Why is Peruvian food so good?

Why Lima eats so well

The basis is geography: within a few kilometres Peru goes from cold sea to desert, Andes and jungle, and each level has its own larder. The Andes grow more than four thousand varieties of potato and hundreds of kinds of maize. To that base the colonial period added Spanish pork, rice and onion and the frying of enslaved Africans; in the nineteenth century a hundred thousand Chinese came to work and, when their contracts ended, opened eating houses, which is where lomo saltado and the chifa come from. The Japanese arrived from 1899, and their children transformed ceviche: thinner fish, less time in the lime, ginger and soy, the cooking called nikkei.

For decades Peruvians ate all this at home and in markets while elegant restaurants served French food. That changed with Gastón Acurio, who came back from Paris in 1994, opened a French restaurant, got bored, and began cooking what his grandmother ate. In 2023 Lima's Central was chosen the best restaurant in the world; and in any market a set menu still costs less than a coffee in Madrid.

• More than four thousand varieties of potato and hundreds of kinds of maize are grown in the Andes.
• Spanish pork, rice and onion and the frying of enslaved Africans were added to the Andean base; a hundred thousand Chinese arrived in the nineteenth century and opened eating houses, the origin of the chifa and of lomo saltado; Japanese immigrants from 1899 produced nikkei cooking.
• Gastón Acurio, back from Paris in 1994, turned to cooking what his grandmother ate; Central, by Virgilio Martínez, was chosen the world's best restaurant in 2023.
• Peruvians argue about food the way Argentines argue about football; pollo a la brasa is the most eaten dish, ahead of ceviche.

En los Andes se cultivan más de cuatro mil variedades de papa, de todos los colores, y cientos de tipos de maíz.

In the Andes more than four thousand varieties of potato are grown, in every colour, and hundreds of kinds of maize.

De esa mezcla nació el lomo saltado: carne de res, cebolla y tomate salteados en un wok con salsa de soja, servidos con papas fritas y arroz.

From that mixture was born lomo saltado: beef, onion and tomato stir-fried in a wok with soy sauce, served with chips and rice.

Los peruanos discuten de comida como los argentinos de fútbol, y preguntar cuál es el mejor ceviche de Lima puede terminar una amistad.

Peruvians argue about food the way Argentines argue about football, and asking which is the best ceviche in Lima can end a friendship.