What happens when one of the best Peruvian chefs decides to make hamburgers? Get to know the proposal of La Verdadera

La Verdadera was born playing, making hamburgers at home for her friends, creating the proposal that today is reflected in a menu of 6 hamburgers that have all the DNA of Muñoz’s cuisine and that more than meets the objective of a good ‘fast food’ : be generous in size and flavor. But they also reflect the technique of an experienced cook and are very different from what she will usually find in delivery apps.

There are 3 classic flavors and 3 house flavors that are inspired by flavors from Muñoz’s childhood in Trujillo and two pillars of his gastronomic history: Peruvian food and Nikkei food. These are four examples of the La Verdadera menu:

The story behind La Verdadera

To tell us more about the origin of this proposal, Jorge Muñoz received us in the hidden kitchen of La Verdadera, which is located in Surquillo, a district that has increasingly been feeding its gastronomic profile and that is home to several of these types of cuisine.

One of Jorge’s dreams is that the ‘dark kitchens’ are seen in a different way and that the cooks who are in charge of them feel as proud to be there as in the kitchen of a traditional kitchen. But that is one of the chef’s many projects, and here he tells us in more detail about his plans for the future and the origin of this first step on his path to creative independence.

-How did the idea of ​​starting to work on your own projects come about?

In Peru it is expected that people who study cooking will one day own a restaurant. In Europe and the United States, the goal is to reach a great kitchen that gives you everything you need as a professional. In my case, I never wanted to be a cook nor did I want to have a restaurant. Along the way, I fell in love with cooking, because, in addition, it became a bridge towards that longing I had for my country while living abroad for so long. In the kitchen I found a comfortable habitat for myself and to develop that creativity that I thought I didn’t have. Because many times, when you don’t have that need to do something or convince someone, you think that you don’t have it. In addition, I met many people from whom I learned. Those people who passed around me and I around them made me even more convinced to return to Peru and to want to open something of my own, personal, upon returning.

-When did you leave Astrid & Gastón?

I left Astrid & Gastón in 2022. I was always clear about the day I would leave the restaurant, as I was also clear about the day I would return to Peru. I knew that the 22nd of 2018 would be my last service at Pakta, in Barcelona, ​​and that, the next day, at 8 in the morning I would be at the airport with my 6 suitcases and my dog ​​to return to Peru. When I arrived, I met with Astrid (Gutsche) and Gastón (Acurio) at Panchita de Chacarilla and they told me in person what we had already talked about on the phone. My time at Casa Moreira made me understand much more why I had returned and made me fall even more in love with the product, the cuisine and all the people who make Peruvian gastronomy what it is today. The rest, from there, is the small story that I have been able to write in Lima.

-And how did the idea of ​​making hamburgers come about?

One day, as if playing, I started cooking hamburgers. Because everyone is always ordering hamburgers. My friend Giancarlo and I had the idea of ​​opening a sanguchería in Chiclayo. Another idea was to intervene with a friend’s brand. But when I started my partnership with the Arama group, they asked me about the hamburgers. The name of the brand was born from an idea of ​​mine and my friend Giancarlo, who said ‘this is the real burger’. It is not a challenge to other brands, but rather it is like saying these are the real burgers that I want to eat and that I want to make. At La Verdadera, the first thing is the flavor, the first thing is that it is delicious. Then comes the technique. In this case we have new flavors, which for me are unconventional in the world of hamburgers.

-When eating, are you a ‘scrap dealer’?

Yes, I am a ‘scrap dealer’, I am also a ‘scrap dealer’ at home. My ‘guilty pleasure’ is boxed mac and cheese. Yesterday I ate my last box of collectible mac and cheese. I brought back about 20 different boxes from a recent trip to New York. Francesca (my wife) looked at me and said: ‘I don’t understand how you can eat that’ (Laughs). I like hamburgers too. In Peru, we all have a chifa, a pollería, an anticuchero and our ‘hamburrata’ in our neighborhoods. When I lived in Trujillo, the ‘hamburrata’ that I ate was from a woman’s stand who arrived between 6 pm and 7 pm at the Plaza de Pacasmayo. We ordered it double, with bacon, golf sauce, pickles and a fried egg. For me that is the perfect burger.

-What complications did you encounter in the delivery format?

I’m going to tell you something that happened to me at Astrid & Gastón. When we started delivering (during the pandemic), we had a cheesecake that I really like and that I prepare as a ‘limit cake’: you need 12 to 18 hours of rest so that the fats settle and there is no have to go to the refrigerator. This way, when you eat it, you have a creamy bite and not a liquid one. I made between 50 or 70 cakes, put them on my motorcycle and traveled all over Miraflores, San Isidro and Surco to see how they arrived. These tests allowed me to see that minute less cooking that I had to give to the cake so that when it travels for delivery it does not break. I did the same with La Verdadera. We made a lot of hamburgers, we went out with friends, each one on his motorcycle and to distribute. Although it was still not a very real sample of what could happen in the real process, in which sometimes it is not the delivery that takes time, but the kitchen. I also did ‘rappifavors’, calling instead of friends and sending the hamburgers to their homes to see how they arrived in more real terms. There is so much to do in the delivery industry. There are many gaps to fill and in the end the best are the ones that will always stand out. Just like in a restaurant, if your restaurant works, everyone will always go. If your hamburger, your lomo saltado, your chifa is constant, you have no reason not to succeed. Several factors come into play: communication, promotions, etc. But the basis is the same. If your lomo saltado is bad in the restaurant, it will be bad in delivery too.

-Will you open a La Verdera location? Do you have plans to expand the menu?

My idea next year is to have a small, cool place in La Verdadera, where you can eat on the go perhaps. I know there are many like that, but one more doesn’t hurt (Laughs). Before the end of the year I would like to do some collaboration with a chef friend, to create more things. Not a menu that varies a lot, because if in a restaurant when you change the menu a lot, you drive the customer crazy, in delivery even more so, but I would like to explore the possibility of having a new hamburger or sandwich monthly, which is only for the end of week.

-What differentiates these burgers from the others?

What we want with this burger is to offer people zero complications. Life is a motherfucker and we make it difficult for ourselves, sometimes even to eat. La Verdadera is that burger that simplifies the moment for you. We did make it difficult to deliver this burger that is good and has zero complications.

Next projects

In addition to La Verdadera, Jorge Muñoz is also behind Vista Corona, a new rooftop in Magdalena, and is the new image of Belmond Monasterio and the Hiram Bingham and Andean Explorer trains. Additionally, he has “several things on his mind and on the computer.” He wants to open a restaurant in Chiclayo and bring to Lima a tribute to northern spicy restaurants. “Peruvian cuisine is more than potatoes, more than corn, more than chili peppers. And the north goes beyond the loche squash, the ají mochero and the seca guitar. It is much more complex, but we need tradition to innovate,” he explains of that project that has a special place in his heart.