After traveling thousands of miles and waiting for months, we almost missed this dining experience of a lifetime. Central has been rated among the top ten restaurants in the world for the past several years and was featured in the Netflix series, Chef’s Table.
Knowing by this time that the traffic in Lima is insane, we went down to the hotel desk to ask for a taxi at 7:00pm for an 8:45pm reservation -- well ahead of time -- we thought. But it took an hour and half to get a taxi and then it was a 45 minute ride to get there. When we finally got there at 9:15 we were told our table was gone. I almost cried. Luckily, just before that happened, they said they had an alternative -- we could be seated in the bar area and start our meal there and they would move us to the restaurant if a table became available. It turned out that they moved us within ten minutes so we ended up getting the full experience.
Before they moved us though, I investigated an urn that seemed to be distilling something and several large glass containers that seemed to be pickles or preserves of some sort. The waiter confirmed that these were indeed some of the concoctions the restaurant made to use in their dishes. If you look on the restaurant’s website, you will see some of the indigenous ingredients they use from different elevations of the country, from below sea level to the Amazon jungle, rising over the Andes in between. http://centralrestaurante.com.pe/en/
These unusual ingredients are made into various dishes and sauces that defy our ordinary vocabulary for describing edibles. I will show you pictures of some them with the names and elevations the ingredients came from but I can’t begin to describe all 16 dishes on the tasting menu. We also got the pairing with Chilean drinks -- some of which were the restaurant’s own concoctions (fermented algae for one) and some were local wines and beers. This turned out to have been a great choice, as the drinks really added to the whole experience. Our charming waitress referred to each dish with its liquid pairing as a “moment.” “For our next moment…”, she would say in her Spanish accent.
Before the dishes, though, I have to say a word about the amazing choreography of the service. One end of the restaurant consisted of a large glass wall looking into the kitchen with about 25 chefs at various stations, moving efficiently and apparently quite calmly about preparing an amazing array of dishes.
On the floor, the wait staff had stations with built-in tablets where they kept track of who had been served what. And, although we seemed to have a primary waitress, several different people served us throughout the evening, without any confusion about what came next or any lag time between dishes.
Now for the dishes:
RED ROCKS Piure Percebe Clams - 10m
The edible part was just the yellow rectangles. They were displayed on top of a bed of very pretty but jagged barnacles.
EDGE OF THE DESERT Sargassum Huarango Cactus - 180m
There were two parts to this dish. In the photo you can see a shiny film - that is a bit of candy made from some part of the cactus. The other dish that isn’t in the photo, was a little square of mousse made from the flower.
DARK PURPLE ROOT Mashwa Duck Chichipa Leaves - 2450m
There was a black crunchy thing on the bottom and a dollop of duck mousse on top wrapped in the dark purple root thing. (Like I said - hard to describe)
FOREST COTTON Ungurahu Arapaima - 106m
I don’t really know what this was. It was soft in the middle with a white powder on the outside and slices of whatever those things are on top. In the foreground is a drink that came with it and a slice of a crunchy mild fruit.
JUNGLE HIGHLANDS Copoazu Dale - Tree Tomato
The things on the wooden block were a kind of fluffy bread a little charred on the outside from a wood fire and the blobs on the striated dish were a different kind of bready thing. There were two dips in the little bowls, presumably made from the tree tomato, whatever that is.
OCEAN FLOOR Scallop Sweet Cucumber Seaweed - 25m
The colorful ribbons on top were presumably the sweet cucumber and seaweed. Underneath, was a creamy scallop mixture.
COASTAL FOOTHILLS Oca Tumbo Lupinus - 450m
The oca part is an Andean potato. The tumbo is a kind of passionfruit. And the lupinus is the flowering lupine plant. The mixture was kind of fruity potato soup.
HIGH VALLEY Avocado Kaniwa River Shrimp - 2800m
Sorry, forgot to get a photo of this one but I guess it had avocado and shrimp in it. Just use your imagination!
PLANT DYES OF MORAY Tuber Clay Ch’illka - 4050m
I have no idea what this dish has to with plant dyes. It was two tubers (native potatoes) cooked in a shell of clay, replicating the way the people in the high Andes cook them in an open fire. It came with a green dip. The first photo shows them before the clay is opened up. The second photo shows us taking the potatoes out of the clay shell.
AMAZONIAN WATERS Piranha Araza Yuca Root. 120m
This was the most dramatic dish with the edible strips with the little white dots displayed on top of a bed of frozen piranha heads. Look at those cute little teeth!
JUNGLE PLAINS Amazonian Langoustine Cecina Bellaco Plaintain - 165m
This was something frothy with something fishy tasting in it. Langoustine is also called crayfish or scampi but I didn’t see anything like that in the dish.
DEEP SEA CORAL Octopus Squid Sea Lettuce. -5m
Amazingly enough, the name of this dish pretty much describes it.
ANDEAN SLOPES Goat Olluco Cabuyo. 3300m
This had very tender pieces of goat meat. The olluco is another native potato/tuber and I think the cabuyo is a leafy plant. So this was kind of a goat stew.
AMBER WOODS Yacon Root Wrinkled Lemon Coffee. 250m
Now we are getting into the desserts. The wrinkled lemon were the yellow strips on top of the yacon root I think. The coffee was in the clay cup and the amber liquid was the pairing, a delicious dessert wine if I remember correctly. However, by this time, I am not sure I was remembering anything correctly. Just two more dishes to go.
MOUNTAIN RAIN Cacao Chaco Clay Coca Leaves. 2100m
The white stuff on this dish was actually an edible clay - and I am remembering that correctly because we were quite amazed that it actually tasted good.
MIL MEDICINALS Congona Cushuro Qolle. 3680m
So there were greenish cracker things on a bed of barks and twigs and the drinks with little berries or seeds. We didn’t eat the bed of barks and twigs.
And that was the end of a most amazing meal. It was after midnight by this time and we were sooooo tired. This is me, happy and a bit sunburned.
See you all in the next one!
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