Living in Peru : your everyday companion

by C.J. Schexnayder, klephblog (www.kleph.com)

Gaston Acurio is the leading light of Peruvian cuisine. The 38-year-old is a bona fide celebrity in Peru where his cooking show is a hit and his cookbooks are in high demand. But his reputation is cemented by the continuing popularity of his ever-expanding number of restaurants in Lima – particularly his flagship Astrid y Gaston in Miraflores.

His reputation beyond Perus borders is growing as well. He was named Latin American Entrepreneur of 2005 by American Economia magazine was a guest speaker at Gastronomia Madrid Fusion conference in Spain this year.

Over the past several years, Acurio has been exporting his success. To date, there are Astrid y Gaston restaurants in Quito, Ecuador; Santiago, Chile; Caracas,Venezuela; Bogota, Colombia. By the end of they year, branches in Panama City, Panama and Mexico City, Mexico will open their doors.

He is also introducing new concepts in Lima that include T’anta, a market-style deli; Pasquale Brothers, a sandwich shop and Panchita, a Peruvian-style grill.

It is his Peruvian seafood concept, La Mar, that is already making strides. The flagship store was opened in Miraflores in late 2005 and, by the end of December there will be versions in Mexico City, Mexico; Panama City, Panama and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Currently there are La Mar stores under development every country in South America. Acurio is eying they US market, developing plans to open the concept in San Diego, California; Miami, Florida, San Francisco, California and Washington D.C

Earlier this year, I visited Acurio in his headquarters located in a picturesque two-story building in Lima's Barranco district. It is from his office and test kitchen here that he directs his growing culinary empire.

What is the state of Peruvian cuisine?

Right now, in Peru, we are living in the middle of a gastronomic revolution. There is a boom in cookbooks, restaurants and cooking schools. We are the reference for the rest of South America. When people from other countries look at Peru they say, "The thing they do well is cook." Our approach to food is a model for the rest.

Is that happening in the United States as well?

Yes. We have seen a lot of attention in the last year to Peruvian food. A lot of journalists, food journalists, have come to write about it because it is the up and coming cuisine in the world. We are where Mexican food was a quarter-century ago.

In the last three years we have seen Peruvian restaurants emerge as some of the best restaurants in the United States. That has never happened before. We are seeing high-end fine-dining Peruvian restaurants opening in Seattle, San Francisco and Washington D.C.

How has the popularity of Peruvian and NovoAndino food affected the restaurant industry?

Right now there are about 500 Peruvian restaurants in the world. What we would like to see is that expand to 200,000 in the next 20 years. Which is not impossible when you look at other cuisines that have taken off in the past. There are much more than 200,000 Mexican restaurants in the world today and those restaurants increase the exports of products from Mexico.

It is not just what these restaurants are buying. These restaurants led to an acceptance of Mexican cooking and now you find fajitas and tacos and the ingredients to make them in supermarkets everywhere. People are cooking these dishes in their homes. Not all of this comes from Mexico but there is a greater demand for Mexican products as a result.

What is the key for your approach to the business?

There is a main philosophy for our entire organization – use the best products possible, buy product daily, keep the best people, all the chefs all the managers, keep them in the organization – and that is the core of what we do. But if it is possible to use technology or techniques to achieve those things, we use them.

Success is not in the plate, it is in the experience. Because success is not in what you sell but rather in if the customer comes back. Our philosophy across all of our brands is to build a relationship with the customer - a long term relationship.

We are not interested in being the fashionable restaurant for one or two years. We don’t want to be the type of restaurant that people go to because everyone else is going. A key part of that is the people that live there, year round.

How have you developed your different concepts for restaurants?

Every concept we have developed has come from our own dissatisfaction when we went out to eat. We were not happy with what we found here. The passion we have for the food goes further than most of the places we found in Peru.

So we said "let's do the cevicheria of our dreams. Lets do the sanguicharia of our dreams."

Once you have the concept, how does that shape your philosphy for the restaurant?

I want people to get lost in the concept. When they leave the restaurant I want them to say, "I never knew this type of eating existed before." And, if we succeed in bringing that idea to the world outside of Peru, then the market will be open for other Peruvian restaurants to open.

What is the underlying philosophy behind the Astrid y Gaston chain?

You don’t want to set too many rules. You want to have the same philosophy but every place has different rules. Every Astrid y Gaston has to have a different atmosphere. They keep some Peruvian aspects like ahi’s and different traditions but then fuse them with local ingredients and dishes and traditions as well. All the restaurants have a point in common but they each need to be inspired by their own place.

Why did you decide to open the restaurant in other countries?

A lot of people came to me and proposed opening the restaurant in other places but I always said "no" because I didn’t even know what I was in terms of my cooking. We didn’t have a philosophy, we didn’t have a clear idea that we could tell people "This is what we are."

So after five years we had a better idea of what we wanted to be. We wanted to be a Peruvian restaurant. We wanted to offer modern Peruvian cuisine in a refined setting to compete with French-style fine-dining restaurants. It was not just from a cooking standpoint, it was knowing what we wanted to be from a business standpoint.

After five years we were ready. We knew what we wanted with the menu, we knew what we wanted with the atmosphere, we were ready with our financing and we went to Chile.

Where did the idea for La Mar came from?

La Mar was that idea for the type of cevicheria we wished we could go eat at. We said, lets build a cevicheria in the style of the classic type of cevicheria but offer the highest quality food and service.

So we wanted it to be open, we wanted music. We wanted some of the chaos... but have it with a unified design, with top-quality products. And lets make it a cevicheria that we can do here but we can also do anywhere else in the world.

What is your strategy for breaking into the US market with the concept?

We want to open some of the South American stores first so we can properly prepare the people we will need for a US restaurant. The cooks, the wait staff, the managers, everyone. I think we are starting on the west coast and then try to open others after that.

My dream is to have 50 or 60 La Mar’s around the United States. I would love to have that.

Why have you not made the jump to the US before now?

That’s because we have not had a philosophy toward the cuisine before - a basic idea for the food to follow. And that is what we are building with La Mar. La Mar is a concept, a model. It is a model to follow for opening more in the future so you can keep the quality, keep the philosophy.

How are you going to ensure the dishes will taste ‘authentic’ since many of the ingredients are not available in other countries?

I am exporting the bases for my restaurants. We have worked for four years to create ahi and ricottos that we can use them in all our sauces in all our restaurants. They have the authentic taste and they are made by us. Then, when we open a restaurant in another country, they will have this base to cook with and we make sure the taste is right.

How does that fit in your plan to popularize Peruvian food?

The next step is to start to sell these sauces, first in the restaurant and then generally. But it is not the time. My plan is to be ready when more and more Peruvian restaurants begin opening around the world and then I’ll be ready with my industrial division to start making these products for the market as it grows.

--------------------------------------------------------------
If you would like to read more of C.J. Schexnayder's articles about Peru, visit his blog at www.kleph.com

- You can find "La Mar" and "Astrid y Gaston" restaurant in our Business Directory
--------------------------------------------------------------