Morning starts out a little slow – most people are gone on their trips while some are exploring Cusco. Before I was going on my chef day I had to find a store that would sell me some straps for my suitcase – it was bursting at the seams! Good thing I found a store to make me some also liquor was crazy cheap in this city!
A famous chef in Peru who has two restaurants – one of which we ate at one night and the other is a very upscale steak house – picks me up in his small sedan in front of my hotel. I don’t know what to think of the man and I don’t know what the schedule is like but it’s only $50 so why not!
I get in and we begin driving around the city picking up people from other hotels. We finally meet his wife and all the people in her car at the market. It’s a little rainy but it’s not something we can’t handle. The market of the roof is covered with large metal panels and we slowly walk around as he lets us try different fruits and vegetables explaining that the most versatile vegetable in Peru is the potato. The reason is because it is so versatile at growing in high altitude.
Some of the fruits are just strange and amazing – never tried anything like this. Thinking at the time – why was this not part of the tour from the beginning. We then bought some vegetables and fruits and headed back to his restaurant. The whole place was cleared out and we began our training with learning how to make a Pisco Sour. Which was a lot of fun and we got to try many different types of liquor. He talked about his private collection that he has back home where he infuses them with different fruits for long periods of time.
We then finally get to the cooking! He brings out a mountain of mashed potatoes and some spicy mayo – we make our mix and then he gives us small amounts of precut chicken, some olives, eggs, and a few other elements. We make our first dish and it looks amazing! We use a round mold and it tastes great and looks even better! Now that was the appetizer – now time for the main course.
He brings out a mountain of Onions and many other vegetables and tells us – time to chop! We all grab as many as we can and start chopping away – putting the final chopped product into a large bowl. Then came time to cut the Alpaca meat – no one wanted to really do it so the chef showed me how to properly cut – with one stroke – and I sliced everything up. I thought that now we would be done – but nope! The lights go out and we find out this restaurant is having issues with the electricity and we have to go next door to his upscale steakhouse.
He brings us to the pickup window in the kitchen and shows us how he prepares this dish and then tells us we are next! I squeeze in back there and begin doing my thing! It was pretty fun but very cramped and a lot of heat and fire everywhere. We then followed up by eating there and having some awesome drinks.
I meanwhile sneak out and revisit my entire group at another upscale restaurant that they heard was pretty amazing. We then all headed out to the bars since some of us would be going back home the next day. We stayed out pretty late and had a lot of fun dancing, sweating and just enjoying our time in Cusco.
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