What it’s Like to Be Executive Director of Colca Lodge Spa and Hot Springs (Interview)

Where were you born and which countries have you lived in?

I was born in Bul­garia, but I have lived in Turkey since I was very young; I have also lived in Ger­many and Rus­sia, and spent some time in the Czech Re­pub­lic.

Were you already a chef while you were in these countries?

I’m a baker by pro­fes­sion, but at first, I was a sales­man in the Grand Bazaar, sell­ing cloth, gold, semi-pre­cious stones, leather goods and things like that.

When did you start to work at what you’re doing now?

I’m a baker by trade and while I was study­ing I worked in the kitchens of sev­eral large ho­tels. The five and a half years I lived in Ger­many (Berlin) was when I be­came one hun­dred per­cent in­volved in gas­tron­omy, I was work­ing in dif­fer­ent Ital­ian restau­rants spe­cial­iz­ing in meat dishes, as well as in a fresh pasta fac­tory. For a time I ran an Ital­ian restau­rant for home de­liv­ery only, but it wasn’t a suc­cess. Then I went to col­lege to learn about Ital­ian cook­ing.

When did you come to Peru?

I came to Peru in­1998. I lived in Ger­many for five and a half years; after that I went back to Bul­garia and Turkey to get my pa­pers ready to travel to Peru.

And why did you choose Peru?

Love. I met my wife Mariela in Ger­many; she is Pe­ru­vian and we de­cided to come to Peru to­gether to try our luck.

How did you get on during your first years in Peru?

When we ar­rived I knew noth­ing about the coun­try, I hadn’t read any­thing about its his­tory; what in­ter­ested me was find­ing work so that I could get to know Pe­ru­vian cook­ing and then I started think­ing about my own busi­ness. First of all we lived in Lima, my wife’s home town, but it was dif­fi­cult find­ing work with pay that was com­men­su­rate with my ex­pe­ri­ence; I had too much ex­pe­ri­ence for the jobs on offer. I was fa­mil­iar with 7 styles of cui­sine and spoke 6 lan­guages…

What made you decide to move to Arequipa?

In Ger­many we had some friends from Are­quipa, we kept in con­tact and after we got mar­ried we de­cided to move there. We saw that it was a big tourist des­ti­na­tion, but even so, it didn’t have many good qual­ity places. We moved in 1999 and de­cided to start with a kebab busi­ness.

You’re very well-known in Arequipa. What happened at the beginning, until you created your famous restaurant Palandar 1900?

We started with El Turko I, in a shop of thir­teen square me­tres in San Fran­cisco Street. Then we ex­tended the premises; that’s when I be­came known and it is still open to this day. I opened my first restau­rant in 2001, called El Turko II, aimed at an­other, more de­mand­ing, sec­tor of the pub­lic. At the same time I opened an­other place called Zin­garo, and a bar; nei­ther lasted long. Fi­nally, in 2007 we started to build Pal­adar 1900. I had al­ready been in Peru for ten years and knew a lot more about its his­tory and tra­di­tions. I un­der­stood  that Pe­ru­vian cui­sine was based on a fu­sion with Arab cook­ing, ba­si­cally Mo­roc­can, which is much in­flu­enced by Turk­ish. Hence the use of condi­ments such as panca chilli and pa­prika, and the preser­va­tion of in­gre­di­ents. Then there was the African in­flu­ence, which con­tributed the use of offal. And that union pro­duced the great ma­jor­ity of the dishes we know today. Then came the Chi­nese, Japan­ese and Ital­ian, to com­plete the evo­lu­tion of mod­ern Pe­ru­vian food. Pal­adar 1900 was a re­sult of that and a de­sire to res­cue tra­di­tional home-cooked food. The name comes from Cuba, where the term ‘pal­adar’ is given to restau­rants op­er­at­ing in pri­vate houses, where the food is one hun­dred per­cent home- made and tra­di­tional. We also wanted to add the con­cept of good taste, good food. The num­ber 1900 comes from the house where the first Pal­adar opened, an old town house built in that year, which had the num­ber en­graved over the en­trance.

What does Arequipa mean for you?

I feel at home here; it’s the place where I have set­tled with my wife, where I’ve al­ways been treated well and with much af­fec­tion. Thanks to what I do for the peo­ple of Are­quipa and thanks to them I’ve been suc­cess­ful in just a short time. Also, my char­ac­ter is sim­i­lar to that of the Are­quipans. Fur­ther­more, the build­ing con­tain­ing Pal­adar 1900 makes me feel as if I were in Turkey, work­ing under a vaulted ceil­ing.

Any new plans or projects?

Not for now, we’re happy the way we are. In the fu­ture we would like to move Pal­adar 1900 to our own prop­erty, where we can do dif­fer­ent things with the menu, re­vive Are­quipa tra­di­tions such as the use of the batan, for ex­am­ple.

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