A Special Dinner This Week In New York Will Celebrate Peruvian Cuisine

When the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list was issued in June, a new entry was sitting on top at #1: Central in Lima Peru, rising from #2 the previous year, replacing perennial favorites in Denmark, Spain and Japan. But for those who admire Peruvian cuisine, this restaurant, which is described as a culinary introductory course through 15 Peruvian ecosystems categorized by altitude, the choice was no surprise, just as Peruvian cuisine itself topping the list was no surprise, given its complexity, diversity of influences and simply luscious flavors. For those in New York, another introductory course of a kind will take place on July 28^th at the Lower East Side restaurant POPULAR as several chefs get together to create a special dinner to celebrate Independence Day in Peru.

As Diego Muñoz, the chef of POPULAR explains it, the celebration started last year when he invited three Peruvian chef friends to the restaurant to collaborate on a dinner. It was a success so they’re back again this year: 2023 James Beard Award winner Erik Ramirez, New Jersey born and bred from Peruvian parents, the chef of Llama Inn and Llama San; Jose Luis Chavez of Mission Ceviche, from Venezuela but with a Peruvian father, who has elevated that Peruvian dish to an art form; Oscar Lorenzzi, the chef of Contento Restaurant who was born and raised in Peru plus newcomer Juan Alfonso Urrutia, corporate chef of Osaka Nikkei, a Peruvian-Japanese restaurant that started in Lima 20 years ago and is now expanding internationally.

As Chef Muñoz explains, two dishes each from five restaurants in a five course menu served family style will be the format of the celebration. Contento will present am amuse-bouche of baby corn, ocopa, dry shrimp and cured egg yolk followed by POPULAR’s Ceviche Clasico of fluke, octopus, red onion and cilantro and Osaka Nikkei’s Yellowfin tuna with leche de tigre, chulpi and sweet potato. The second course will be Mission Ceviche’s braised leeks with rocoto (an apple shaped hot pepper) kimchi and pistachios and POPULAR’s crab and prawn, fried noodles, coconut cream and rocoto. Llama Inn provides two choices for third course: Zucchini Cau Cau with aji Amarillo, potato and mint and wild striped bass with fava beans, chupe, fresh cheese and huacatay (black mint) plus Mission Ceviche’s Short Rib Seco Norteno with butter beans and chalaca (a vegetable relish with corn, tomatoes and onions.) Desserts are Contento’s Guanabana Cream with chica morada granita and Osaka Nikkei’s Lucuma ice cream with sesame amelcochoado (macaron) and pisco anglaise. There will also be a band fusing Afro, Peruvian and funk beats, dancers and a special cocktail menu created for the night.

What Chef Muñoz hopes to show in an elemental way is the breadth of Peruvian cuisine due to all of those microclimates producing a range of ingredients and the through lines of the cultures that have contributed their flavors to the overall mix: Hispanic, Arabic, African American, Chinese from Canton and Japanese. “The Japanese changed the way we cook and serve ceviche,” he explains, “with precise cuts and huge knowledge of how to treat fish and seafood. It’s nourished our gastronomy into what it’s called today, Nikkei cuisine. The Italians in the last century also spread their amazing gastronomy, influencing local comfort food, bakeries and wine.”

Much of that fusion will be on display in this celebration, potentially encouraging diners to go to the source to experience it: ranging from Central, Maido, Kjolle, and Mayta in Lima, as Muñoz suggests, to the picanterias, the family run, lunchtime restaurants in Arequipa a region on the south coast of the country. The Andes gastronomy in Cusco and Urubamba is also a must, he explains, for their traditional cuisine.

But they can also start small. “There are a lot of great Peruvian restaurants in New York and New Jersey,” he says. And they can try at first three essential dishes: Ceviche clásico, Papa a la Huancaina (a starter of sliced potatoes with a creamy sauce composed of cheese, aji Amarillo, red onion and garlic) and Lomo Saltado (an Asian/Latin stir fry with strips of sirloin, soy sauce, red onion, tomatoes, French fries and aji Amarillo.) They’re all easily found on these menus on any given night.