Whenever I am headed back to Lima, there are three things I look forward to:

my first meal (at La Mar Cebicheria), dinner at Merito (at the chef’s table in the kitchen), and lunch at Central (the better to take in beauty of the room and the food, and to sober up after a multi-course meal with wine pairings). There’s something about the large light-filled room and the attention to detail chef Virgilio Martínez Véliz applies to his food that make it an incredibly special place, one of my favorite in the world.

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It’s been over a year since my last visit and I arrive early, bursting with anticipation. I check in with the hostess who tells me that my table is ready if I’m interested in being seated now. I thank her and ask her to give me a moment. I want to take some photos of the grounds. She smiles and nods. Of course.

When I am ready I am led inside. The host asks if it’s my first time in Lima. No, I tell him. It’s my fourth or fifth. Oh, you must like it here. I love it. It’s one of my favorite places to be in Latin America.

He leads me to a large stone table just inside the restaurant where they have arranged samples of the ingredients that will make up the menu. He points out tubers from various elevations and climes thoughtout Peru, and edible clay in addition seaweeds and algaes and corn.

At the table a server confirms the menu. There are two options: the signature menu and the seasonal menu, which changes every three months. Each is offered with 12 or 14 dishes. I’ve chosen the seasonal menu with 14. He offers three pairing options: a non-alcoholic pairing; an alcoholic wine pairing featuring wines of the world, with a concentration on European wines; and an alcoholic pairing focusing on local wines and cocktails. I opt for the third.

I am seated at the same table I’ve been sat my previous visits, next to the kitchen with a view of the pass. As the dining room starts to fill, the host showing each guest the table of ingredients, I watch the kitchen prepare for the afternoon, arranging their stations, plating first courses.

The meal is amazing, the cocktails exquisite. The first is infused with seaweed and algae and perfectly compliments the seafood of the first dish. The final cocktail offers suggests bacon on the nose and pairs pairing nicely with a dessert that presents cocao in a multitude of forms. In between, wines from Chile, Bolivia, and Peru complement the food, including one from Atacama I had first encountered on a trip to the Colchauga Valley in Chile.

Midway through the meal a woman stops by my table. Eugene? Jaqueline surprises me and I jump up to give her a hug. I had met her on my last visit to Lima when she was at Merito. Then, she had plans to take an intensive sommelier course, which she had since completed. She’s now a somm at Central. She next plans to test for her masters certification at the end of the year. It’s going to be a lot of work.

We catch up quickly and then she retires to work the bar on the other side of the restaurant. She says she’ll be back again before the end of my meal; I tell her I’ll make sure to stop by on my way out.

On my way out one of the servers asks if I want to say goodbye to Jacqueline. I tell him I’ll walk out the front so I can take a few pictures of the entrance to Central and then I’ll come back around, entering through the doors that lead more directly to Kjolle, their sister restaurant. He thanks me for visiting and I thank him for the experience.

Back inside I catch up with Jacqueline. I tell her that I visited Merito a few days before. It seems everyone I knew from before has left. Yes, she says. But it’s good to learn and move on to grow. I agree.

She tells me Sebastian is now at Rocco, Rafael Osterling’s new trattoria. Later that day I’ll make a reservation and message him. He’ll ask me if I have any allergies; and offer to make a small tasting menu for me when I come. She tells me her boyfriend is a somm and works in a beautiful space in San Isidro focused on wine. I promise to stop by.

I walk home. I need to clear my head after the pairing and work off some of the calories I’ve ingested. On the way my cousin texts me to tell me she’s having dinner at a tapas bar in New Haven, Connecticut, with a focus on Chilean wines. She sends me the wine list and, coincidentally, it includes wines from Montes, a vineyard I had also visited when I was in the Colchauga valley. I tell her I had an amazing Purple Angel from 2013; she opts for a 2020 Alpha Carménère. She tells me it’s delicious.

By the time I make it to Larcomar, my head is a little clearer and I decide to see Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things. I couldn’t have planned a better visual complement to my gastronomic afternoon. For its spectacular beauty, controlled attention to detail, and fantastic (and fantastical) performances, it’s a perfect pairing, capping off a perfect day.

For those who are interested, I’ve posted photos of the courses and pairings here. 🇵🇪