Lima dominates list of Latin America’s best restaurants
Three of the top five in the 2015 San Pellegrino Best Restaurants in Latin America are from the Peruvian capital, including the #1, Central.
Lima consolidates its position as the region’s culinary capital and a must-visit destination for foodies from around the world.
If gourmets from around the world had any doubts about which Latin American city should be at the top of their “to do” list, then San Pellegrino’s 2015 ranking of the best 50 restaurants in the region, just crushed them. In total, nine of the top 50 are in the Peruvian capital, including three of the top five.
The top-ranked restaurant was, once again, Central, a project of Peruvian husband-and-wife master chefs Virgilio Martínez and Pía León, whose tasting menu featuring ingredients selected from highly varied ecological niches scattered up and down Peru’s wide range of altitudes has garnered international headlines.
Number three was Astrid y Gastón, run by Gastón Acurio, widely viewed as the spearhead of Peru’s acclaimed culinary renaissance over the last decade, and his German-born wife Astrid Gutsche. She was also named as Latin America’s Best Pastry Chef for “her influence on the pastry world, where she has successfully combined European with indigenous South American ingredients and traditions”.
Fifth on the list was Maido, whose chef Mitsuharu Tsumura has staked out a reputation for his “imaginative” interpretation of Peruvian-Japanese fusion cuisine, known as Nikkei. Meanwhile a Peruvian debutant on the list was Osso Carnicería y Salumería, a butchers restaurant serving charcuterie products that has been earning rave reviews since being founded in 2013 by Renzo Garibaldi.
The list is the result of a poll of the 252 members of Latin America’s Best 50 Restaurants Academy, including chefs, food critics, restaurateurs and others. The full list of Peruvian restaurants included in the list is:
Central (No.1)
Astrid y Gastón (No.3)
Maido (No.5)
La Mar (No.12)
Malabar (No.20)
Fiesta (No.31)
Osso Carnicería y Salumería (No.34)
La Picantería (No.36)
Rafael (No.50)
To include a visit to any of the Lima restaurants in the San Pellegrino list in a unique, individually tailored Peru itinerary, contact the Peru Empire Company at travel@pec.pe or on +51-1-700-5100 or, if you are in the US, 347-713-7030/34.
