Peru on a Plate: Why Peruvian Cuisine Is Hot Right Now

In Peru, culinary worlds collide with spectacular effect. The country’s landscape encompasses wild Pacific coastline, high Andean peaks and Amazonian jungle. Its varied climates and altitudes support an extravagant and unusual range of fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains and tubers. To this natural abundance, add several centuries of cross-cultural influence and exchange. After the Spanish conquest of Latin America in the 16th-century came the colonial era, bringing waves of immigration from Europe (mostly Spain and Italy), Japan, China and Africa. Indigenous people still make up more than a quarter of the population – and all these influences can be seen and tasted.