Central Restaurante in Lima, Peru is a culinary gem. If you’ve seen the Netflix Chef’s Table episode (season 3, episode 6), you know that Virgilio Martínez Véliz runs Central’s kitchen with his wife, Pia León. It is there that they developed the ecosystem and altitude-based menu. Not content to just cook with native Peruvian ingredients, Virgilio and his sister Malena set up Mater Iniciativa, which has become their cultural and biological diversity research project, and is the foundation of the ecosystem and altitude-based tasting menu. According to our friends at Wikipedia, “Central Restaurante is the flagship restaurant of Peruvian chef, Virgilio Martínez Véliz, and serves as his workshop in the investigation and integration of indigenous Peruvian ingredients into the restaurant’s menu.”
On a bucket list note, it is currently the World’s #6 restaurant and the #2 restaurant in South America, according to the 2018 Pellegrino Top 50 Restaurant list. (Side Oh Canada! note, the chef, Virgilio Martínez Véliz, spent time in Canada studying at Le Cordon Bleu, Ottawa!)
On our recent trip to Machu Picchu, we finished up in Lima and were lucky enough to snag a table at Central Restaurante. As the dinner was fish-intensive, Pete took notes and wrote down his thoughts during our dinner for this post. We hope you enjoy the #foodporn ahead as well as his commentary!
Entrance. Beautiful indirectly-lit walled courtyard with gardens growing local herbs. A large table at the entrance showcases the different grains and herbs of Peru.
Dining room. Open spacious room. Indirect lighting. Window to a large, sparkling clean kitchen. White uniforms with black aprons. High ceiling with trees growing floor to ceiling through the space. Large natural stone tables. Evokes the rainforest.
Big granite stone beside the table with large granite bowl of quinoa representing “Pachamama” (the earth time or fertility goddess to the Incas).
The menu is 16 courses representing each microclimate of Peru.
1. -10m. Razor clam served on a fantastical bouquet of barnacles. One bite. Clam and barnacle tartare served on a crispy chip. Seaweed cocktail.
2. Desert. 180m. Chilled cactus fruit served on a frozen platform. Translucent sweet potato crispy skin. Sea urchin served with pink cream cheese-like foam.
3. Dark purple root. 2450m. Crispy potato cannoli filled with creamy potato butter. Red potato rose on a smoky crunchy black mushroom. Duck Confit.
4. 106m. Forest Cotton. Ingredients from the Amazon. Craft beer made from oregano pampa. Arapaima fish (giant Amazon river fish) nugget decorated with two Amazon fruits. With arapaima broth. Followed by cotton fruit stuffed with arapaima.
5. Jungle Highlands. 1890m. Two types of bread made from dale-dale. One dark with white tree tomato butter. Sweet caramel, chewy and cheesy. One light with dark butter. Ashy, lemon and mint.
6. Ocean floor. -25m. Ocean floor scallops decorated with sea cucumber and seaweed. Scallops like a ceviche. Sea cucumber marinated, thin and sweet.
7. Coastal foothills. 450m. Oca chips. Tumbo (passion fruit) sauce and a cheese made from Lupinus. Rich, creamy and slight fermentation.
8. High Valley. 2800m. Avocado with river shrimp. Such beautiful avocados in Peru. Always perfect.
9. Moray. 4050m. Starting to get high. Thin, fingerling potatoes baked in clay. From near Cusco. Very dramatic. (Elin’s note: This dish is based on the Andean tradition of baking potatoes in a soil oven called a huatia.) Dipped in green sauce of huacatay, Muna and fresco cheese. The same sauce we were served at the cuyeria in the Sacred Valley! Pairing was Mimo. Very strong, made from Pisco grape.
10. Amazonian waters. 120m. Piranha araza yuca root. Piranha heads. With teeth. Unbelievable. The course was a piranha chip with yuca root beads. But really, who cares, because there are piranhas! In a bowl. On the table. With teeth. So sharp!
11. Jungle plains. 165m. Langoustine with plantain foam. Delicious, but hard to follow piranhas!
12. Deep sea coral. -5m. Octopus squid sea lettuce. (I ate piranha! See #10). Green coral foam with octopus glazed in squid ink.
13a. So full now. Could have stopped at piranhas. Piranhas!
13b. Can’t find the little circular menu. Oh, there it is. Elin didn’t drink her Mimo. The waiter who took it away was so disappointed. Now we have goat from the Andean slopes. First red wine. A GSM from Chile.
Hey, they should have cuy. I may ask the waiter to call the chef over so I can grill him like San Lorenzo.
Why do people bring kids to a place like this? Eat your arapaima or no Inca Cola!
Wow, this goat is really good. The piranhas would eat the shit out of this. Imagine the goat thrashing in the shallows of the river. “No, I shouldn’t have been so thirsty. Ahhhhh!” Tasty, though.
Hey, what are people from Lima called? Limanese? I hope so. It’s actually limeño and limeña. Even better! Shouldn’t have drank the Mimo. Elin is so smart (Elin note: Hah! Officially, in writing – you know I had to keep that part in).
14. Amber Woods (stripper name!) 250m. Yacon root wrinkled lemon coffee. (Coffee at 10:30? Bad idea. I’ll be up all night thinking about those little piranha teeth biting all over me. Aaaargh.).
People in Lima are way more glamorous than the Sacred Valley.
Just discovered that my pants are covered with some white powder. When did that happen? Which course? Before we arrived? I’m mortified. Sort of brushed it off. I’m back! (Might be cocaine – I think it’s legal here – Elin’s note: It’s the white powder from my non-piranha course dish that I had Pete try).
15. Need to stay focused now. Two more courses. Sweet wine from somewhere around here (Peru, Chile, Argentina?) Brondi is really good. Brown, sweet, rough and fun, like a visit from 1972 Tina Turner.
Mountain Rain. Cocoa 85%, coca leaves (!) and edible clay (really?). I doubt everything about this dessert. They’re now just taking advantage of drunk patrons (like me). “They’ll believe anything!” But Elin likes it. Me too! Hallelujah, coca makes everything better. And the rich cocoa is amazing. Coca and cocoa. A match made in etymological heaven! Go, Peru.
The chef isn’t here. He’s in Cusco. Damn! We were just there.
16. Mil medicinales. 3780m. No idea what this is. Elin missed taking a picture of the last course, so she’s trying to figure out what to do. Every word I type has one correct letter and 12 wrong ones. Medici Amazon.
Wine pairings disappeared three courses ago. What happened? Did he go home? Did he decide that we’re morons? So thirsty now.
17. There are only 16 courses. This is not a course. Just felt that we needed some closure. Elin left some time ago. I should really pay the bill and go back to the hotel. Maybe one more piranha sour. So good!
Birthday dish for Elin! They got my note! Chilimoya with some kind of chocolate made from a snake from lower Arequipa. Delicious. They are so creative here.
All in all an incredible experience and an incredible journey through Peru!
If you are going to Machu Picchu, or Lima, Peru, please put this on your “must eat at” list. Note: you must make the reservation well in advance, reservations are booked in 4-month blocks, 30 days in advance of the first month of the booking period (i.e. for dates between September to December 2019, they began accepting reservations Monday, 29th of July 2019). The website is a little tricky and you must guarantee the reservation with a credit card at the time of booking.
Where: Av. Pedro de Osma 301 Lima, Barranco 15063, Peru https://www.centralrestaurante.com.pe/; When: Monday – Saturday: 12:45-13:30; 19:45-20:30
Did the clay add any flavour to the potatoes?
I liked the cactus! That looks so cool! How did it taste?
Thanks Grayce, the clay added an earthy flavour but it was the green sauce that made it. Pete is still saying “piranhas”!