Innovative chefs in Lima are dishing up a fusion of Andean and European cuisines with seasoning from around the world
By Jorge Riveros Cayo 01/05/2006
Gaston Acurio was a young man when he left his native Peru to study law in Europe. But when he returned home it was with a diploma from Paris's Le Cordon Bleu. In a "rare and fleeting burst of courage," he says, he decided to change his life and follow the path of his true passion, cooking. Named for his father, a respected politician who was a senator and a cabinet minister during the presidency of Fernando Belatinde Terry, Acurio was expected to follow in the elder man's footsteps. In the end, his father had no alternative but to support his son, who traded in a future of courts and lawsuits for a life of ladles and cook stoves.Today Acurio may be one of his country's best known chefs, but he prefers to be called simply a cook. He and his German wife, Astrid Gutsche, whom he met at cooking school, are celebrities in and outside of Peru. Their restaurant, Astrid y Gaston, opened its doors in 1994 and within a short time became one of the best restaurants in Lima. Today it has branches in Santiago, Bogota, and Quito.
In January 2003, Acurio opened a delicatessen, T'anta, meaning "bread" in Quechua, in Lima's Surco neighborhood and in May 2005 inaugurated La Mar in the tourist haven of Miraflores. La Mar is a restaurant where ceviche--the dish that seven out of ten Peruvians believe best represents Peru--heads a mouth-watering list of some fifty seafood delicacies.Acurio is probably the most successful proponent of novoandina, the name given to a new Peruvian cuisine. This is an arbitrary name--and some might object--for a culinary phenomenon that is generating great expectations. It's a revolution begun by a generation of cooks trained in prestigious European schools who today are using their techniques to reevaluate the ages-old wealth of their home cuisine."It's true that we've gone from rustic and modest dishes to more contemporary offerings at the vanguard, but these are, in essence, just as Peruvian," says Acurio.
Today's novoandina cuisine has brought such humble Andean food crops as quinoa, kiwicha tarwi, and arracacha to the fore in the most sophisticated culinary endeavors.Because of the exquisite result of the syncretism of flavors from all over the globe, Peruvian cuisine is currently considered one of the world's best. The key to this fusion of flavors is the meeting of the Andean and European worlds, something that happened with absolute ease and no hard feelings."It was on the gastronomic plane that the natives and the invaders understood each other best," says Rodolfo Hinostroza, poet and culinary expert, "probably because the most permeable part of any culture is that which is closest to pleasure, need, and hunger."
Modern-day visitors to Peru may find it easy to succumb to the cuisine's traditional aromas, tastes, and colors: ceviche served with onion julienne, tender choclo (corn on the cob), and sweet potato; lomo saltado (sauteed shoulder cuts of beef) with tomatoes or onions julienne and fried potatoes; or a chupe de camarones (a robust soup with vegetables, milk, and plenty of shrimp).But all successes require effort, and the result of such a convincing combination of ingredients began even before Christopher Columbus set foot on a Caribbean shore in 1492. It wasn't until after the Spanish conquistadors had dodged some arrows and experienced hunger that they began to slowly discover and consume the products of the New World.
At first it was more out of need than taste. Later, chroniclers like Fray Antonio de la Calancha, an Augustine monk and author of The Chronicle of a Moralist of the Order of Saint Augustine in Peru, recorded the unexpected abundance of food that surprised the conquistadors: "It is clear that this land is more fertile than that of Spain and Europe because all of the fruits we bring from Europe flourish here, but not so with the plants we take from here to there. Food here is two-thirds cheaper, and this is the place with the most silver in the whole world."Of course, all the gold and silver found by Francisco Pizarro and company got more attention than the new and marvelous nutritional findings. Only the potato eventually made it back to the Old World. Other Andean tubers like oca, olluco, and yacon; fruits like the pacay, guayaba, passion-fruit, lucuma, cucumber, and granadilla; and herbs like huacatay and muna did not become well known, in spite of their nutritional qualities and pleasing taste."The most important thing is that a culinary and gastronomic hybrid was produced in the Andes," explains Peruvian historian Rosario Olivas. "Profound innovations in the use and consumption of Andean products were inspired by the introduction of such things as ovens, mills, sieves, and water and alcohol distillers. Certain culinary techniques were also developed, like pickling, blanching, frying, sauteing, thickening with egg yolks, or coating with flour and butter. Various products made of milk began to be used: cheeses, curds, cream, and butter. Things like lard, olive oil, vinegar, sugar, and sugar cane, wheat bread, wine, and aguardiente were also new, in addition to all of the new oriental spices and condiments."This blending of traditions produced a mouth-watering creation of new foods during the time of the viceroyalty and forged the Peruvian cuisine we know today. But, fortunately, fusion didn't end there. The migration of Africans, Chinese, Arabs, Japanese, and Europeans (especially from southern Spain and the Ligurian coast of Italy) only served to enrich and bring more innovations to the cuisine. It also contributed to the use of new products and ingredients in one of the most biodiverse areas of the planet.Acurio reinforces this idea: "The great virtue of Peruvian cuisine is that we are a fusion of flavors. We have always welcomed any positive influence, whether it be Chinese, French, Spanish, Italian, or Japanese. But Peru is also an abundant food market. Here you can find eighty types of vegetables and sixty kinds of fruit any time of year.
The hundreds of micro-climates in the country ensure that no variety will ever be lacking. In Spain, you can only get asparagus six months of the year, and in Chile you can only get basil for three months. Cooks in Mediterranean climates are obliged to reinvent their restaurant menus every season. Here in Lima, we only do it out of fear of goIng out of style or being swallowed up in a miniature, unforgiving, connoisseur market."In his 1856 book, Cuzco and Lima, Sir Clements Markham, English historian, traveler, scientist, and naturalist, described how well one could eat in the mid-nineteenth century in the young republic: "The way of life in these haciendas is very pleasant. The owners and their dependents awake very early and ride their horses into the fields, dedicating themselves to their various tasks until about 10 a.m., when they get together for a breakfast of broth or soup and poached eggs, garnished with fried plantain slices, as well as meat dishes, topping it all off with a cup of frothing hot chocolate and a glass of water. Dinner is at 4 p.m., with the owner at the head of the table. His entire family is there, along with the administrator, the chaplain, the refiner, and other dependents, and any guests who might be in the house. Dinner consists of a chupe, the national dish of Peru, made with potatoes, eggs, and chicken. Generally speaking, fresh fish in vinegar and hot pepper or Peruvian pimento is next, and finally the most delicious sweets and compotes, followed by a cleansing glass of water."To eat like that now might seem Pantagruelian, and there would be the additional, inevitable risk of falling into the custom of the daily siesta.
Nevertheless, Peruvian food has always been characterized by this kind of abundance in proportion and richness in flavor.Currently, Peruvian cuisine is generating an unprecedented interest all over the world. It's easier to find Peruvian restaurants now whether you're in New York, Madrid, Paris, Sao Paulo, Montreal, or Seattle (see "Peruvian Delights in the U.S. Northwest," p. 50). At the same time, Lima is all active and boisterous place where fourteen cooking schools have opened in the last few years, including one joint venture with Le Cordon Blue.
In spite of concerns that there may be too few customers and an oversupply of restaurants, new restaurants keep opening in Lima and other cities, and that seems to be a sign that everything is going quite well.Pedro Miguel Schiaffino, a twenty-eight-year-old chef and graduate of the Italian Culinary Institute for Foreigners (ICIF), opened Malabar just two years ago in the San Isidro neighborhood. He has surprised more than one customer with his bold idea of putting exotic products from the Amazon rain forest like chonta (palm hearts cut into thin strips) and paiche (river fish) on the menu. Schiaffino and many other Lima chefs agree that "the residents of the capital city can be very picky and demanding customers," which means they are resistant to trying new things.Another ICIF chef, Rafael Piqueras, has a great deal of experience in both Spanish and Italian restaurants and is about to open his own restaurant in Lima. "Our cuisine requires a modern presentation," he says. "Not only do our dishes have to taste good and offer innovative, new options, but we also have to make aesthetics, texture, and balance a priority."Along the same lines, celebrated novoandina chef Cucho La Rosa says: "Standardization does not mean you can't be creative. On the contrary, it is just looking for a point of reference."Acurio seems to have taken this premise literally as he seeks to make La Mar a model that is exportable to other countries. He is simplifying the ways of cooking the most celebrated Peruvian dishes in order to internationalize them, much like sushi, pizza, paella, or pad thai have been internationalized. "That's the only way a Finn is going to be able to open a Peruvian restaurant in Helsinki," says Acurio.
In addition to this "revolution," Peruvian food is constantly going through significant "evolution" without losing its essence. Ceviche is a case in point. Different versions of ceviche are being consumed from Peru to Mexico. This simple and exquisite dish may have originated on the sunny coasts of Peru, but like power and influence, recipes also spread from Peru to the rest of South America during the more than four centuries of the viceroyalty. Ceviche took on body and flavor according to the region that embraced it, and many new varieties were born."Thirty years ago you would squeeze lemon over pieces of fish and then wait an hour to eat it. That was ceviche. Today, it wouldn't occur to anyone to make ceviche that way. It would be a crime," says Arturo Rubio, owner of the Miraflores restaurant Huaca Pucllana, named for the archaeological site next door. (Diners are treated to stunning views of its pre-Hispanic pyramid, which is illuminated nightly.)
Nikkei cooks (Japanese descendants born in Peru) have influenced the making of ceviche with their owl sashimi technique. "You just need to have the freshest fish, squeeze on a little fresh lemon juice, ten minutes, and you're done. That's how ceviche is prepared today. Practically raw, but fresh, very fresh," pronounces Humberto Sato, chef and owner of Costanera 700, a taste emporium where fabulous fish and shellfish dishes are prepared oriental style.But then, when it comes to ceviche, the debate can be as spicy as the hottest chile.
Jorge Riveros Cayo is a Lima-based journalist and a past contributor to Americas.
COPYRIGHT 2006 Organization of American States Copyright 2006, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.
http://www.mywire.com/pubs/Americas/2006/05/01/1611037?page=1
