“¿La hacen ir a tomar una leche de tigre?”, someone asks faking a foodgasm. I hear a mixture of gasps, sighs and screams as they all answer, “La hago demasiado.” As the food ignorant person I am, I ask, “¿Qué es eso?” Dead silence follows. Literally—I think the dog stops barking just to glare at me. Everyone is gawking wide eyed, wearing the same what the $#%& is wrong with her expression. Again, literally. “No te creo que acabas de preguntar eso,” the person to my right snarkily answers. Seriously? What’s Peruvians' fascination with food? What’s the problem with not knowing what a “leche de tigre” is? For a tourist it wouldn’t be considered such a crime, but being a Peruvian myself, I was lucky no one from the government heard or I might’ve been exiled. I’ve never understood why Peruvians are always either speaking about or eating food; It’s an all-pervading obsession. Why are lunch plans being discussed over breakfast and dinner plans over lunch? Go eat your ceviche and shut up about it! Americans, Italians, Indians, Mexicans, even Cambodians, could all argue their country is food-obsessed as well. But there’s something different here. I couldn’t put my hands on it before watching the documentary Finding Gaston, a film about how chef Gaston Acurio uses the power of food to try to change our country. Food does not only fascinate Peruvians, it subjugates them. Here, cooking isn’t only a pastime, something ludic. Cooking is maybe our new national emblem. Our cuisine goes around the world and places us on a geographical map, on the radar. But how did this come to be? In the year 2000 Peru could be found in its deepest hole. We dragged along a huge inflation. We’d gone through a tough stage where the government promised but did not fulfill. The environment inherited from the previous national crisis of skepticism if not pessimism, if not denial, persisted. Then came the leader, Gaston... Gaston Acurio. Astrid & Gaston restaurant was the cornerstone of this entire movement. It began offering "haute cuisine" with a French card, until the great transformation occurred with dishes based on mergers, such as pastas with seafood sauce and Peruvian specialties, like the latest “in” food of the 21st century, ceviche. Our national icon told the world we had a downright priceless element the world was unaware of. Gaston’s emergence meant a reassessment of what our culture already possessed. Demonstrating this throughout his dishes, he stroked the mentality of Peruvians, “Yo pude, tú también puedes. Mis armas son las tuyas; soy un cocinero no soy Dios” (Gaston Acurio). Acurio managed to turn cuisine into our social weapon. He paved the way to build the nation on cooking. He formed part of a revolution that never spilled any blood; a revolution that didn’t take anything from anybody. On the contrary, one that shared; one where cousin was used as a product that promoted a new country, that left behind terrorism, violence, dictatorships, to become again that divine country people used to evoke when they heard the word “Peru”. As if this wasn’t enough, Gaston doesn’t consider his job to be done. He’s kept on dreaming of what’s to come for us as a country, “Ahí está la clave, empezar a soñar. Que así como nos dijeron que el ketchup tiene que formar parte de nuestras mesas, que en cada refrigeradora del mundo al abrirse haya un saborsito peruano” (Gaston Acurio). Searching for Gaston is not possible, not if you’re looking at a specific location. Now a day, every time we spot a cooking school here, there is Gaston, even when it does not belong to him. Gaston es como es el Perú.
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Daniela Ontaneda16 year old Junior at Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt who's taking the IB diploma program. Archives
August 2017
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Future Blog Posts:
-Free to Learn by Peter Gray reflection
- If you could change someone's life - If you could change one thing about yourself - Should students be allowed to grade their teacher - What happens after death? - Are precognitions and deja vu different? - Mysteries of the mind - Mentalism - The positive of experiencing pain - What is existentialism -Impact of media on society |