On August 8th, three young chefs gathered together to create a menu that represented their culinary voices, Segundo Panduro, head of creativity at Maido (Peru), Moris Moreno, head of innovation at Restaurante Leo (Colombia) and Ralf Zuñiga Chef-Owner of Xoma (Peru), the three of them where accompanied by Edilberto Soto, a potato farmer from Ayacucho.
The night started with some cocktails, one Pisco based created at Xoma and a second one using Zacapa Rum as a base crafted especially for the night by Javier Uribe Morales, the head bartender of Maido, who was helping his colleague that night, as a snack, we enjoyed some Tiyapuy potato chips made with four varieties of native potatoes from Ayacucho.
Once moving to the main dining hall, Edilberto Soto, the lead in the production of Peruvian native potatoes, talked about the importance of those for the Ayacucho potato farmers and for the future of that region.
The dinner was divided into eleven courses, some collaborative and some individual:
The first course was a Canasta de Fritos: a Cassava pillow with a creamy cheese filling by Segundo, a Carimañola stuffed with a smoked hen by Moris, and a deep-fried brasada mochi by Zuñiga served on a multi-colored plate with the whole array. It was followed by a Tuna ceviche by Ralf, which had a tamarillo foam for acidity, and an egg-ocean-hills plate by Segundo, which had a tempered egg yolk over fish eggs and a liquid cream of sarandaja beans.
To accompany the second part of the experience, Moris created a cocktail inspired by his land and the Cebiche, C-Viche had a Colombian distillation called Viche (that comes from an unripe sugar cane) and uses tumbo to present the acidity.
The chefs presented some of their signature plates for the San Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition to the public, Ralf’s Pesca de lujo sostenible a green curry with freshly caught fish and a home-made “pan de cristal” and Segundo’s Cuchi Mistiano, a play on different textures and unconventional cuts of pork, where he prepared the skin, tongue, and brains with cauliflower cream and corn, followed by Tamal Tumaco, a Moris’s plate, a plantain tamale from the south-pacific Colombian region Tumaco, a play on textures of mashed plantain, with black mangrove cockle with coconut and rooftop herbs; a Guiso de Pata y papa nativa the last of the savory plate, stewed pig feet with Edilberto’s native potatoes. As a palate cleanser, Ralf prepared an unfiltered olive oil ice cream.
On a three-tier cake stand came with different sweet bites, Dragon’s beard candy with cacao nibs and amazon nut by Ralf, a tuber mochi filled with loche squash and a Colombian plátano en tentación from the Caribbean region, plantain cooked on a red soda by Moris, also an exceptional coffee from Colombia, roasted on a clay pot by Moreno’s grandmother. To finish the night, the last dessert was a play on the senses based on the most recent menu at Xoma, De mil rosas, rose water is sprayed on your bare hand, and there the whole dessert is served, a dulce de leche and meringue, both infused in rose, some caramelized rose petals that you have to lick from your hands.
The night had some hiccups, but the service and food were generally good, an excellent beginning for these young promises of Latin American gastronomy. San Pellegrino and Acqua Panna supported the experience, also sponsors for the Young Chef Academy a worldwide competition to build a community among the future generations.
