Speaking to Virgilio Martínez—undeniably Peru’s most lauded chef of the past decade—it’s clear that being the brains behind a restaurant repeatedly named the best in the world (his Lima spot, Central) means that every meal offers the potential for inspiration.
In November, he and traveled to Valencia, Spain, and brought several of his teammates with him—including the chef of his Cusco restaurant, Mil (Luis Valderrama), and his wife, chef Pia León of Kjolle. “We wanted to go to as many restaurants as possible in four days,” he tells me, as we sit in Central’s empty dining room before service begins for the day. Martínez had been to the city before, for the World’s 50 Best Awards, but events kept him so busy that his wishlist of to-visit restaurants remained largely the same once it was time to head back to Peru.
Eager to spend time with fellow chefs, Martínez figured that getting out of their own restaurants would allow everyone the mental space to really catch up. “Most of the time, when I go to speak to my chefs, it’s hard to get away from the chaos of the restaurant—so we said, okay, let’s go to Valencia, and try some of these restaurants we’ve been hearing about.”
What followed was a whirlwind of paella, seafood, and more vegetables than you’d expect from the land of jamón. Below, Martínez tells us about the very best bites of the trip to Valencia—and everything he shoved into his suitcase for the journey home.
What was your most anticipated meal—and how was it?
Quique Dacosta, which was about two hours from the city of Valencia. It’s a high-end experience, with a long menu, where you spend a few hours—the kind of meal that makes you reflect on gastronomy.
We also had excellent paellas. Now, you see paellas everywhere, but you’ve got to go to Valencia to try theirs. Paella Valenciana is made with things like rabbit and snails. The best we had was at Casa Carmela, and Lavoe. At Casa Carmela, it was cooked over fire. It’s a big place, where you get to see all the paellas being cooked and you can smell the smoke. You’ve got to bring a lot of people: The first time I went, we had 10 chefs with us, so we ordered 6 or 7 paellas.
At Lavoe, they let me go into the kitchen and I got to see the broth. It had smoky pimento, and this really intense flavor. Everything was done in a beautiful, organic, artisanal way.
I also had paella at Llisa Negra, and what I liked about that place is that they also serve gambas (shrimp) and Carabineros (jumbo prawn), among all sorts of seafood.
What was your go-to breakfast every day?
I always go to the market. There was the Mercat Central, and we went to Retrogusto to try their coffee. They had coffee from Peru, Panama, and there are little typical snacks like croquetas and jamón all around the market.
