Virgilio Martínez Véliz facts for kids
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| Born | August 31, 1977 Lima, Peru |
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| Cooking style | Peruvian cuisine |
| Education | Le Cordon Bleu |
| Spouse | Pía León |
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Current restaurant(s)
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Virgilio Martínez Véliz, born on August 31, 1977, is a famous chef and restaurant owner from Peru. He is known for being one of the new chefs who are making Peruvian food popular around the world. He uses modern cooking styles with unique ingredients found only in Peru. A magazine called Marie Claire even called him "the new star of Lima's food scene." In 2013, his main restaurant, Central, was named one of The World's 50 Best Restaurants. The next year, Central moved up 35 spots to number 15 and was named the Best Restaurant in Latin America.
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Chef Virgilio's Journey
Virgilio Martínez studied and earned his cooking degrees at Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa, Canada, and London, England. While he was learning, he worked at famous restaurants like Lutèce in New York City and Can Fabes in Spain. He also worked as the head chef at Astrid & Gastón in both Bogotá, Colombia, and Madrid, Spain.
Amazing Peruvian Ingredients
Martínez is famous for using very special ingredients in his cooking. These include a type of potato that grows 5,000 meters (about 16,400 feet) high in the mountains. He also uses kushuru (also called cushuro), which is an edible cyanobacteria (a tiny plant-like organism) found in wet, high-altitude areas. He even cooks with wild types of kiwicha and quinoa, which are healthy grains.
He loves using salt and has more than 120 different kinds of salt in his restaurant in Lima! In 2013, Martínez helped start a group called Mater Iniciativa. This group has different experts who travel all over Peru. They search for unique ingredients that Martínez can then use in his cooking. In 2018, he opened a special lab in the Andes mountains. Here, he works with local families to learn about and list different crops.
Current Restaurant Projects
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Virgilio Martínez is currently the chef and owner of Central Restaurante. This is his main restaurant, located in the Barranco District of Lima, Peru.
In 2012, he opened Senzo in Cuzco, Peru. This project was with Orient-Express Hotels. Also in 2012, he opened Lima, a modern Peruvian restaurant in London, England. This restaurant earned a Michelin star in 2014. A second Lima restaurant, called Lima Floral, opened in London in 2014. In 2017, a third Lima restaurant opened in Dubai.
In 2018, he opened Mil near Moray in the Peruvian Andes. This restaurant is very high up, at 11,706 feet (about 3,568 meters) above sea level. In 2021, he created the menu for Estero. This restaurant mixes Mexican and Peruvian food and is in a hotel in Mexico.
Unique Cooking Ingredients
In 2019, news sources reported that Martínez had a unique experience at the Los Angeles airport. He was carrying about 40 piranha fish in sealed bags in his luggage. When asked what he had, he said "flesh and bones." Airport officials then took him to a room for more questions. He was allowed to go after showing them pictures of the special meal he planned to make with the fish. This shows how dedicated he is to finding unusual ingredients for his dishes!
In Spanish: Virgilio Martínez para niños
See also
- List of restaurateurs
