Mitsuharu Tsumura: ‘I'm 100% Peruvian, and my cuisine is more and more focused on my country’

Of the 10 editions of Latin America's 50 Best Restaurants, nine have had a Peruvian restaurant at the top of the ranking: all of them from Lima, the country's capital, which has become one of the world’s most popular gastronomic destinations.

The 2023 edition is proof. Maido, a restaurant that pays tribute to the wealth of Nikkei cuisine, led by chef Mitsuharu ‘Micha’ Tsumura, won the award for the fourth time. "This is the result of a job that started long ago, not something new," Tsumura explains. "Around 15 years ago, many Peruvians didn't care about our cuisine. It took a lot of effort to create partnerships with sociologists and historians and, above all, a union of local cooks for us to achieve that position.”

However, will Peruvian hegemony continue in the upcoming years? Tsumura is unsure. "The future is always difficult to predict, but I'm thrilled to see that countries and cities that have never been on the list finally have restaurants represented on it," he says. The 2023 list is, in fact, one of the most diverse thus far: 23 cities mentioned, some for the first time, such as Medellín, Colombia, or San José, Costa Rica.

"It is not new that Latin America has gained more representation, that our light has become brighter. This year, I had the honour of visiting and cooking in many countries around the continent, such as Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Panama, among others. I can say that our cuisine, in general, has never been so well represented", he says.

Maido, according to the chef, is having its best moment. Not only because a recent remodelling allowed the team to offer a better guest experience (both in the kitchen and in the dining room, so much so that Maido sommelier Florencia Rey was recognised as the Best Sommelier for 2023 at the awards), but primarily because he has been dedicated to seeking other influences from the continent that he can adopt in the kitchen.

"I learned to eat lulo [orange-coloured fruit] in Colombia, I learned more about the river fish during visits I made to the Brazilian Amazon. I've been studying more about other products I know little about. I want to explore the potential of serving freshwater fish in my restaurant, including in raw dishes, for example”, he explains.

Tsumura says people eat many similar products across the continent, even though they have different names in different regions, an essential connection between nations. Despite his Japanese heritage, he says his cuisine essentially means Peru. "I value Japanese cuisine a lot and what it has contributed to gastronomy in techniques and ingredients, such as shoyu and miso. But I can say that my cuisine is Latin American. I'm 100% Peruvian, and my work has been more and more Peruvian, too," he explains.

The chef says Maido is expected to undergo renovations in January and he intends to inaugurate a research centre focused on the Amazon and its products in the future. "I am increasingly curious to discover what this region has to give to the planet. We don't even know 10% of the potential there," he says.

According to Tsumura, awards are a way to bring more attention to Peru and the whole continent. "My job as a chef is to try to responsibly attract and enhance this attention. I want to show different ways our pantry can bear the best we have on the continent to the whole world,” he concludes.