Overview
Restaurant Views: 1,985
Awards
- OAD
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South American Restaurants 2024, 2
- The World’s50 Best
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World`s 50 Best Restaurants 2024, #73
Latin Americas's 50 Best Restaurants 2024, #39
- La Liste
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La Liste, #568
- Restaurant Ranking
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Restaurant Ranking 2024, #4081, PRO #15.45, USER #0.00
Cuisine
seasonal regional cuisine Cuisine, Progressive Peruvian
Chef
Virgilio Martínez
Foodle Reviews
The amazing chuño, also called tunta or moraya, is a freeze-dried potato from the Andes that is virtually weightless and lasts a long, long time.
“It can be stored for over twenty years, it will never go bad it will never rot”, says Jan Brack Faura, Mater’s Director of Projects. “And It has more calcium and iron than rice and wheat.”
It is a natural process, at high altitudes (above 3.800 m), which involves a combination of freezing the product and lowering pressure, removing the ice... More
The amazing chuño, also called tunta or moraya, is a freeze-dried potato from the Andes that is virtually weightless and lasts a long, long time.
“It can be stored for over twenty years, it will never go bad it will never rot”, says Jan Brack Faura, Mater’s Director of Projects. “And It has more calcium and iron than rice and wheat.”
It is a natural process, at high altitudes (above 3.800 m), which involves a combination of freezing the product and lowering pressure, removing the ice by sublimation. At night these varieties are exposed to very low temperatures, during the day they absorb the intense sunlight and at night they freeze again, for about a week.
The colour difference is that the white (Moraya, using usually the more bitter potatoes) is shielded from the sun during the day and washed at the end.
“This is very important. It has been a year of great lack of rain, of scarcity, and this is what will save us and sustain us“, reminds Cleto Cusipaucar,
partner farmer of the Kajllaraccay community.
“To eat it, you just make a soup and rehydrate it, or you can also grate it.” Or you make a cracker of it like at
@milcentro Less
Fermentations, distillates and infusions at @milcentro made with botanicals, herbs and roots collected in the region. Led by @mc.mater , a specialist in drinks and craft cocktails. This one in particular is made entirely from cactus, using the fleshy leaves and seeds.
He extracts the leaves from the cactus, removes the thorns and bark. Then he blends it to extract the silky and viscous texture.
For the colour, he collects the fruits of the cactus, removes the bark, blends and... More
Fermentations, distillates and infusions at @milcentro made with botanicals, herbs and roots collected in the region. Led by @mc.mater , a specialist in drinks and craft cocktails. This one in particular is made entirely from cactus, using the fleshy leaves and seeds.
He extracts the leaves from the cactus, removes the thorns and bark. Then he blends it to extract the silky and viscous texture.
For the colour, he collects the fruits of the cactus, removes the bark, blends and strains. Very unfamiliar but very good.
Next is a piece of fermented and dehydrated yacón, which again has a very peculiar but pleasant taste and texture. Good things come to those who explore the unfamiliar or as they say at @mater.in “There’s more outside” Less
One plant and its many uses.
Kjolle (Buddleja coriacea) with its bright yellow-orange blossoms.
Alpaca wool dyed with this and other wild plants collected around @milcentro , by the women from the neighbouring community of Kacllaraccay, applying traditional dyeing knowledge and techniques.
Dish at MIL: Kjolle in jelly, yoghurt, muña (Minthostachys mollis), pampa anis (Tagetes pusilla Kh) and Kunuka (Xenophyllum dactylophyllum)
It is a hike to get there. It is close to Cusco, but only when you look at it from Europe. It takes 3 hours to drive from the airport in Cusco. But trust me, it is worth it.
This lunch-only restaurant is itself a beautiful building, simple, restrained with straight lines and pastel colors. It instills calmness as soon as you enter.
Virgilio Martínez’s High altitude restaurant is very close to Moray, the ancient Inca ruin where the Incas experimented with food. Moray is built so that the... More
It is a hike to get there. It is close to Cusco, but only when you look at it from Europe. It takes 3 hours to drive from the airport in Cusco. But trust me, it is worth it.
This lunch-only restaurant is itself a beautiful building, simple, restrained with straight lines and pastel colors. It instills calmness as soon as you enter.
Virgilio Martínez’s High altitude restaurant is very close to Moray, the ancient Inca ruin where the Incas experimented with food. Moray is built so that the upper terraces have a temperature difference of 16 degrees to the lower ones. That enables the Incas to grow completely different vegetables in more or less the same place.
The location and altitude is reflected in the menu, of course there is no seafood, only fish from lakes high up in the mountains. Nevertheless, the great biodiversity of the location allows a very interesting and beautifully presented menu. The dishes are very tasty and perfectly executed. When interacting with the staff they sound more like scientists than wait staff.
All of this together with the pilgrimage one has to undertake makes this place a truly inspiring and worthwhile journey. Go there, you will not regret it.
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Address
Vía a Moray, Maras 08655, Peru
Hours
Tuesday: 12:00 - 14:30
Wednesday: 12:00 - 14:30
Thursday: 12:00 - 14:30
Friday: 12:00 - 14:30
Saturday: 12:00 - 14:30
Sunday: 12:00 - 14:30
Phone
+51 970 645 908