The Wall Street JournalMagazine
Chef Virgilio Martínez Takes Peruvian Cuisine to New Heights
At his top-ranked Lima restaurant, Central, chef Virgilio Martínez has created a menu devoted to Peru's most ancient ingredients—and organized by altitude
By Howie Kahn
March 4, 2015 11:17 am ET
BEFORE HEADING even deeper into the mountains, and with dark clouds filling the late morning sky, Virgilio Martínez Véliz issues a warning. "I don't want to scare you," says the 37-year-old Peruvian chef, sitting in the second row of a speeding silver passenger van, "but there's a thing that happens here in the Andes when it rains a lot. We call them huaycos. The rocks start colliding and sparking. Then the water rushes down. It takes everything, even the trees." Thunder rumbles. Raindrops peck at the windshield. Recalling one particularly harrowing torrent, Martínez pops a wad of coca leaf into his mouth and confesses, "I remember thinking, 'OK, now we are dead.' "
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Martínez regularly risks his life in the pursuit of improving Central, the restaurant he opened in 2009 in Lima's affluent Miraflores district, two blocks from the Pacific. He has traveled to the Cusco region 47 times in the past three years, taking the short flight inland and upward. "In my kitchen," he says, "we are about 250 feet from sea level. Here, we're going on 12,000." For Martínez, altitude is the key to understanding Peru's rich biodiversity and ancient agricultural heritage. It's even the structuring principle of his menu: Each dish is listed next to its elevation of origin. Ingredients from Cusco, the high-up heart of the Incan Empire, represent the literal peak of the meal in a dish called Extreme Altitude, inspired by what grows at 4,200 meters, or nearly 14,000 feet.
More in WSJ. Magazine
My Monday Morning
Bella Hadid on Overcoming the Anxiety of Getting Dressed Every Morning
The supermodel also discusses Instagram vs. reality: "Even though on Instagram things look so beautiful, at the end of the day, we are all cut from the same cloth."
Magazine - Culture
Friday Brunch: Work-From-Home's Forbidden Pleasure
As the restaurant industry continues to struggle in the pandemic, a surprising ally has emerged—the weekend brunch crowd showing up during the weekday.
For Male Celebs Like Harry Styles, It's All About Having a Nail Polish Brand
Forget tequila: A nail polish line offers male celebs entrée into the lucrative world of the beauty industry.
Why Balmain's Olivier Rousteing Doesn't Believe in 10-Year Plans
The designer also talks about embracing vulnerability and why he loves 'Emily in Paris.' By Lane Florsheim