KINGDOM of HEAVEN
“There comes a point where you feel that you have traveled a lot and you still do not know it all, and you [realize you] have not traveled enough and in fact you never will,” Chef Virgilio Martínez reveals about the unspoken instinct that pulled him home to Lima, Peru after spending a decade honing his craft overseas. “There comes a moment of reflection on who you are, your origin, where you belong—I took it as an internal journey to return home and really understand where I had escaped from.”
When Martínez left his country as a young man in the ’90s, Peru had no culinary schools, and violent civil unrest made domestic travel nearly impossible. Yet curiosity compelled exploration, so while he wasn’t particularly drawn to the gastronomic arts the young adventurer saw cooking more as a means to see the world. Which he did, for a decade, sharpening his blade in some of the best kitchens across Europe and America.
Today it’s not hyperbole to describe the Michelin-starred Martínez as one of the most acclaimed and innovative chefs on the planet.
