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Virgilio Martínez: “People know Machu Picchu, but not the Sacred Valley”

Virgilio Martínez: “People know Machu Picchu, but not the Sacred Valley”

Few Peruvian chefs reach the height and recognition of Virgilio Martínez. The mind behind Central, recognized as the best restaurant in South America in 2019 according to The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, and Mil, an oasis of good food located in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, is one of the largest Peruvian culinary representatives in the world.

Together with his wife, chef Pía León, Virgilio has shown himself a tireless search engine for new flavors and combinations of national products. His last award, being the guide in the complex culinary world of the Andes for the renowned British chef Gordon Ramsay in his new program “Gordon Ramsay Uncharted” (“Gordon Ramsay: Extreme Flavors” in Spanish).

El Comercio sat down with the chef to ask him everything about this project.

How did you get to this production?
National Geographic approached us. We had already worked with them in Cusco, so they already knew that what we were doing in the restaurant was authentic and that it could be a chapter.

-Then this is the first time you met Ramsay?
I have seen it at certain galas and dinners, but this is the first time we have done activities together and we have met.

– Ramsay has a reputation for being a demon in the kitchen, how did you find him in this new environment?
Look at the kitchen, to get to the level where he is to handle so many restaurants, this image of “screaming chef” does not work. When we were climbing and we were docked in a part of the mountain we started talking and I realized that he is a man with a lot of common sense, very sensitive. I thought he was a great guy. One thing is the image that you can watch on TV and another is the person.

– They had to convince Gordon Ramsay to climb the cliff?
It’s not that he was pressured, that’s something he wanted to do.

– In the episode it seemed the opposite. Are we facing the magic of television?
In that case, he tells me “I want to climb and everything”, but he didn’t know where to go. He also did not know that the height was so strong and that he would be as without oxygen, that was what moved him. When he just arrived he thought we were going to walk through the orchards and that’s when I told him we are going to climb the mountain that I caught him cold.

– There are some foods that Ramsay didn’t like, such as worms?
Yes. Culturally there are things that he is not accustomed to eating.

-When the chapter was released in the US Many people said they couldn’t see how they ate guinea pig. How do you think we could promote these traditions against these attitudes?
They are issues that are culturally barriers. Yes I understand that there are people with a lot of sensitivity, who sees the guinea pig as a pet and when it comes to seeing their pet cooked … There are other things that we could show as fishing in the Amazon and agrotourism. If there is something that is going to generate a lot of impact around the world, it is a simple goose, a variety of native potatoes, the attraction and care that people have on earth. These issues of customs and worldview are things that must be promoted, must be told.

The guinea pig has always been an issue and we have been working for years to get people to understand. It will not take more than two years for people to understand that the guinea pig eats here as normal and does not have to be afraid of the presentation. We should not mask the guinea pig to promote it because the more authentic we are, the better.

– It is difficult to think of something more Peruvian than the Sacred Valley of the Incas, but the food shown in this episode is not the first thing one thinks when they speak of Peruvian cuisine, but a sauteed loin …
Sure, Lima. And we Lima influence so that in other regions it becomes sauteed loin, but with Andean products. They are very good, but sometimes as Lima we do not want to see beyond. Only in recent years have we begun to understand that we don’t have to put a potato the more Huancaine the better. Look at the quality of your dad, who you buy it from, where it comes from and not the sauce. Today the taste of the same product is being sought.

– You are a chef who worked abroad. How did you get to focus on the Sacred Valley?
I did not land directly to the Creole food and that facilitated me to enter other fields that perhaps we Lima had not entered because I felt the need to understand the Peruvian product in its origin. That is a bit of Central’s mission, to do product research, cataloging its origin and seeking traceability, connecting with producers, who also have their own history and cultural issues.

For me as a Peruvian I knew Creole food, it is the one I have eaten all my life. But when we opened Central 18 years ago I said we are not going to make cebiche, we are not going to make tenderloin. People told me you’re crazy, what restaurant in Lima doesn’t have those dishes? But times change and I have to look a little at what we are going to do next and nowadays we don’t have to have it in the letter.

The huge cebiche that you ate in front of the beach that cost you S / .20, now goes from S / .100. Portions have dropped, fishing has become more scarce. Then I had to see and analyze these points, to have a vision of the future of the product. Fishing in Peru is undergoing tremendous predation, crop cycles are not being respected in the Andes, they are devastating the Amazon. They are things in which we look for products to make a reality visible. I’m talking about things that I take out the positive in one of these episodes, where we have 47 minutes to show the best of Peru.

What I want to promote the most is sustainable tourism. I would not like everything we do to promote Peru to end up in predatory tourism, which does not exalt our people, but degrades it. It is a complex issue.

– And you think that Gordon Ramsay, with his reputation, is the right person to be the ambassador of our culture?
I don’t think we should take the program as “Gordon Ramsay is promoting Peru”, because this series is about a chef who is going to explore the unknown, moving from one country to another. The best thing about Ramsay and National Geographic is that they have a visibility level power. Ramsay is the most successful cook in terms of spectators. To your question of whether he is the ambassador I think we do not need him, because the images speak for themselves.

Of course television has its own narrative and I can’t control how they edit. I didn’t know that the story was going to be “we’re going to beat Virgil,” which pleases me, because Gordon Ramsay wants to beat me seems like a privilege.

But it was a very intense work, like Haresh that took Ramsay through several places or Manuel Choqque, producers that will now have more exposure and that perhaps this will generate a market for them. People know that Machu Picchu exists, but it is important that people also understand that there is the Sacred Valley, with its history and its comforts, where you can do everything, with luxury, expedition, economic tourism. But we are very careful that this does not end in destructive tourism.

And how can we do it so that it doesn’t end like this?
It is a work in community. As we chefs have always done when we agree. This does not mean that we assemble chefs’ mafias, but that we rely on chefs who maintain the principles that make Peruvian cuisine integrative, living in harmony and consistency. The same must happen with tourism, but it is complex because there are always opportunistic people who are going to seek money. I think we should work more on ethics manuals, since this criollada are things that don’t work for today’s world. I believe that at the moment the Sacred Valley is not prepared for a tourist boom. There are luxury hotels, but there are not enough hotels on average if demand rises.

– What other place in Peru would you recommend visiting Gordon Ramsay for a next chapter?
I would tell him to go to the Tambopata jungle. I want it to get into this whole wave of medicinal plants that have gastronomic consumption. I think there is great potential there that the world still does not see. There are delicious barks, a leaf from a tree that tastes like garlic, things we haven’t seen. This whole world of plants and vegetation and insects in the Amazon is something that I … it is just stated that we are all going to eat insects, I am already warning people to try them more.

It goes against our Lima culture, but I have seen in Thailand where there are wheelbarrows that sell insects, in Mexico it is something normal and cultural. We are not so far from eating them.

– I understand that from here two more generations and we will all be eating insects.
Yes … well I think that my son in five years should already give him a good dose of ants.

– And if you had to recommend a country other than Peru, which one would you recommend?
I would tell him to get into the depths of Japan, which is one of the countries that excites me the most. I went to cook, but when I left at night I went out into the streets … there people live 24 hours a day, and they have an incredible philosophy and ethics. The nature of Japan is also incredible. They have also managed to keep their artisans, which is something that Peru has to continue supporting.

The good thing is that in Peru we still have time to organize. I am sure that if there is a tourism impact, we who are responsible have the opportunity to reach an agreement with governments. I don’t get into politics, but it’s time to take a responsibility.

Author: iterraperu

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