Cusqueñísima Forum: effort, work and unity to preserve the country’s oldest gastronomic tradition

We are the great food pantry of the planet, a power gastronomic that reaps awards even in the most remote corners of the world. However, as you read these lines, it is likely that some old prescription of our regions is in danger of disappearing.

As with languages, which are living organisms that are born and die (and whose disappearance leads to the extinction of entire cultures), each plate of food contains the tradition of a people. They are memories and secrets that can also be extinguished.

The importance of the historical weight of gastronomy is well understood by Diana Samanez and José Luján, owners of the Cusqueñísima picantería and managers committed to safeguarding the most reliable recipes for chichas, vinegars, lawas, chupes, pork rinds, apis, sauces and brambles of tradition cuzqueña Dozens of these recipes are served in Cusqueñísima and they will soon publish a book with close to 600 preparations. These go from the most ancient times, when the Inti dominated the Empire, to the processes that are maintained today with the silent work of women. Spreading them is the great slogan of Diana and José.

communicate to protect

As part of their work for the conservation of the traditional cuisine of Cusco and our regions, Luján and Samanez organized a decentralized meeting in the capital of the Imperial City from November 17 to 19, where important chefs from the corners of Peru cooked a banquet to show the variety of the Peruvian table. Dishes paraded such as Friday suck, prepared by Mónica Huerta from La Nueva Palomino (Arequipa); paiche patarascha, prepared by Elia García and Cindy Reátegui from La Patarashca (San Martín); dried kid to the north, by Agustín Jordán, from El Cántaro (Lambayeque); huatia sulcana, by Flavio Solórzano from El Señorío de Sulco (Lima); and pachamanca, by Rocío Orihuela, from El Tarwi (Áncash). United with the same purpose, the chefs reflected on the lineage of our cuisine.

Mónica Huerta, from La Nueva Palomino, is moved by Cusqueñísima’s gastronomy conservation work, because she identifies with that hard journey, because it is the same one she walks with the Arequipa Spicy Society: “It has not been easy, our mothers fought for many years to continue with this great work”, she says.

“The role of the picanterías is to show the gastronomic cultural baggage of the region: to make uchucuta in fulling it takes time, but it is another level. Chicha must be made without additives, with technique. The picanterías must take the trouble to tell everything they know, show it and win you over”, emphasizes José Luján. Is it expensive? Of course, yes: “A tail stew takes up to 5 hours and the correct chicha, 40 or 50 days.” The effort is evident, but the rewards are much greater.

“I grew up in a kitchen environment, among suckling pigs, adobo, locro de peso and malayas, because my grandmother had her restaurant on San Andrés street,” Diana Samanez tells us about her first approaches to traditional cooking. Years later, the flavors of childhood became a concern to preserve them: “I always tried to go to the Cusco picanterías, but my university classmates didn’t want to. It seemed like they forgot about their food while I was craving sara lawa, chuño lawa or a pacifier of smooth”. With this task in mind, in addition to the picantería Cusqueñísima, Samanez created a blog of the same name on Instagram (@soy.cusquenisima) and Facebook (@cusqueñísima) where he uploads videos of recipes and information on local picanterías.

flavor protectors

Along the way, Luján and Samanez met characters such as Mary Orellana, manager of the Central Market of San Pedro, who inherited from her mother and grandmother the recipe for the famous pickles and original chicken broths from Cusco, very different from those that can be eat in Lima Thanks to Orellana, Luján has been able to type several very old recipes. Every once in a while he gets a call from Mary Orellana with a new memory of another recipe.

In the same market, in the bread lane, we find María Pilar Segundo García who has remained at her post since 1969: “Most of us in Oropesa are bakers, from our great-great-grandparents who came to the market on donkeys and brought their baskets of bread to sell,” he tells us.

A family tradition that Benita Pérez, seller of leg gelatin, does not lose either: “Since I was a child I have sold gelatin. I have replaced my mother for 40 years ”, she tells us together with her daughter who accompanies her at the post. “The little legs are boiled overnight with cinnamon and cloves, nothing else, the color is given by brown sugar,” Pérez comments on this old recipe. “It’s good for the skin, it has a lot of collagen,” she adds knowingly.

Knowledge exists, and it is of a different nature. Taking care of it and continuing it is a responsibility of all Peruvians.

The food ritual

Offerings to the pachamama rescue the value of food. Altomisayoq María Apaza and her son, the Andean Q’ero teacher, Jorge Zamata Apaza, thank and ask the apus for health and well-being. They place on the table pallares (which symbolize the energy of lightning), chickpeas (to represent all the seeds of the valley); cañihua (which means abundance), among other elements.

• The decentralized meeting was held from November 17 to 19 in Cusco. It summoned chefs from Cusco, Arequipa, Abancay, Lambayeque, San Martín, Ancash, Ayacucho and Lima for a series of events, dinners and exhibitions.
• PachaLab is the gastronomic supplies research laboratory created by José Luján.
• In the Cusqueñísima menu you will find Cusco stuffed rocoto, solterito of broad beans with pork skin, tomato tongue, malaya, capchi of broad beans and baked suckling pig, as well as desserts, chichas and strawberries; recipes faithful to tradition and the result of exhaustive research.