Peruvian Gastronomy Essay

Peruvian gastronomy

Questions & answers
With diego muñoz

P: What makes Peruvian gastronomy unique?
DM: Several aspects make Peru’s gastronomy unique. Among the most significant, there is the richness of its history that involves immigration waves and civilization shocks, and the exuberance of its biodiversity, which is directly related to the climate’s diversity and to its geography, benefiting from the Pacific, the Amazon, and from Lake Titicaca. Nowadays, Peruvian gastronomy is considered one of the great cuisines of the world, because it harmonizes tradition and history with modernity and innovation, along with different cultural influences, like the Inca, the Spanish, the African, the Chinese, the Japanese, the English and the Italian.

DM: Ceviche --- along with other fish dishes --- potatoes (more than 3000 varieties), ají (a native variety of chili), cereals (like maize and quinoa), leche de tigre, fruit (like lúcuma), the native Andean legumes and tubers (like maca and oca) and llama's meat.

P: In what way did the history of Peru influence the country's gastronomy?
DM: It had a profound influence. As far as I know, the Inca culture prevailed up to the beginning of the sixteenth century --- by then, tubers and roots like potatoes and oca had a central role, along with cereals like quinoa and maize, legumes like tarwi (a native variety of lupin beans), plants like maca, and fruit like banana, avocado, papaya, plums and pineapple. Chilies were highly valued. Inca gastronomy also included dishes made out of algae that were eaten either fresh or dried.

P: How about meat and fish, were they not a part of the Incas’ gastronomic traditions?
DM: The most common were guinea pig meat and llama meat, as well as dried fish (like rays, small sharks and bonito). The Incas also ate small insects and animals, like toads, grasshoppers and ants.

P: What changed with the arrival of the Spanish in