Acknowledgments

Closely guarded recipes and generations who have inherited carefully maintained duties and traditions. Women’s business, really. The kitchens of Moquegua have been places of gathering, enjoyment and hard work.

Everything started with a bit of luck and chance. These businesses are mostly family- run, having grown up alongside the wine industry, with which they share a common ingredient: eggs. In the seventeenth century, the winegrowers of the Moquegua Valley used egg whites to clarify the wine they produced, while the yolks were put to good use in creating pastries.

Today the invaluable recipe books preserved by Moquegua’s famed confectioneries are an age-old legacy and the pride of many families, that prepare from the celebrated alfajor de penco to the incomparable manjar blanco or the mandatory guargüeros, niditos de amor, and more.