#FOURNews | Dining Impossible 16 – The Lima edition

11 Jan 2016
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3 min read
As we begin the new year, this means only one thing for the Dining Impossible series; new dinner parties and new continents, kicking off 2016 with Lima, FOUR finds out more…
Latin America’s culinary capital

Over the past yearDining Impossible has been jetting off to different parts of the world, feasting at the finest restaurants thatSan Sebastián,Copenhagen,Barcelona,Piedmont,ChicagoandNew Yorkhave to offer.This year, it’s the turn of the culinary darling of Latin America,Lima.Withthe next edition of the series marked in the diary for February 11th-13th, Dining Impossible has set up an intinerary that invites you toenter the mouthwatering metropolis, offering an otherworldly all-round, in-depth gastronomic experience to pleasure aficionados flying in from around the globe.

FOUR couldnt resist showing you what is in store for all thelucky dinner guests…

Thursday, February 11th

Chapter 1 – The World’s Best Nikkei

What do you get when you mix the ancient techniques of Japanese cooking with the delicious ingredients from Peru? You get the amazing lovechild known as Nikkei, and atMaidochefis one of the world’s leading representatives of this trend.Mitsuharu has studied local the cusines in both Peru and Japan, honing his talent before opening his restaurant, Maido, where ingredients of both cultures complement each other like they had been born to be one. Maido welcomes guests to live the genuine Nikkei-experience.

In Japan there are many ways to say “welcome” but none grabs the meaning in a same way as “Maido” does. This word gives the name to the restaurant, but it also resumes the feeling of each customer to feel at home. This year Maido cracked the list of The Worlds 50 Best Restaurants, ranking#44,not to mention#5onLatin America’s 50 Best Restaurant List, makingTsumura’s Maido one of the best of its kind in Lima, a city with anintrinsic relationship with Asian cuisine.

Friday, February 12th

Chapter 2 – The Peruvian Storyteller

In 1994 Gastón Acurio and Astrid Gutsche returned to Lima after studying culinary arts in Paris and foundedAstrid y Gastón.The style followed the French trends seen around the world, but would later decidedly change to Peruvian, with the goal of promoting Peruvian cuisine throughout the world. Twenty years later they moved the restaurant to the iconic 300-years old Casa Moreyrawhere Executive Cheftook full leadership.

Diego Muñoz draws his inspiration from already existing elements and reinvents them, flawlessly mixing culture and tradition with modern deluxe cuisine.Since heading the kitchen, he has helped elevate the restaurant from#42to current#14on San Pellegrino’sTop 50 Worlds Best Restaurants 2015and#3of best Latin American restaurants.

Astrid y Gastón coexists with an à la carte bar-restaurant, an experimental herb garden and a development kitchen whose brief extends to education, resonating with the chef-restaurateur’s Pachacútec Culinary School, located in a deprived area of Lima.

Saturday, February 13th

Chapter 3 – Latin America’s No. 1

We end our first South American adventure in the hands of, who literally takes Peruvian cuisine to an extreme elevation.“Latin America’s Best Restaurant” takes you through a vertical journey across Peru’s landscape serving native ingredients from different altitudes. A visit atCentraltakes you through the mountains, the sea, the desert and the jungle, going from 25 meters below to 4,200 meters above sea level.The restaurant is a celebration of the heritage of the Andes and the diversity of Peru, surprising guests with inventive creations that caters to the belly as well as the eyes. Furthermore the produce comes from the urban garden of the restaurant and the water is filtered and bottled onsite promising the finest purified water.

Expect the unexpected atCentral, as you will try both local and well known ingredients as well as elements unknown to native Peruvians like Cushuro, a caviar-like bacteria found only in the mountains after a rainstorm and airampo, a magenta colored member of the cactus family local to the region of the Andes.Martinez’s Mater Iniciativa research project plays a central role in developing the restaurant’s identity and ideology.The chef, who worked across the world before returning home to open Central in 2009, has led the formation of an interdisciplinary team combining gastronomy with nutrition, history, anthropology, and science.

He and his cohorts regularly travel across Peru to discover and study local ingredients, feeding the extraordinary culinary narrative played out on the plates of the restaurant.At this internationally highly acclaimed restaurant that diners cross continents to visit, the Mater menu is an initiative of exploration and discovery, in which a multidisciplinary team travels throughout Peru in search of new products and new stories of people. A sample of what makes Peru a diverse country.

Currently Central claims the#4onSan Pellegrino’s Top 50 Worlds Best Restaurants 2015and coveted top spot of The Best Latin American Restaurants.

Find out more about the Dining Impossible series here…