Peru: Culinary and Social Revolution in the Land of Potatoes and Innovative Cuisine

Eating Great Food and Doing Good Deeds

Potatoes and a few kinds of grains are all that grow well in the high elevations of the Andes Mountains of Peru, but new ideas are helping local Quechua — descendants of the Inca — improve their health and livelihoods. (© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

Peru’s culinary scene has expanded far from Andean potatoes and guinea pig into a rich, varied cuisine focusing on local ingredients, creative themes, organic vegetables, beautiful presentations — and food as a tool for social change.

story and photos by April Orcutt

A sous chef is also an artist at upscale Central restaurant, which focuses on altitude-based cuisine in Lima, Peru.
(© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

With influences from Quechua/Inca, Amazon Basin, Spanish, African, Japanese, Chinese and other cultures, Peru has developed a compelling food culture with Lima as a leader in Latin fusion cuisine. During three weeks of travel, I discovered some of Peru’s best and most socially cool foodie experiences.

Sophisticated Altitude Dining

The soft green-and-white disk served on a slab of stone on my plate at Central, one of the most innovative restaurants in Lima, looked like a great chunk of blue cheese sprinkled with Parmesan and parsley. Psyched for savory, I took a bite — only to discover it was a sweet dessert made of a white-flesh Andean fruit called cherimoya, a Peruvian mint named muña, coffee, coca leaves (yes, those coca leaves), and chaco clay —edible ingredients from 5,700 feet (1,750 meters) in elevation.

This unusual combination of ingredients — including edible clay — found around 5,700 feet in elevation is served at Central restaurant in Lima, Peru.
(© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

Central’s owner-and-executive-chef, Virgilio Martinez, uses the elevation theme to explore and discover diverse natural ingredients ranging from the Pacific coast to the Andes Mountains to the Amazon rain forest. Each course in the tasting menu focuses on a different elevation. His team of anthropologists, linguists, and nutritionists travel the country to learn about biodiversity and bring back foods known to locals. (His sister, Malena, a doctor, tests the food. “I want to make sure we’re not poisoning anyone,” he says, “or getting you high.”) In the process, he gives people in poor, remote areas another way to make a living by collecting and selling those ingredients.

The Expedición Paita (Paita Expedition) dish at Central restaurant in Lima, Peru, features frogfish and deep-water algae from 80 feet under the sea.
(© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

My Entorno de la Hoja de Coca dessert translates as “Environment of the Coca Leaf.” Martinez’s Altura Extrema (Extreme Altitude) dish from 13,800 feet (4,200 meters) includes two types of potatoes plus cushuro, an amino-acid-rich but tasteless, current-sized, blue-green algae that absorbs other flavors. The Expedición Paita (Paita Expedition) features frogfish and deep-water algae from 80 feet (25 meters) under the Pacific Ocean, but I particularly liked the surprising variety of flavors and textures in Diversidad de Maíz (Diversity of Corn), 5,900 feet (1,800 meters).

Sous chefs hard at work at the innovative Central restaurant in Lima, Peru
© April Orcutt, all rights reserved

In addition to presenting food-as-art and tantalizing taste buds, Central’s nearly two dozen sous chefs bustle around behind a huge glass window in the open kitchen, stirring pots, dabbing comestibles onto plates, and decorating dishes with splashes of sauces. Choose your table carefully, and it’s like watching a wide-screen, live-action reality show while you eat.

Organic & Delicious

AlmaZen (meaning “Zen Soul”) created complex certified-organic vegetarian cuisine with subtle flavors. The “Queen Avocado” stuffed with steamed vegetables in a cashew-and-dill sauce and the Napoleon lasagne with thin layers of mushrooms, asparagus, squash and grilled zucchini with cashew and tree-tomato (tomatillo) sauces were delectable.

Bioferia de Miraflores, the weekly organic farmers market, in Lima, Peru, hums with activity.
(© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

AlmaZen’s owners, Enrique Vera “Henry” DuBois and his wife, helped start Lima’s weekly organic farmers market, Bioferia de Miraflores, which now has a couple dozen stalls. Vendors sell local honey, bee pollen, tomatoes, broccoli, asparagus, Roman broccoli, lettuce, celery, onions, radishes, kohlrabi, eggplant, varieties of squash, cacao (chocolate) pods, quinoa, kiwicha, kañiwa, sweet-tart aguaymanto berries, and a selection of Peru’s 3,000 varieties of potatoes.

Young chefs at Gastón Acurio’s Instituto Culinario Pachacútec (ICP) (Culinary Arts Institute) in Pachacútec, a poor suburb of Lima, Peru.
(© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

Chefs in Training

Gastón Acurio, the international star of Peruvian cuisine and a master chef who trains young chefs at his Instituto Culinario Pachacútec (ICP), located this culinary arts institute in Pachacútec, a poor neighborhood near Lima. His goal was to use food as a social tool to change people’s lives by enrolling disadvantaged youth in a two-year culinary program.

Student-chef Jesus Beliot made a traditional Incan dish called causa. He flattened mashed yellow potatoes into a four-inch (10-centimeter) square then covered it with cooked tuna, onions, avocado, and yellow chilies, rolled it into a cylinder and sliced it. The sweet-spicy interior contrasted with the soft flavorful potato wrapping for a scrumptious mix. I lost count of how many I ate.

The traditional Inca dish called causa is made from flattened mashed yellow potatoes, tuna, onions, avocado and yellow chilies. (© April Orcutt. All Rights Reserved)

Student-chef Nora Paucar (right) assembles vegetarian lasagne at the Instituto Culinario Pachacútec. (© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

While student-chef Nora Paucar layered a vegetarian lasagne with wild black mushrooms, garlic, basil, cheese, spinach, carrots, white-wine-and-bechamel and tomato sauces, Maria Louisa Tohalino explained why she entered the program: “I liked to cook for my family and see the smiles on their faces when they taste my food,” she said. “It’s like heaven for me.”

The causa, artistically-arranged salad, lasagne, and traditional chicken-and-cilantro-rice dish were like heaven to those of us on the food tour. Ultra-heavenly was the dessert — suspiro de limeña, meaning “sigh of a woman from Lima” — a rich vanilla custard topped with port meringue. I nearly missed my bus while finishing my last spoonful.

After graduating, many new chefs work in Acurio’s 35 restaurants around the world while others go to Michelin Star restaurants in Europe. Having eaten at ICP, I can understand the success rate — the food the budding cooks prepare is excellent.

Colorful buffet at Inti-Raymi restaurant at Palacio del Inka in Cusco, Peru
(© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

Actual Altitude Adjustment

The city of Cusco, a 90-minute flight east from Lima, lies at an elevation of 11,320 feet (3,450 meters) in the Andes Mountains and is the gateway to the Valle Sagrado or Sacred Valley of the Incas — and to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of 500-year-old Inca ruins at Machu Picchu.

Cusco also furthers Peru’s status as a purveyor of refined food. The upscale restaurant Inti Raymi (meaning “Festival of the Sun” in Quechua) is across the street from Qorikancha, the most important Inca temple to the sun god, and is in the Palacio del Inka hotel, which was built partially on finely crafted stone foundations from Inca buildings.

Inti Raymi emphasizes organic ingredients grown locally or in the nearby Sacred Valley. I found the subtle potato-cream soup “scented with white truffle” divine, but the extensive menu included local trout ceviche, quinoa-coated chicken, and herb-crusted alpaca with local Maras salt. I was intrigued by the “Chocolate Round” dessert featuring 60% chocolate mousse over cold cheese and pisco sour foam and a “hot doughnut filled with pisco-scented chocolate, port wine, fruits-of-the-forest sauce, and tomato jelly.”

Preparations for a traditional pachamanca or Andean-style “luau” include several kinds of potatoes, sweet potatoes, shallots, beans, trout, chicken, fresh herbs and a pineapple. (© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

2,000-Year-Old Andean “Luau”

Along the shore of Lake Piuray about 20 miles northwest of Cusco on the way to the Sacred Valley, Chef Pio Vasquez, owner of El Huacatay restaurant in Urubamba, created a traditional pachamanca or Andean-style “luau” for our tour. They dug a yard-wide pit, put softball-size stones in it, built a fire on top, added a metal grate over that, and placed more stones on the grate.

Chef Pio Vasquez creates a traditional pachamanca or Andean-style “luau.”
(© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

A couple hours later Chef Pio’s team removed the hot rocks from the grate, cleared out the ashes, and filled the pit with five kinds of potatoes plus sweet potatoes, shallots, large beans in pods, chicken in a tomato sauce, trout in a cilantro sauce, bundles of fresh herbs and a pineapple. They covered it all in more hot rocks, completely sealed the earthen oven with wet towels, added dirt for insulation, covered that in grasses, and placed a bouquet offering of red gladiolas, yellow marigolds, and white calla lilies on top. A Quechua shaman blessed the pachamanca. A couple hours later Chef Pio opened the pit oven and spread out a buffet feast. Flavors from the smoky herbs and the cilantro and tomato sauces permeated the food, creating a delicious and traditional meal.

Eating Well and Doing Good

Another day, traveling farther north into the Sacred Valley — called “sacred” because its rich soil is rare among the steep 13,780-foot (4,200-meter) ridges — I stopped for an inexpensive lunch at Panza Verde or “Green Belly,” in the village of Calca. Specials included “red-belly” chicken brochettes with rice and two sauces and “green-belly” chaufa, a Chinese-fusion rice with red bell peppers, carrots, tomatoes, cilantro, sesame seeds, and a savory sauce. The potato salad and cream-of-vegetable soup were also delicious.

A Quechuan family’s greenhouse built with Por Eso!’s help high in the Peruvian Andes (© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

But there’s more here than great prices on excellent food. Simone Heemskerk and Jolanda Buets’ foundation, Por Eso! (Because!), helps poor, subsistence-farming families at high altitudes in the Andes. Previously they could only grow potatoes and a few grains, but Por Eso! supplies materials to build simple greenhouses. These Quechuans are learning not only to grow vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, chard, broccoli, cabbage, squash, spinach, soybeans, kale, celery, onions, cilantro and to improve their families’ nutrition but also to sell extra vegetables to restaurants so they can have an income.

Gregorio Mamani thanks Por Eso! for its help building a greenhouse so he can work at home instead of spending months away working as a porter on the Inca Trail. (© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

Gregorio Mamani is one of the grateful Quechuans because Por Eso! helped his family build a greenhouse. Now they can sell vegetables, and he can work at home instead of spending half the year away from his family while laboring as a porter along the Inca Trail.

12 Courses to Taste

“Hawa” means “heaven” in Quechua, and it’s the name of a restaurant at the Tambo del Inka resort in Urubamba in the Sacred Valley. Although the tasting menu listed seven courses, I counted 12, including amuse-bouches and tea.

The tasting menu at Hawa restaurant in Peru’s Sacred Valley includes several amuse-bouches, including one with quinoa, heart of palm, smoked trout, apple and passion fruit. (© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

The dishes emphasized Sacred-Valley ingredients, especially local meats (cuy [guinea pig], alpaca and lamb) and vegetables from the hotel’s three-quarter-hectare garden.

Executive chef Victor Alvarez del Villar of Hawa in his garden.
(© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

The second amuse-bouche was almost too pretty to eat: three colors of quinoa, heart of palm, local smoked trout, apple, passion-fruit sauce and an edible purple flower. The grilled-trout course included purple mactillo potatoes, chard and a sauce of local molle peppers. The alpaca rack (with flavor similar to exquisite lamb) came with native potatoes, muña-mint sauce and lavender flowers.

My favorite course was dessert: purple-corn panna-cotta, quinoa cheesecake and pink cactus-fruit sorbet decorated with small purple and yellow flowers from the garden. What a lovely way to end a delicious and socially beneficial foodie tour in the truly Sacred Valley of Peru.

El Valle Sagrado or the Sacred Valley — also called the Rio Urubamba Valley — in Peru
(© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

Travel Facts

Getting There

United, American, Delta, jetBlue and Avianca offer direct flights from the U.S.

Getting Around

Culture Xplorers, based in Kansas City, Missouri, specializes in customized epicurean tours, including pachamancas and the Pachacútec Institute of Culinary Arts. Tel. +1/215–870–3585; culturexplorers.com

When to Go:

June to August is the dry season.

Where To Stay:

Lima: Hotel B, a boutique art hotel in a former Belle Époque mansion, is in a peaceful neighborhood near many galleries. Tel. +51–965–387–134, hotelb.pe

Cusco: Palacio Nazarenas, a former palace and convent, has rooms facing an inner courtyard or pool. Centrally located. Tel. 1–800–237–1236 or +51–84–582–222 belmond.com/palacio-nazarenas-cusco

Where To Eat:

Central Restaurant, Ca. Santa Isabel 376, Miraflores, Lima; Tel. +51 1 242–8515; centralrestaurante.com.pe/en/

Inti Raymi, Palacio del Inka, Plazoleta Santo Domingo 259, Cusco; Tel. +51–84–231–961 marriott.com/hotels/hotel-information/restaurant/cuzlc-palacio-del-inka-a-luxury-collection-hotel-cusco/

Hawa restaurant, Tambo del Inka, Avenida Ferrocarril S/N, Urubamba: Tel. +51–84–581–777; marriott.com/hotels/hotel-information/restaurant/cuztl-tambo-del-inka-a-luxury-collection-resort-and-spa-valle-sagrado/

El Huacatay, Jr. Arica 620, Urubamba; Tel. +55–84–20–17–90; elhuacatay.com/

Further Information

Por Eso! Perú; +51–97–47–90–688; poreso.org

Official Peru travel website: peru.travel/en

Quechua woman with her two children in her Por Eso! greenhouse high in the Andes of Peru
(© April Orcutt — all rights reserved)

Find more of April Orcutt’s stories at Medium.com/BATW-Travel-Stories, Medium.com/Travel-Insights-And-Outtakes, AprilOrcutt.Medium.com, and AprilOrcutt.com.