John Carlos SF

A set of pictures and images from the Peruvian documentary “Ollas y Sueños” (Cooking Up Dreams) released in August, 2009 about the 500 years of fusion (mixture) cuisine in Peru.

Peru is the birthplace of world fusion cuisine and the cultural mixture and miscegenation (marriage) of ancient native cuisines with that of several different types of cuisines of four continents.

Ask.com wrote - “Thanks to pre-Inca and Inca heritage and to Spanish, Basque, African, Sino-Cantonese, Japanese and finally Italian, French and British immigration (mainly throughout the 19th century), Peruvian Cuisine combines the flavors of four continents. With the eclectic variety of traditional dishes, the Peruvian culinary arts are in constant evolution, and impossible to list in their entirety. Suffice it to mention that along the Peruvian coast alone there are more than two thousand different types of soups, and that there are more than 250 traditional desserts.

The great variety in Peruvian Cuisine stems from three major influences:

• Peru’s unique geography, 84 of the 104 possible life zones on Earth according to Holdridge 
• Peru’s openness and blending of distinct races and cultures 
• The incorporation of ancient cuisine into modern Peruvian Cuisine” 

Peru - A Food obsess Nation

Peruvian Cuisine is one of the main driving forces of Peru’s rapid economic development in the last 15 years, and growing national pride. Similar to France, Spain, Italy, and Japan, cuisine in Peru, and the people that make it, are respected at all levels of society. It is the most revealing aspect of Peruvian society, more so than music, art, or futbol (soccer). Guarango’s De Ollas y Sueños, (Cooking Up Dreams), is a beautiful filmed released last year which opened to much domestic and international acclaim. The film follows Peruvian Cuisine around Peru and around the world.

Peru is considered one of the most important center for the genetic diversity of the world’s crops:

• Choclo (corn), 35 varieties 
• Tomatoes, 15 species 
• Potatoes, Peru is the birthplace of the potato. The Ancient Peruvians (pre-Inca civilizations) cultivated and domesticated the potato almost 10,000 years ago. Of the roughly 4,500 varieties of potatoes on Earth, 3,000 are indigenous to Peru. 
• Sweet Potatoes, 150 varieties 
• Peanuts are native to Peru and were taken by Spanish and Portuguese merchants to Africa. 
• Fruit, 650 native species