For the first time in the history of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, the best restaurant in the world is in Latin America. A historical fact since the birth in 2002 of the always controversial classification —the voting system is somewhat opaque—, which has traveled to different countries of the world, mainly Europe and on one occasion to the United States. The one chosen in this edition has been Central, in Lima (Peru), which will wear this distinction for one year.
A decade has taken Virgilio Martínez (Lima, Peru, 45 years old) always accompanied by his wife, also a cook, Pía León (Lima, 36 years old), to reach the top: in 2013 he was ranked 50th, taking an important leap, up to the 15th position, the following year. Since then, the rise has been unstoppable, although with some disconcerting setbacks: in 2015 it was placed directly on the fourth step, where it remained for two years, until in 2017 it fell one position, and in 2018 it lost another, where it remained until 2021 that rose to fourth place. Last year, in addition to being chosen as the best in Latin America, it was placed in second position, ahead of the Spanish Disfrutar (Barcelona), and DiverXO (Madrid), which this year have finished in second and third place. , respectively.
It was a dream that the couple had been wanting to fulfill for some time. And they have worked for it. In 2020, the pandemic isolated many hospitality businesses, which used to receive a good number of foreign clients, including voters on the list compiled by the British media company William Reed. And they complied with the phrase of the English philosopher Francis Bacon: “If the mountain does not come to Muhammad, Muhammad will go to the mountain.” Martínez and León crossed the Atlantic and toured the Iberian Peninsula, where they cooked in the homes of chef friends and presented their gastronomic proposal: they traveled to Portugal, where they were received by José Avillez, in Belcanto (Lisbon); In Barcelona, Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas opened the Disfrutar kitchen for them, and in El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz), Ángel León hosted Aponiente.
Getting here has not been easy. To understand Martínez’s culinary concern, it is worth taking a moment to look at his biography. His father is a lawyer and his mother is an architect. They wanted his son to follow a similar path, but the boy wanted to be skater professional. She tried, but suffered a broken collarbone. He enrolled in Law and immediately saw that it was not his thing. The idea of being locked in an office terrified him. He ran away. Although he was not passionate about cooking, he read books on gastronomy. He wanted to leave the country. Be free. And he enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa (Canada), studies that he continued in London. At the age of 19, the British capital opened his eyes: he worked at the Ritz hotel, where he began to get acquainted with the kitchen, until his visa expired. Disappointed and back in Lima, he made a stopover in New York, and stayed there. He ended up at the Lutèce restaurant and began to cook rice dishes with lobster, tuna millefeuille and consommé, as detailed in the book Central (Phaidon).
A year and a half later, his residence permit expired again and he had to return to his hometown, where he began working with two well-known Peruvian chefs, Rafael Osterling, who made Asian, Mediterranean and Peruvian fusion cuisine, and Gastón Acurio, who at that time was preparing French cuisine, although he was timidly introducing Peruvian dishes, such as lomo saltado. Martínez, impressed by the superiority of the French recipes, admits that he did not understand the cuisine of his country very well. He returned to London to work at the Four Seasons Hotel, and there he once again felt the need to experience something new. He went to Asia, toured Thailand, did an internship at the Chinese restaurant at the Four Seasons in Singapore, and was impressed by the way the Chinese made food. dim sum, something that he was not good at. That was when he began to value the culinary tradition of Peru, which, on the other hand, he began to see wherever he went. In Europe he saw ollucos, in the United States he found quinoa, Daniel Boulud made ceviche and Raymond Blanc, tiraditos. He returned to work with Gastón Acurio at Astrid y Gastón, and participated in the opening of the Madrid branch. Once again he felt like a fake. He made Peruvian cuisine in Spain where the ingredients were limited. He wanted to go to the origin of the product.
He took a sabbatical to travel around Peru, exploring the Andes in Cuzco and Huaraz, the Amazon in Pucallpa, and the coast around Chiclayo. He discovered ingredients that he had never heard of or seen before. He was the starting point for Central, which he opened in 2008, in an old house in Miraflores. At first, by his own admission, by mixing European ingredients with Thai flavors, the food was “a confusing mix of flavors.” Due to problems with the opening permits, he had to close for five months, which helped him reflect and analyze what it meant to own a restaurant. At that time he strengthened ties with Pía León, who worked as an employee, but stayed by her side. Together they began to value suppliers, producers and farmers, they redesigned the website, although its digital presentation is not their forte, they organized the restaurant according to a hierarchy in which the team managed information, was well directed and focused.
The next step was to create a research area for the restaurant, Mater Iniciativa, to explore Peruvian biodiversity. And when it came to structuring the letter, they put themselves in the shoes of those who were visiting Peru for the first time, to make them travel through the territory through the kitchen. They searched for dishes at altitude, and began their proposal from sea level to the desert and the valleys, until reaching 4,500 meters in the Andes. They worked with unknown ingredients such as chaco clay or maca root. Instead of slicing truffles, they started slicing tuntas, freeze-dried potatoes.
In the garden on the roof of Central they began to cultivate oxalis tuberosa, known as oca, whose leaves and flowers serve as decoration, while the roots are the real treasure, a very nutritious vegetable. The sea has always been present —Lima is bathed by the Pacific— in ceviches. Among the rocks are crabs, sea spiders, red anemones and starfish, and in the water, anchovies, tuna, mackerel, horse mackerel, silverside, sole, lizas and cojinovas. There are also octopus, crabs, shells and clams. And of all this, Martínez and León make interpretations that lead to various tasting menus. On rock spiders they play with deep orange crabs with edible algae. They cook potato ferments, from a village at 3,800 meters above sea level, tin tin, a climbing plant that grows in the Andes, ox heart, a hallmark of Peruvian identity, scallops with sweet potato roots, vegetables from the mountains, hake in tempura baptized as Sacred Valley. And they make desserts with chaco clay from the highlands.
Currently, in Central there are several tasting menus: Uneven Territory Experience and Creativity of the Day Menu, with 12 dishes each for 1,045 Peruvian soles (in exchange, 264 euros), Mundo Mater Experience and Mundo Creativity, both with 14 dishes, for 1,250 euros (316 euros). The wine pairings, 108 euros and 124 euros. With a pairing of ferments, distillates and wines from South America, 115 euros and 131 euros. The non-alcoholic experience, based on nectars, infusions and extracts with Mater products, ranges from 56 to 70 euros.
Martínez and León are also owners of the Kjolle restaurant in Lima. In it, Pía León proposes an immersion in a menu bathed in the products of the sea, which meet others from valleys, high-altitude lakes, mountains and Amazonian forests. MIL is also yours, an immersive experience —550 dollars, 504 euros, in exchange— with an inspired cuisine proposal aligned with the environment, which connects with the day-to-day life of peasant communities, their ancient customs and traditions, skirting the Moray Archaeological Center.
Central
- Address: Av. Pedro de Osma 301, Barranco, Lima (Peru).
- Phone: +51 1 242 8515
- Bookings: [email protected]
- Web: centralrestaurante.com.pe
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