cultivar_22_Final_EN

Let’s eat what is around us – and that is just the beginning of change 31 I travelled there for Festival Mistura in Lima, the capi- tal, and took the chance to understand how the revolu- tion had started. I realised that there were similar- ities with what had happened in Denmark. Things do not happen by chance; they are the result of strategies developed by people with vision. In this case, the people were Bernardo Roca Rey, a former deputy minister of culture who became chairman of Apega, the Peruvian Food Society; and, above all, Gastón Acurio, a chef who had become a media per- sonality and a TV presenter who travelled across the nation showing the Peruvians what people ate in the other regions of their country. He showed what people ate on the coast to those living in the forest and mountain regions and vice-versa. With this, the country began to discover itself as a gastronomic entity. Charismatic figures like Acu- rio in Peru and Redzepi in Denmark are essential, but of course there was a politi- cal vision that came from the desire to make Peru a food tourism destination and a reference point for anyone interested in gastronomy. Rey explained to me at the time that “The country had been divided by a major agrarian reform that had created a distance between the different sec- tors of society, and I realised that something needed to be done to boost Peruvian self-esteem. We had come out of a dictatorship that had banned freedom of expression and the only news was of government announcements of gigantic public works. So I’d say in my articles [in the El Com- ercio newspaper] that the history of Peru was some- thing that we should focus on. And you wouldn’t believe the success this had in such a downtrodden country.” An amateur cook, Rey invented a new concept: New Andean cuisine. He started cooking with products that were associated with the rural poor and had been long neglected. I wrote the following in my article: “He turned to grains like quinoa, kiwicha, used huge varieties of ajís (a kind of chilly pepper), countless kinds of potatoes and invited people to eat genu- inely Peruvian food.” Once again, the essential idea was the same. As strange as it might seem, in many cases and in many places, people no longer ate what was produced in their own country. They were transforming food and filling dishes with ingredients that came from far away, creating a huge carbon footprint and threatening local farming. When someone starts sug- gesting we should eat what is being produced locally, it catches people by surprise. I also interviewed Gastón Acurio and realised why he was such a charismatic per- sonality capable of mobilis- ing an entire country. And also why, at least at the time, he was more popular than any politician. He told me: “This is just the start of a big plan that is going to take a long time to implement and comes from young Peruvians’ rightful and understandable indig- nation at the fact that this country rich in resources, history and opportunity is still considered Third World and just an exporter of raw materials. These young people think they can contribute in some way to make that change.” Men like Acurio and Rey realised that cooking could be something that united all of Peru. “It’s something that touches on everything: Things do not happen by chance; they are the result of strategies developed by people with vision. … cooking could be something that united all of Peru. “It’s something that touches on everything: farming, fishing, industry, environment, business, national promotion abroad, culture, art.” Charismatic figures like Acurio in Peru and Redzepi in Denmark are essential, but of course there was a political vision that came from the desire to make Peru a food tourism destination and a reference point for anyone interested in gastronomy. As strange as it might seem, in many cases and in many places, people no longer ate what was produced in their own country. They were transforming food and filling dishes with ingredients that came from far away, creating a huge carbon footprint and threatening local farming.