Gastón Acurio

Photo: Ines Menacho

When I moved to Peru two years ago, I knew all about ceviche, but thanks to a chef named Gastón Acurio, I learned that there is much more to Peruvian cuisine. At his restaurant Astrid y Gastón in Lima, I tasted dishes that were unlike anything I'd expected to find in South America—specialties like lomo saltado, sliced beef stir-fried with potatoes, soy sauce, and ají chiles. Soon I started watching Acurio's TV cooking show and reading his cookbooks, and I became fascinated by the fact that so many techniques and ingredients in Peruvian cooking (like the soy sauce in my lomo saltado) had been brought here by immigrants, from China, Japan, Africa, and beyond. Now Gastón Acurio has restaurants throughout South America, in Europe, and in the States, and he's letting the world know what I had to move here to learn: that Peru has some of the most exciting food on the planet. —Andrea Doyle, Lima, Peru