Acknowledgments

The innovator and visionary Ferran Adriá, creator of 1,846 recipes, visited Lima in early June 2023.

It was a gathering with friends and admirers of his cuisine, his passion, his techniques, but above all, a reunion with Peru, the country he admires so much.

When asked whether he’s starting to become (at least a little) Peruvian, Adrià responds with obvious emotion. “I had the good fortune to be alive during a wonderful period, around 2009, 2010, 2011… when Peruvian cuisine exploded. Honestly, I’m glad I was able to be a part of that in some way.”

Does he consider himself a mentor to our greatest chefs? With humility, he says, “No, what I did was really very simple. In a lot of other countries, people would ask me, ‘How much is Peru paying you to sing their praises?’ But that wasn’t it at all. I came here with Gastón Acurio. We saw an opportunity for a truly socially oriented project, the only one of its kind in the world. I learned about traditional Peruvian cooking. There were already people who were making very creative cuisine, and I said to myself, ‘This is a country that’s already important, and it’s going to become even more important in the culinary world.’ There was no hidden agenda to it.”