We had been anticipating this meal at Central for sometime. We watched a Netflix documentary on the altitudes menu. It's part of the chef's table series. In the documentary they described how each meal is grouped by altitude. This 17 dish tasting menu is a lot of food. Since it was our anniversary we actually got 18 dishes! It is designed to bring all the different foods from around Peru together into one location and give the diner that entire experience. What an experience it was. We were number one on the list when they checked our reservation and we got perhaps the best seat in the entire house. There is a glass divider between the kitchen and the dining area and we were right next to it in the very center. It was so entertaining to see all the chefs back there working feverishly on each dish. We arrived at the front door at 7:36 and there was a line extending out into the sidewalk with about 15 to 20 people in it. We wondered why everyone was lined up so diligently as we would all be able to get in and be seated. However some people had just shown up hoping that they would be an opening. Of course the restaurant was entirely full and these people did not get to eat. We were the best dressed people in the restaurant. A lot of people were nicely dressed with just a few exceptions including one girl in sweatpants and tennis shoes. I believe that her mother was embarrassed and frankly I'm not sure if she really got the full experience as she was on her phone a lot and didn't finish many of the dishes. Her loss! Each dish was artfully presented, delicious and creative. There were times that a dish would have an edible part and a decorative part and our server was sure to tell us which was which. It reminded us of the rock-not rock experience we had in Santiago Chile. We did not go with the wine pairing or the juice pairing and instead got a couple of tasty beverages off of the wine menu. I didn't take so many pictures because I was so involved in the actual food. Our server told us that at the end if we wanted to we could go back in the kitchen and get a picture taken with the chefs. We wanted that for sure. At the end he brought us two gifts. They were books that were made on from hand-made paper with different flowers, herbs and seeds pressed into the paper. The book contains drawings of each of the ingredients and parts of those ingredients go into that page that faces the drawing. It is a lovely art piece and we are so happy to get it.
There's a line to get in
Sorry about missing the top of your head. But this gives you a idea of the layout with a glass wall between us and the kitchen
Chef's working feverishly
A beautiful presentation of the desert plants 180 meters. On the left is a sweet potato leaf, in the middle is a Cactus Flower, and on the right is from the Huarango tree
This dish is the lofty Andes from 3050 meters. These were special potatoes served with a dipping sauce. The egg like items are made out of salt and were just for decoration.
This dish is the Waters of Nanay at 68p meters. This is piranha skin served on top of Frozen piranha heads. They are quite Fierce and ready to bite as soon as they thaw out.
High Jungle from a 2800 m
This is a very special type of potato it was used to make the sauce in the Tree Skins dish from 1200 meters
Amazonian white at 400m. 80% cacao as an ice cream served with ice cold chunks of melon and a passionfruit base
Some of the displays of stairs show different items they found around Peru and attempted to work into a dish
More glimpses of the research process
A chart on the wall shows how they work the different aspects of the ingredients together into a dish
Leslie is enthralled by the goings-on in the kitchen
The bar is very beautiful
A smiling kitchen staff more than happy to take their picture with us. Thanks Central we had a great time!
The back cover of the book with all the ingredients pressed into the paper
The menu with so many items on it
The front cover of the book and the book flap
An illustration of the altitudes of Peru
an example of one of the illustrations in the book
