistro in Lima, on the stage of Identità Milano (photo by Brambilla/Serrani)
A clean face, dark eyes and an assertive walk. He got on the stage of Identità Milano with the lively simplicity of a 30-year-old. Behind his youth, there’s the pride assertiveness of a Peruvian cocinero who arrived in Italy for a specific reason: to tell the story of the cooking in his country. Indeed, as Peruvian cuisine is not only a current trend. It’s most of all based on social awareness, recuperating scraps, creativity and masterful technique. And Palmiro Ocampo is one of its best representatives. After learning the ropes at Cordon Bleu in Lima, «he was already a cook at 16», he worked in many restaurants around the world: Noma, Celler de Can Roca, Evo and Mugaritz. He’s also a member of the Académie Culinaire de France, the founder of Ccori Ccori, an organisation that fights to promote cooking with scraps and he’s the director of Incubation, a research organisation that investigates food from an academic, scientific and gastronomic point of view. As if this wasn’t enough, Palmiro teaches at Università San Ignacio de Loyola, he’s is the director of festival Apega and leads the Generación con Causa, a warlike collective of Peruvian chefs with a proper manifesto.
Wild strawberries with cypress wood
In his restaurant, Ocampo is lucky enough to be able to express his creativity with all the necessary freedom. «My cuisine is excellent, because it uses raw materials as much as possible – he explains – and in this way I can give more flavours with the same ingredient». As in the case of the banana he used during the lesson at Identità Milano, both for the Ñoqui de Maduro, and for the Tuétano de bellaco, a starter made with scraps from the previous dish. «My cooking is good for you because it’s communication. I believe cooking is the best way to interact with all that surrounds you».
Ocampo with the moderator of his speech, food writer Sara Porro
Excellent ingredients for a cuisine, the Peruvian one, which is taking a completely new direction. «In Peru there’s a cuisine with a strong identity, based on the heritage given by our ancestors, which privileges biodiversity and the different cultures – says Ocampo - but which follows global trends and is capable of adapting to change».
Translated into English by Slawka G. Scarso
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born in Varese, 1990, after a degree in Media languages, she completed a Master in journalism at Università Cattolica of Milan. She loves to cook, to eat and to write about food