Peruvian star chef Virgilio Martínez opens Dubai restaurant

For even the casual diner, it is no secret that Peruvian cuisine has become a big deal over the past decade, and in recent years the UAE has seen a number of ­excellent Peruvian establishments open their doors.
Now, the Michelin star chef of Peruvian cooking is launching a ­restaurant in Dubai. Virgilio Martínez is the chef/owner of Central Restaurante in Peru, which sits at number four on the World’s 50 Best ­Restaurants list. But for the celebrated 39-year old, who is featured in Chef’s Table: Season 3, currently airing on Netflix, a life in the kitchen was never the plan.
Martínez grew up in ­Miraflores, a middle-class neighbourhood in Lima, and he always wanted to travel. But when his career as a semi-professional skateboarder was ended by two consecutive shoulder injuries he saw cooking as an alternative way to see the world and escape the instability of Lima in the 1990s.
Starting out as a commis chef, Martínez learnt how to cook his way around the globe in Italian, French, Asian and American restaurants. After a decade he went home to embark on a journey around Peru to discover the cuisine of his own country.
"They were tough kitchens," he admits. "I had a lot of difficult times, but I was trained in a very difficult atmosphere, so, going back to Peru after 10 years, it felt like freedom to come home to try to break the rules, once I knew the basics. It would be impossible to do what I’m doing now without those times."
His Central Restaurante uses about 180 different ingredients, of which half are not used anywhere else in the UAE. Martínez and his team forage Peru in the Amazonian jungle, the desert, mountains of the Andes and coastline of the country just to find new things to put on the menu and new ways to represent Peru’s many regions.
But while Central is the grand culinary representation of ecosystems and varied climates of Peru, he, along with partners Gabriel and José-Luis Gonzalez, opened an offshoot restaurant, Lima in London, in 2012 as an expression of the food from his home city.
Modern, inventive and ­accessible, it won a Michelin star within two years of opening. It is a branch of Lima that opened in Dubai yesterday.
"Central is a tasting-menu with 18 courses, and each course represents an altitude of the country – from the sea to the mountains. At Lima, it’s like the food you get in the city of Lima itself. More casual and more traditional, but still with innovation, this is the modern cuisine that’s happening in Lima city right now," Martínez explains. "I have contacts there, it’s where I now live and whatever is happening in Lima city I will put on the menu here."
One thing that impressed Martínez as he prepared his latest launch was the ease of setting up an eatery in Dubai.
"We had problems in London when we opened Lima, from getting visas for the young chefs to importing my ingredients from Peru, but had none of those problems here – which was amazing," he says. "It’s ­incredible how Dubai makes things easier for us, and I’m having really boutique products flown in – I spoke to my producer of potatoes in the Andes today and it’s fine to send here."
As a result, this is set to be the real deal, with Peruvian food as authentic as you’re likely to find.
Sure, the carbon footprint for those ingredients flying the 14,735 kilometres from Lima to Dubai is going to make environmentalists weep, but the vast majority of ingredients for all restaurants in the UAE are flown in. At least with Lima, they’re things you won’t be able to try elsewhere.

Source: The National