10 Things You Didn’t Know About Mitsuharu ‘Micha’ Tsumura, Maido’s Chef

Mitsuharu Tsumura became a young promise of Peruvian cuisine at the age of 28. His success came early: the discipline he learned in Japan, the techniques he discovered in the United States, and his love for cooking that was born in Peru, did so quickly. heading towards a promising future.

‘Micha”s career, as his friends and now his most faithful diners call him, is quite well known and recognized not only in Peru, he has managed to conquer other palates, but his beginnings and some details are still pending to be discovered, here we have a selection of 10 things you didn’t know about the Maido chef.

1. ‘Micha’ did not know his grandmother Angélica, but his entire family believes that it was from her that he inherited his passion for cooking, but the one who introduced him to the world of cooking was Maura and his mother, Maura, was the right arm from his grandmother, and who cooked for many in his house and whom he had always assisted, while he helped his mother prepare dinner and Sunday lunches from a very young age.

2. Gastón Acurio tells a very particular story of little Mitsuharu’s visits to Astrid & Gastón. At the age of 14, he took longer studying the menu than eating, and the chef at Maido corroborates this. Knowing that he would visit the restaurant was an illusion for him, so much so that he could not sleep.

3. His taste for cooking has been his whole life and when the time came to decide his future it was his father who pushed him to follow his vocation, he supported him to go study cooking in the United States and today he treasures a phrase that his father told him: “If you have the opportunity to do something that you like as a job, do it.”

4. After the United States, he left for Japan, once again pushed by his father “How are you going to prepare sushi, if you have not been to Japan?” It was this question from his father that encouraged him to pack his bags and embark on a new trip with the sole purpose of learning how to cook sushi.

5. Upon his return to Peru, he held many positions at the Sheraton hotel, where he also became the youngest food and beverage manager. But here his jump would begin, his father once again reminded him what his dream was and helped him open Maido. “Son, you have shown me that you are a good worker and I am going to invest in you. Open your restaurant, I support you”, Micha could not refuse this offer.

5. His references in gastronomy are: Hirai-san, his teacher in Japan, and also his friends Eneko Atxa (Azurmendi), the Roca brothers (El Caller de Can Roca), Albert Adrià (Pakta) and Yoshihiro Murata (Kikunoi).

6. Ferran Adrià, considered a gastronomy genius, has not hesitated to ensure that Tsumura “is the best representative of ‘Nikkei’ cuisine, full of miscegenation, joy of flavors and, paradoxically, full of roots”.

7. One of her favorite books is Modernist Cuisine because it explains all the techniques, art, and science of cooking used by the best chefs in the world. And his favorite utensil is the knife.

8. The dish that most reminds him of his childhood is ají de gallina.

9. His cabal is to wear a purple shirt to all award shows.

10. When I was 10 years old, I watched television shows by cooks like Carlos Arguiñano and Teresa Ocampo.