03-10-2018
Virgilio Martinez, born in 1977, chef at Central in Lima and forerunner of the Peruvian renaissance (photo Brambilla/Serrani)
«Italy like Peru: it has the sea and the high mountains. But in our country, chefs who are in the mountains, don’t cook seafood and vice versa. This is why we strongly admire Virgilio Martinez: he has a unique and complete vision of every altitude in his country».
Paolo Marchi introduces the protagonist of the second lesson at Identità York, the Limeño at work so that the world can discover they very rich biodiversity of his country. A welcome return for the chef from Central at Eataly’s Scuola, after last year’s lesson with Bobo Cerea.
Scallops and grain diversity
Raw duck escabeche, sea urchins and oca
This big team is essential to make the Altitudes menu at Central, the restaurant that very recently moved to a new location, opening in the bright neighbourhood of Barranco. A tasting menu that today includes 285 ingredients, a kaleidoscope of the different ecosystems of Peru.
«We constantly catalogue new vegetal species for medical reasons. We catalogue plants, ideas, traditions. We’re rediscovering species people stopped cultivating, from the Andes to the Amazon. At the restaurant I see people are touched. For us it’s very important to create awareness, it’s our primary mission».
Second dish: Raw duck escabeche, sea urchins and oca (a tuber from the Andes, its scientific name being oxalis tuberosa). Both dishes are rich and come with a reflection: «At first it was difficult for us to understand that Peruvian food could have become what it is today. But we’re only at the beginning of the journey».
A few weeks ago Central, the showcase for the project, moved to a new, much larger location than the previous one. Now the old one is replaced by Kjolle, the twin restaurant run by his wife Pia Leon: «People often speak of gender equality, it was time she also became a chef», Virgilio jokes. Two restaurants and the same message put into practice: «In the age of fake news and information flooding, to whom should we listen? To the producers who keep our roots».
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american journalist, she lives in Tokyo and travels around the world writing about food, sake and wine. She's a columnist for Japan Times, and collaborates with Newsweek, CNN, Gourmet Sweden, Wall Street Journal twitter: @melindajoe