A small bite of Peru
A two-day cooking workshop at Berjaya University College of Hospitality provided fascinating insights into an amazing cuisine.
“TO understand Peruvian gastronomy, you must understand its geography and history,” said Carlos Pardo Figueroa (pic) to a roomful of culinary students paying rapt attention.
These are students of the School of Culinary Arts, at Berjaya University College of Hospitality, and Figueroa was conducting a special two-day cooking class just for them – he was in town for the Peru Mucho Gusto culinary festival, and held the class as part of the school’s International Chef Paul Bocuse Week.
“Peru has a thin strip of the coast, as well as the Andes mountain range and the Amazon. These three account for over 80 of our 110 micro-climates, none of them extreme – and that provides a great diversity of ingredients,” said Figueora, from the Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola (Usil) in Lima. Like Berjaya UCH, it is a member of the Institut Paul Bocuse Worldwide Alliance.
“Every region has its own expression and its own distinctive cuisine, because of this diversity,” said Guido F. Loayza, the ambassador of Peru. An avid and passionate cook himself, he was also at the workshop, contributing added knowledge to the students.
The influence of the Incas and the Spanish conquistadors and their African slaves, as well as the many waves of migrants through the years – from Italy to Japan – on the rich and complex gastronomy of Peru is well-documented.
“The powerful interest in food that Peruvians have can be traced to the Incas – to them, gold and silver were decorations. Food was the true currency of their civilisation,” said Figueora.
“But I think we also have to look at pre-Incan civilisation for its influences,” he added. These had no written languages but left fascinating signposts of their existence – like the Nasca lines, designs of animals that can only be seen properly from the air, and which were produced by the Nasca people who excelled at turning desert into arable land.
“Unlike other gastronomic traditions, like the French, Peruvian food is less about technique than it is about produce and history – much of our food was once the food of poor people, and people can get very creative when they don’t have much,” said Figueroa.
For many of the students, this was their first brush with the fascinating world of Peruvian gastronomy, which features a host of unique produce as one of its building blocks.
They followed Figueroa’s every move intently as the young Peruvian chef presented an expansive selection of the produce of his country – including the deeply gleaming purple corn, or maiz morada – which he turned into a sweet, slightly starchy dessert called mazamorra morada – the popular, creamcoloured choclo corn variety, which has larger kernels, and the ubiquitous aji amarillo, the fruity, somewhat grassy orange-yellow pepper that iconic Peruvian chef Gaston Acurio has called “the DNA of Peruvian cuisine.”
Indeed, Peru is home to such unique produce that to replicate it with substitutes is to lose some of its essence – an ongoing challenge in terms of fresh ingredients like the aji amarillo, in particular.
“There is sometimes in upscale local supermarkets, a small fresh yellow chilli from Mexico that can be used instead – although it will not be the exact same taste, it is the closest you can get here,” said outgoing deputy head of mission of the Embassy of Peru, Jose Bustinza – he will soon be returning to the country of his birth and no longer have to search for substitutes, or import them!
There are some who suggest serrano or habanero as likely stand-ins too, but while these have similarly fruity flavour profiles, they also pack much more intense heat.
Possibly the Peruvian product most easily and widely available here is quinoa.
“In the last five to ten years, it has become a real trend. And while we used to trail far behind Bolivia in exporting quinoa, we are now about to overtake it,” said Figueroa.
“In the end, it is important to hold on to our traditions and our identity. It is strange to me, to hear of Peru exporting things like asparagus or blueberries – after all, we have about 4,000 types of potatoes indigenous to us, and that is what we should be proud of and cultivate.”
Here, Figueroa has shared some recipes from Usil; most ingredients are readily available here.
LOMO SALTADO
2 servings
600g beef tenderloin, cut into small pieces
30g salt, or to taste pepper, to taste
40g garlic, minced
70ml vegetable oil
1 aji amarillo, seeds and pith removed, cut into pieces
3 red onions, peeled and cut into pieces 4 tomatoes, peeled, seeds removed and cut into chunks
120ml red vinegar
150ml red wine
160ml soy sauce
200ml demi-glace