Chef Gastón Acurio of Astrid y Gastón - Biography Gastón Acurio at home in Lima.
Gastón Acurio at home in Lima. ‘Cooking allows you to promote a set of values,’ he
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Gastón Acurio is a chef, writer, entrepreneur, and champion of Peruvian cuisine.
With 33 restaurants in 12 countires, 20 publications in his portfolio, and a weekly
cable TV show, Acurio has received worldwide acclaim for starting a gastronomical
revolution in Peru. This goal is at the forefront of all of his concepts, projects, and
community organizations.
In the late 1980s, following the advice of his family, Acurio began his studies in law
school. But his passion for food was stronger, so he decided to pursue a culinary arts
career at Le Cordon Bleu Paris. While abroad, Acurio met his wife Astrid, a German-
born woman who was also working toward a career in the kitchen. In 1994, the
couple returned to Peru and founded their eponymous restaurant, Astrid & Gastón.
With their Parisian background, the restaurant was originally pegged as French, but
over time Acurio began to experiment with Peruvian ingredients, and the restaurant
became one of the first beacons of Peruvian haute cuisine. In 2011, 17 years after
Astrid & Gastón opened its doors, the restaurant was included in San Pellegrino’s
“World's 50 Best Restaurants” list.
The restaurants La Mar Cebicheria Peruana, Tanta, Panchita, Chicha, and Madam
Tusan followed, each focusing on a different specialty in the vast catalogue of
Peruvian cuisine. Acurio’s empire continues to evolve and grow with projects like the
Italo-Peruvian fusion restaurant Los Bachiche, opened in 2012
His international reach helped earn Acurio the “2005 Entrepreneur of the Year” by
America Economía magazine. He has received honors for his work promoting
Peruvian cuisine, including the international “Prince Claus of Holland” award in the
category “Collective Memories and Journalism.” He was a featured speaker for 2011
Madrid Fusion and is a main supporter of the Pachacutec School of Cuisine, providing
underprivileged youths with access to a culinary education.
Gastón Acurio, the super chef who put Peruvian cuisine on the world map
From culinary festivals to cookbooks, the Lima restaurateur has rebranded his
nation’s food into a highly successful export
Nick Miroff for the Washington Post
Gaston Acurio
says. Photographs: Dominic Bracco II/Washington Post
In the kitchens and cafes of the food-crazed Peruvian capital, history is divided into
two epochs: Before Gastón and After Gastón.
The BG era was a time of darkness, confusion and ketchup. Then Gastón Acurio
opened his first restaurant in 1994, and began remaking gritty Lima into the culinary
capital of South America.
Calling Acurio a celebrity chef today is like saying Oprah is a talkshow host. He is
more of a modern food shaman: artist, interpreter, healer, impresario and national
pitchman. A series of unpopular presidents has even left some Peruvians urging him
to run for president. He shudders at the thought.
“But it tells you something,” said Acurio, relaxing in jeans at his studio-office near the
ocean in Lima’s historic Barranco neighbourhood, where his cooking show is
recorded. “Today a chef here is someone more trusted than a politician.”
And why not? Acurio, 46, has made Peruvian cuisine into the country’s proudest
export. He runs a swelling global operation of 44 restaurants, including three in the
United States, with plans to open a new place next year in Washington.
The Acurio franchise includes food festivals, cookbooks and restaurants spanning a
range of themes and price points, making them accessible to a wider clientele.
Panchita, specialising in Peruvian anticuchos like grilled cow hearts but also serving
burgers and fries, draws a big lunch crowd. Madam Tusan is Acurio’s take on the
Chinese-Peruvian cuisine known as chifa. Acurio’s original, high-end bistro, Astrid y
Gastón, was recently rated one of the top 50 eateries by Restaurant magazine. Its
fixed-price menu, Virú, is a 29-course flavour odyssey through oceans, mountains,
deserts and jungles, offering a “journey through modern Peru”. Price: $240, with
wine.
“This is what Peru is all about today: a land of dreams, challenges and battles,” the
introduction reads. “The home of young minds that reap their wounds, sheath their
swords and embrace themselves to celebrate together and in peace.”
If that sounds like a bit much to swallow, patrons quickly move on to bite-sized plates
whose contents are listed in terse nibbles – “Crab, stinging nettle,” “Quinoa sprouts”
and “Toasted pig jowl”.
Like any abstract artist, Acurio wants the plates to add up to more than a good-
looking meal. He subscribes to the culinary school of thought that views ingredients
as a series of political and moral decisions shaped by environmental principles, What has made Acurio especially beloved in Peru are his long coattails. By globalising
cultural statements and ethical choices. Peruvian cuisine and Peruvian products, he has created countless jobs for other chefs
and suppliers.
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“Gastón made Peruvian food fashionable,” said Indira Vildosola, a restaurateur who
“Cooking allows you to promote a series of values,” he said. “The chef is someone
worked as a chef in the US, Chile and the Caribbean before coming home to open her
who acts as a bridge between consumers and farmers, fisherman, industry and
own place in Lima.
nutrition and health.”
When she started out abroad, Vildosola said, she had to explain to others what
In 2011, Acurio clashed publicly with then-president Alan Garcia over the use of
Peruvian food was. But as Acurio’s fame spread, restaurant owners began to seek her
genetically modified crops, and later succeeded in getting them banned from Peru
out, asking her to prepare Peruvian ceviche, chicken and other dishes. It’s been a
for 10 years.
giant boost for the country’s self-image, she said.
For his seafood restaurants, like the popular cebicheria La Mar, Acurio has developed
“We used to take pride in Machu Picchu,” she said, “and now we’re proud of our
a customised supply chain of smaller-scale “artisanal” fishermen, sending his trucks
food.”
up and down the Pacific coast several times a week to retrieve their catch.
Acurio is training a new generation of Peruvian food evangelists at a small culinary
He instructs his chefs to plan menus around the seasonal availability of ingredients
school in the slums on the northern outskirts of Lima. The neighbourhood,
by talking directly to the guys in the boats. “When the chef knows what he’ll be
Pachacutec, was settled by squatters who build shacks and tiny houses onto the
getting next week, then he, the fisherman and ultimately the consumer all benefit,”
sandy hillsides beyond a massive oil refinery.
Acurio said.
Today the school gets about 500 applications a year for 25 slots. Tuition is one-fifth
The son of a former Peruvian senator, Acurio played in a heavy-metal band and
the cost of culinary schools elsewhere, and many of the students are from hard-luck,
dropped out of law school to study cooking at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, where he met
humble backgrounds.
his German-born wife Astrid Gutsche. They returned to open Astrid y Gastón in Lima
in 1994 as a traditional French restaurant, but Acurio grew bored, and began Delia Puma, 21, said she travels four hours each way to reach the school, setting her
replacing the imported items with local ingredients and experimental plates. alarm for 3.45am. She grew up helping her parents sell fizzy drinks and snacks on the
beach. She speaks confidently of opening her own seafood restaurant serving the
The huge variety of Peru became an asset and a creative challenge. The country is a
Peruvian-Japanese fusion cuisine known as Nikkei. “But I want to see the world first,”
stew of Japanese, Italian, Chinese, Spanish and Jewish immigrants, heaped on to
she said.
Peru’s pre-Colombian indigenous cultures. Then there is the phenomenal biodiversity
of a country with dozens of sub-regions and microclimates stretching from the Pacific The instructors are chefs at Acurio’s restaurants. They rotate the students through
to snowy, 7,000-metre peaks to Amazon jungles. “We have more than 2,000 varieties courses in pastries, meats, sauces and other fundamentals, as well as business
of potatoes and 200 kinds of aji chillies,” Acurio said. “New ingredients arrive for me administration and accounting. After classes, many head to Lima’s upscale districts
to sample every week.” for internships in restaurant kitchens.

Gastón Acurio’s school “I don’t have any doubts that I’ll be able to open my own place,” said Cesar
Mendoza, 20, who plans to launch a catering company with his parents when he
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graduates in December.
Many of the students at Gastón Acurio’s school of cuisine in Lima come from humble
“With hard work, you can do anything here,” he said. “The only problem is there’s so
backgrounds
much competition.”
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Acurio is impressed by his students. They’re not trying to prove to anyone that
they’re just as capable as European chefs at following traditional recipes. “They’re
completely free to create,” Acurio said. “There are no borders any more.”
This article appeared in the Guardian Weekly, which incorporates material from the
Washington Post
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Gaston Acurio: the man opening our eyes to Peruvian food
Gaston Acurio is introducing the world to the delights of his native cuisine, and has
become a national hero doing it.
Gaston Acurio is a giant. Not just physically big, although he is that, a great bear of a
man with a mop of black ringlets and a smile that seems larger than his face. The 46-
year-old chef is a colossal figure in Peruvian life as well, rumoured to be so popular in
his homeland that the country’s Presidency would be his for the asking.
Not that he is asking. With schemes including a gastronomic university in the offing
and a culinary school for underprivileged children on the outskirts of Lima already up
and running, he has plenty on his plate. Then there are his 44 restaurants worldwide,
with another planned to open in London next year.
Acurio’s popularity is rooted not only in his ability to turn out some truly delicious
ceviche – the Peruvian national dish of citrus, salt and chilli-cured fish – or his
philanthropic work, but also in his promotion of Peruvian food both at home and
abroad. He is credited with rebuilding Peruvian pride through the rediscovery of their
native gastronomy.
In the past decade, Peru has firmly established itself as one of the world’s leading
culinary capitals. With its signature tiraditos, ceviches, and Asian heritage, Peruvian
cuisine has become an attraction for global gastro tourists—it also helps that Central,
a Lima establishment, was named the fourth-best restaurant in the world this year.
And while Spain has their Adrià, and Denmark has their Redzepi, Peru’s own
superstar chef is Gastón Acurio, the owner of more than 44 restaurants around the
world, and most recently the author of Peru: The Cookbook. An expert in foodie
spots, Acurio shared with Vogue his favorite places to eat and drink back home.
Where to go for authentic Peruvian cuisine
For the best criollo cooking, Acurio suggests Isolina, a new restaurant in Barranco,
which opened early this year. “Chef José del Castillo is reviving old flavors at Isolina,
the ones lost from my childhood. There, it’s Lima's old flavors reborn.
His favorite childhood restaurant**
For a taste of the kinds of flavors that inspired a young Acurio to become a chef,
head to La Granja Azul on the outskirts of Lima. “[My favorite dishes] are the chicken
liver anticuchos—pink at the center—with aji amarillo salsa. The roasted chicken
Peruvian style with potatoes. And their picarones, or Peruvian pumpkin doughnuts at
the end. Simple perfection.
The best places to grab a drink
When asked for his favorite bars, Acurio took the task seriously. “Antigua Taberna
Queirolo for a bottle of pisco and a bottle of ginger ale called Chilcanos—it’s
tradition. Bar Piselli for beers and Peruvian pan con jamón. (Ask for the triple jam on
Gastón style.) Hotel B for gin tonics and La Botica for pisco sours by hand.” As for his
neighborhood bar, the chef recommends El Pisquerito, whose head bartender Hans
Hilburg, was a bartender for years at Acurio's restaurant, Astrid y Gastón.
For a quick day trip
From Lima, a quick hour-and-a-half flight will get you to Arequipa, a city in which
Acurio suggests heading to a picanteria, a traditional Arequipa cuisine restaurant
specializing in spicy food. (Picanteria comes from the Spanish word for spicy,
picante.) “La Nueva Palomino, La Cau Cau, La Capitana, La Chayo—all of them are
picanterias run by amazing Arequipa ladies.”
Gastón Acurio Jaramillo (born October 30, 1967) is a Peruvian chef and ambassador
of Peruvian cuisine. He is owner of restaurants in several countries and is the author
of several books. In Peru he is the host of his own television program and contributes
to a few magazines.

Gastón Acurio

With a culinary empire that is spreading globally every year, chef Acurio is one of the
world’s leading chefs. In particular, he has pioneered the prominence of Peruvian
cuisine within the world of fine-dining. Starting out cooking traditional Peruvian
cuisine,Gastón’s cooking has evolved into more haute cuisine, using native
produceand local cooking techniques to hone

With a culinary empire that is spreading globally every year, chef Acurio is one of the
world’s leading chefs. In particular, he has pioneered the prominence of Peruvian
cuisine within the world of fine-dining. Starting out cooking traditional Peruvian
cuisine,Gastón’s cooking has evolved into more haute cuisine, using native
produceand local cooking techniques to hone the best flavours out of the food.
Today, his restaurant Astrid y Gastón in Lima is at number 18, having climbed the
ladder of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Having completed his cooking course at Le Cordon Bleu, Gastón returned to Peru –
with his German wife, Astrid with whom he runs his restaurants – and begun his
development of ‘Cocina Novoandina’ (Newandean Cuisine). His empire began life in
1994 with Lima-based Astrid y Gastón and expanded to Santiago, Bogotà, Quito,
Caracas, Cusco, Miami, Chicago and others. Each restaurant has its own speciality
and focus, from ceviche to sweet treats, snacks to fine-dining. However, every one of
them encompasses chef Acurio’s passion for Peruvian cuisine, native ingredients and
flavours and abundance of skill.