13 COURSES CREATE FOOD FIESTA
Gastronomy becomes performance art in Lima, writes Sarah Marshal.
Presenting a selection of outrageous canapes on what appears to be a miniature double divan, the waitress proudly raises a curtain on our showstopping meal.
“We start with a fusion of flavours that form the basis of Peruvian cuisine,” she proclaims, pointing to fried pork balls and alfajores filled with crab paste.
Opening a small drawer beneath the mattress to reveal several dainty, bite-sized empanadas, she adds: “Because this is where everything begins — on the bed.”
She’s right. Mixing gasket-blowing African spices with earthy Andean flavours and fragrant Japanese finesse, cooking in this South American country truly is a melting pot of influences.
In recent years, Peru’s chefs have earned worldwide recognition and capital city Lima is bubbling with creative restaurants.
Spearheading that foodie revolution was chef Gaston Acurio, who runs the immensely successful Astrid & Gaston with his German-born wife, pastry chef Astrid Gutsche. A 10-course tasting menu will set you back about $170.
Dispersed between carefully curated book cabinets and elegant balconies, large wooden tables are scattered across the floors of palatial 17th-century mansion Casa Moreyra. The other diners are so far away, it’s enjoyably easy to believe we are alone. Our 13-course taster menu is an endless adventure: ceviche made from an old, “endangered” recipe (where lemon and lime juices are replaced with orange), tender flakes of guinea pig set sail in the hull of a mermaid’s tail, and a defiantly different dessert of cheesecake icecream with olives (it shouldn’t work, but it does).
When the Candy Shop eventually arrives — a multi-drawer treasure chest of gold- dusted chocolates and a full flavour spectrum of truffles — we’re pleasurably destroyed.
“We used to have a 30-course menu,” reminisces the waitress, rebuffing our gentle (and temporary) protests of “no more”.
“People would take naps in between courses on daybeds. Those meals would last all day.”