Me, Peru, and the No. 4 Restaurant in the World!

我 ，秘魯 ，跟世界排名第 4 的餐廳！

Felt so excited when I saw Central Restaurant’s name on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for 2021 the other day. Central Restaurant (Central Restaurante) is located in Peru’s capital city Lima and has been on World’s 50 Best Restaurants list since 2013. I had the chance to visit the restaurant in Jan 2020 during my Peru trip, and it was the best fine dining experience I’ve ever had. Let me walk you through my WOW experience.

FindingCentral Restaurant

Central Restaurant settled in at Lima’s Barranco district in 2010. The neighborhood is full of an artistic vibe, which you can tell from many of its street arts, boutique hotels, and chic cafés. It’s also a popular choice for the surfing community for the beautiful beach.

Central Restaurant is located in a low-profile corner on Av. Pedro de Osma. Me and my friends walked around the neighborhood for 15 minutes and still couldn’t find the right entry, so here I must share a front door picture so that you won’t miss it too. Strange as it was that a chain-link fence covered the entire exterior wall on top, I wonder if anyone ever sneaked into the complex and stole some ingredients before?

When it comes to such a popular restaurant, you better make a reservation early. Central Restaurant takes reservations as early as 4 months in advance. Certain rules regarding cancellation were specified in the confirmation email, so better read them before you depart. However, even with the reservation, you may have to wait a bit upon arrival. But don’t worry, you can spend the time exploring their “lab,” ingredient board, and even a souvenir shelf.

You can see all the recent main ingredients written on the glass on the left-hand side of the picture above, including when and where they came from. Meanwhile, you will find the secrets of Central Restaurant. Its staffs gather those ingredients from as low as 25m below sea level to as high as 4,350m altitudes in the mountains. Pretty cool, isn’t it?

In the following, I will share some pictures of the 12-course meal that truly impressed me. Please bare with me in the next few minutes, given that I am not a professional food critic.

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The 12-course Lunch

Firstly, all the 12 courses were named after their originating locations. The first course was a starter called “Red Rocks”, with ingredients of 10m below sea level. Although amazed by the beautiful purple petals, I was also busylooking up the dictionary and figuring out those exotic-looking materials in the bowl. For instance; I knew that I had those yummy Razor Clams in Hong Kong, but what the hell was Percebes and thejelly-tasted Piure?!

The 2nd course was made with ingredients coming from the 110m-altitudes Desertic Coast. I thought I already know a thing or two about molecular gastronomy from chef André Chiang’s restaurant RAW in Taiwan, still, I was in awe of these crispy seaweeds in yellow. And what a surprise, my nail color matched this course perfectly!

You can see corn and potato on almost every dining table in Peru. In Central Restaurant, different kinds of kernels and potatoes were reproduced via molecular gastronomy technique, then, they became artworks.

Don’t you find theresemblance between the 3rdHigh Altitude Farmlandscourse and those contemporary artworks of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama? I had no idea how the chef made those potatoes so thin and with a bit sticky texture.

As a corn lover, of course, the 7th course Extreme Altitude from 4,350m mountains won my heart. These corn kernels have the look of sago in desserts, yet you can taste every tiny bit of it. In similar fashion, just like salmon eggs on top of sushi. Such a delight for the tongue.

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Feast to the Eye

In every course at Central Restaurant, there were usually 3~4 plates on the table. One for giving you a look at the raw ingredients, and the rest are the actual edible. For example, in the 8th course Amazonian Lake (from 190m above sea level), there were 3 plates on the table, can you guess which ones are edible?

You may be right, apart from the crunchy fried ball made by Cocona Fruit and Yucca Root (Yuca Root) and the Piranha-made fish floss, the only one left was these scary-looking Piranha heads and they are for presentation. I assume no one would try to have a bite before the waiter takes them away.

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A Sustainable Restaurant

Chef-owner Virgilio Martínez founded Central Restaurant in 2008. In his capable hands, he combined modern gastronomy with Peruvian ingredients. The restaurant was first awardedWorld’s 50 Best Restaurants by British magazine Restaurant in 2013, climbed to No. 15th one year after, and not too surprisingly, remained at the top 4 ~ 6 ever since.

Head chef Pía León joinedCentral Restaurant in 2009 and started from the cold station. She later married Chef Martínez and this year she just won the title of The World’s Best Female Chef 2021. I took a brief tour to her then 2-year-old restaurant Kjolle on the 2nd floor at the same complex asCentral, it’s decorated with a wooden and refreshing style.

Visitors will be offered a tour after dining, during which I learned about the efforts made to give back to the community. For example, you can drink from a locally handcrafted cup, and someone living in Andes Mountains from a community project may plant thespecial ingredients you just have.Central Restaurant sent staff to different regions in Peru, find ingredients that people may havenever heard of, and developed the most creative menu with local residents.

If you want to know more about Central’s community initiatives, you can watch an interview of Malena Martínez, who is the sister of ChefMartínez and the Research Director of Central’s research lab Mater Iniciativa.

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Twisted Ending

For the record, the following episode certainly doesn’t happen every time. But, if you are single, and happened to be in Lima, try to book a single seat at Central Restaurant. The waiter will take you to the single table, where you would be seated at the first row to the kitchen, then you might find yourself looking into the eyes of another guest who sits just right across the next table.

While waiting for the next course to arrive, my friends and I suddenly found two strangers at the single table who did just that and they started to exchange smiles whenever they looked up. After we left the restaurant, accidentally we found them walking ahead of us and seemed to have a great chat. We just witnessed a romantic encounter! I didn’t know what happened to them afterward as we were only able to follow them for a small block, but hopefully, there will be good news!

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Final Thoughts

Hope you enjoy reading this amateur commentary ofCentral Restaurant.Would you like to book a flight to Peru and experience Central Restaurant now?

At last, I have to confess there were 2 small drawbacks of Central. One was thatthe waiter who was responsible for explaining those courses to us that day didn’t speak English that fluently, so I had to google those ingredients myselfa few times.

Another one is imaginable, the price is not cheap. A 12-course lunch set was around US$140 when I visited in early 2020. Butjust look at what the Chefs and their family has done to build a sustainable community, which made the expensive bill somehow with a solid ground (even though my wallet bled out that month).

For what it’s worth, I must say that Central is by far my favorite fine dining restaurant. 

I am a picky eater, so I was a bit worriedabout enjoying those exotic Peruvian dishes. Nevertheless, It turned out that I was getting ahead of myself. In 3 hours,Central Restaurant took me to as high as the Andes Mountains for the recreation of Peru’s distinctive crops, then visited the dangerous Amazon River tomeet the notorious Piranha, and finally went down to the ocean for some slippery sea creatures!

So how can you not try the World’s No. 4 restaurant in Peru? Here I solemnly recommendCentral Restaurant to all Peru visitors. Let me end this article with a quote fromMalena Martínez’s interview:

“The important thing to be doing is to replicate our method. Mater Iniciativa is a philosophy. It’s a philosophy about connecting to nature, connecting to people, being involved, being grounded.”

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Do you have any fine dining experience to share? Or do you have some interesting stories about Peru? Give me a shout-out below or drop me an email to tell me all about it.

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Note: All the photos in this article were taken by me, please cite the source if you want to share them elsewhere. Some of them are available for sale in my Adobe portfolio, or you can check out my other travel photos on my Instagram.

前幾天看到 Central Restaurant 再次入選 World’s 50 Best Restaurants list for 2021 (2021世界 50 大最佳餐廳) 好開心呀！Central Restaurant (Central Restaurante) 位於秘魯首都利馬，從2013 年起就是世界 50 大最佳餐廳榜上常客。我有幸於 2020 年 1 月在秘魯旅行時造訪這家餐廳，是目前覺得最棒的一次 fine dining，以下就讓我來分享我的 WOW 體驗吧！

Central Restaurant 尋尋覓覓

Central Restaurant 2010 年起在利馬的 Barranco 區落地生根，你可以從路上隨處可見的街頭藝術、時髦飯店，和特色咖啡館就看出這個區域充滿藝術氣息，而其美麗的海攤也是衝浪愛好者的熱門選擇。

Central Restaurant 在 Pedro de Osma 街上一個低調的角落，我跟朋友在這個區域附近繞了 15 分鐘就是找不到入口，所以一併分享餐廳前門的照片，你才不會錯過它。有點奇怪的是餐廳外牆上面全部用鐵絲網圍了一圈，難道會有人進去偷食材嗎？

想吃到 Central Restaurant 這樣熱門的餐廳，當然要早點訂位，目前最早可以訂位的時間是 4 個月前。在訂位完成的確認郵件裡，特別註明了一些取消的規定，建議出發前最好還是讀一下。即使有訂位，抵達餐廳後多少也要等一會兒，但別擔心，你可以趁這個時候逛逛餐廳的「實驗室」、食材看板，還有紀念品區。

在上方照片左邊的玻璃上，你可以發現近期的主要食材都被一一列上，還會標記它們哪時候從哪裡來的，算是一種產銷履歷的概念。Central Restaurant 其中一大特色，就是員工會上山下海收集各地的食材，從海平面下 25 公尺到海拔 4,350 公尺的高山都不放過；不覺得很酷嗎？

接下來，我會分享午間套餐的 12 道料理中讓我印象深刻的餐點照片；因為我不是專業的美食評論家，還請多多包涵。

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12 道料理的午餐

首先，所有 12 道料理都是用它們的來源地命名的。第一道料理是開胃菜 “Red Rocks (紅石)“, 食材全來自海平面 10 公尺以下。我一邊驚嘆於其醉人的紫色花瓣，一邊還要忙著查字典，試著搞清楚這些異國食材到底是什麼。我知道其中有我在香港吃過的好吃竹蟶 ，可是 Percebes (龜足) 還有果凍口感的 Piure (海鞘 ) 到底是什麼鬼？！

第二道料理 Desertic Coast (沙漠海岸) 的食材來自海拔 110 公尺。我以為從主廚江振誠的餐廳 RAW 我已經學到一點分子料理的花招，沒想到當天還是對這道黃色的酥脆海草驚嘆不已。而且誰想得到呢？我當天的指甲顏色恰巧跟這道料理超配！ 

在秘魯，幾乎每一張餐桌上你都可以看到玉米和馬鈴薯；在 Central Restaurant，來自不同品種的玉米粒和馬鈴薯片被以分子料理的方式重新處理，然後，它們成了藝術品。

你有發現下方第三道料理 High Altitude Farmlands (高海拔農地) 和日本藝術家草間彌生的藝術作品有些神似嗎？我真的無法理解主廚怎麼能把馬鈴薯弄得這麼薄又有一點黏性。

身為一個玉米愛好者，第 7 道料理 Extreme Altitude (極端海拔) 完全是我的菜！這些玉米粒外觀有點像甜點常見的西米露，但你可以嚐到每一粒玉米的口感，就像在吃壽司上的鮭魚卵，實在是味蕾的一大享受！

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視覺饗宴

Central Restaurant 的每道料理都會有 3~4 盤菜一起上桌，1 盤觀賞用，剩下才是可以吃的。譬如第 8 道料理是海拔 190 公尺的Amazonian Lake (亞馬遜河)，桌上有 3 盤菜，猜猜哪一盤可以吃呢？

你猜對了嗎？ 除了用可納果 (Cocona Fruit) 跟樹薯粉做成的卡滋卡滋酥脆炸丸子，和以食人魚 (Piranha) 當原料做成的魚鬆，剩下那些嚇人的食人魚頭可是不能吃的唷。我想應該沒有人會試著在服務生把它們收走前咬上一口吧！

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永續經營的餐廳

Central Restaurant 是主廚Virgilio Martínez 在 2008 年創建的，在他的巧手下，傳統的秘魯食材和現代烹飪方式完美結合；餐廳先是在 2013 年被英國的 Restaurant 雜誌評選為世界 50大最佳餐廳之一，隔年排名驟升至第 15 名，之後Central 在排行榜上就一直保持第 4~6 名的名次。

另一位主廚Pía León 於 2009 年加入後先從冷食區做起，她後來嫁給了Martínez 主廚，最近還得到了 2021 世界第一女主廚 (The World’s Best Female Chef 2021) 的頭銜。餐後我短暫參觀了León當時甫成立 2 年的餐廳Kjoll，餐廳位於 Central 所在建築物的 2 樓，整體裝潢走木系的輕新風格。

工作人員在訪客用餐後，會詢問想不想做一個簡單的參訪，參觀過程中我才知道Central Restaurant 為了回饋社區做了很多努力；像是用餐時用的茶杯都是當地居民手工製造，剛剛吃到的特殊食材可能是安地斯山脈上某位參與社區活動的人種的，餐廳還會送員工到秘魯各地尋找大家可能都沒聽過的食材，然後和當地居民一起研發創意食譜。

如果你想了解更多 Central 的社區活動，可以看看Malena Martínez 的採訪，她是Martínez 主廚的姐妹，也是Central Restaurant 研發中心Mater Iniciativa 的研究主管。

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意外的收尾

先聲明，下面說的小插曲不是每次都會發生的喔；但是，若你單身又剛好在秘魯的利馬市，不妨試著在Central Restaurant 預訂一個單人的位子。進餐廳後，服務生會帶你到單人桌，你會坐在可以直接看到廚房的第一排位子，然後，你可能會突然發現自己跟對桌的另一個客人對上眼了！

當我正和朋友等待下一道料理上桌時，發現這就發生在旁邊兩個坐在單人桌的陌生人身上！他們開始在每次抬頭時交換微笑，當我們離開餐廳後，這兩位竟然走在我們前面，而且看起來聊得很開心。我們是不是目睹了一場美麗邂逅的發生呢？雖然只能跟在他們後面走了一小段路，所以不知道後來發生了什麼，但還是希望他們有好消息！

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寫在最後

希望你喜歡這篇業餘的Central Restaurant 用餐心得，看完後你會想買張機票飛去秘魯自己試試嗎？

寫在最後，談談 Central 唯二的小缺點，一是當天負責講解食材的服務生英語不是那麼流利，所以有幾次我必須查字典看看那些食材到底是什麼；另外一點是可以想像的，就是價格不大親民，當天一份 12 道料理的午間套餐花費近台幣五千大洋。但看看主廚夫婦一家人為打造一個可以永續經營的社區所做的努力，高昂的帳單似乎也不是這麼不合理 (雖然那個月的荷包在淌血)。

不論如何，我必須說 Central Restaurant 目前仍是我心中排名第一的fine dining 餐廳。我是個挑食的人，所以出發前其實有點擔心，怕異國的秘魯料理不合胃口。結果我多慮了，在 3 個小時中，Central Restaurant 帶我彷彿去到安地斯高山嘗試重新調製的秘魯特有作物，走了一趟亞馬遜河和惡名昭彰的食人魚打了個照面，還潛到海底見了一些滑溜的海洋生物！

所以，你怎麼能不親自試試這個世界排名第 4 的秘魯餐廳呢？在此大力推薦Central Restaurant 給所有拜訪秘魯的旅客。讓我最後用Malena Martínez 採訪的一段話作結：

“The important thing to be doing is to replicate our method. Mater Iniciativa is a philosophy. It’s a philosophy about connecting to nature, connecting to people, being involved, being grounded.”

(最重要的是複製我們的做法，Mater Iniciativa 研發中心是一種哲學，它是一個哲學理念的實現，讓我們和大自然連結、和人們連結、被納入，然後落地生根)

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你有沒有 Fine Dining 的經驗想分享呢？或你也在秘魯有一些有趣的故事？歡迎在下方留言或透過 email 告訴我。

想收到最新的文章？歡迎訂閱這個網站 Second Star To The Right 的電子報。我的其他旅遊文章在這裡可以找到。

最後，如果覺得這篇文章對你有幫助，歡迎你透過以下綠界或讚賞公民 Liker 的連結支持我後續的寫作計畫，也讓這個網站能以無廣告的方式走的更遠，謝謝。

備註：文中照片皆為我旅行中所攝，若欲分享請標註原作者，部分照片在我的 Adobe portfolio 也可以找到高畫質版本的，或可以移駕到我的 IG 看更多其他國家的旅遊照片。