The Peruvian cuisine is a beautiful and very extensive cuisine in my opinion. In this article I will explain how I think the Peruvian cuisine influences Peru. So how does the food changes aspects in Peru? To understand this, first I have to explain to you how the Peruvian cuisine was created.
Since Peru was divided in provinces with little contact back in the days, each part of Peru created their own cuisine with their own products. Five main areas created ‘own’ cuisine; Lima, Costa Sur, Costa norte, Sierra, Selva (see picture 1)(Ibid). The coast has many fish dishes and the amazon area has many exotic fruits in their dishes for example. This variety in dishes in Peru, also links back to the diversity of climates and landscapes creating different types of products to cook with.
Additionally, many cultures influenced the Peruvian cuisine and it is still visible today. The fusions in the Peruvian cuisine are mainly the Spanish influence, African aspects, Moorish kitchen and Asian cuisine (PromPeru, 2017). This dates back to the time when Peru was concurred by the Spaniards in 1532 (Ramos, 2011). They brought the European cuisine to Peru with new products such as rabbit, cow, onion, garlic and fruit trees. Also, the Spaniards brought African slaves to Peru, who created the African fusion in the Peruvian cuisine (Ibid). After the independence of Peru, a new law was created for European immigrants to make it easier to come to live in Peru, resulting in a lot of new cultures, for example French, Italian and German (Ibid). So as history shows, separation and the many cultures, has influence on the Peruvian cuisine and made it what it is today, one super divers cuisine.
This divers cuisine brought Peru together after the separation (Museo de la Gastronomia, 2017). People started to include aspects of their neighbours to create one dish and restaurants open with food from all over the country, for example Central and Amaz. So food brought people together.
Nowadays Lima is filled with different types of super modern restaurants, mainly with a touch of the Peruvian cuisine or a fusion of it. We were all surprised by the hip and trending restaurants that Lima has to offer. This also shows that gastronomy is important to the Peruvian people and something that they want to invest in. If you also talk to Peruvians about gastronomy you see with every individual that food really matters to them, it is a large part of their culture and has a huge influence on Peru itself. The second highlight of Peru, after the Machu Picchu of course, is the gastronomy of Peru (MacQuarrie et al., 2017). This fact shows it even better that gastronomy has a huge impact on the country itself and the tourism.
At last, this image, in my opinion, shows super clearly how the Peruvian cuisine influences the Peruvian culture. A painting of the Last Supper with a guinea pig on the plate and other Peruvian ingredients. If Jesus eats Peruvian food then it must be super good and important to them!
By Suzan Wieffer