Before i got into journalism, i worked as an in-house travel PR.  Let me tell you, it's a tough gig, keeping these demanding travel writers happy ;)

One of my first big trips while working for South-American travel specialist Dehouche was taking the New York travel writer Andrew Sessa to Peru for a story in Departures Magazine.  "Find the hippest restaurant in Lima that no-one has heard of", said my boss, "We need this scoop". It was a tough one, and i scrawled through Chilean food blogs for a good day or so before the answer became clear.  Virgilio Martinez's creative kitchen Central was the word on every locals' lips yet hadn't hit the international press circuit yet.

So it was that Andrew, his partner and I came to sit on the little chef's table at this now world-famous restaurant in Lima (voted no.5 in the World in last year's 50 Best Restaurants in the World).  It was a dream evening, as Virgillio and his now-wife chef Pia popped out of the kitchen with ingredients we had never seen before, opening our eyes to the diversity of Peruvian cuisine and the heritage he was fighting to preserve.

Back then, contributing to Monocle magazine was a big dream, so it was a pleasure when i got to write about that night for one of their hospitality special editions a few years on.  Virgilio then shared the secrets of his sourcing trips around Peru for an interview we did together for Amuse. 

Published 2014