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How chef Virgilio Martínez runs the best restaurant in the world
Summary
Chef Virgilio Martínez, who put Peruvian cuisine on the global culinary map, has a new missionThe gentle music with sounds of the ocean filled the room. It was a track from the playlist at Central, the fine-dining restaurant in Lima, Peru, which is ranked No.1 on World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023 . Founder and chef Virgilio Martínez, 46, had brought the music with him to Mumbai, where he hosted two dinners last week. He’d produced the music in partnership with Peruvian composer Maribel Tafur to represent his culinary philosophy—to showcase the ecosystems and biodiversity of Peru.
It is this ethos that has made Martínez a superstar chef in global gastronomy and an ambassador of Peruvian cuisine. The tasting menus at Central are not categorised as appetisers, mains and desserts; each dish represents different altitudes of his home country with ingredients from the Pacific Ocean to Amazonian forests and the Andes mountains. Last weekend, Central, along with Masters of Marriott Bonvoy and Culinary Culture, hosted two dinners at the restaurant Koishii at the St. Regis in Mumbai. The eight-course dinner was priced at ₹ 50,000 and ₹70,000 (for a window seat with a sweeping view of Mumbai) per person. The name of each dish incorporated the altitude of the place from where the ingredients had been sourced. The Coral, for instance, had sea lettuce from 5m above sea level, Extreme Altitude had corn from 4,200m above sea level, and the dessert Cacao Theobroma had chocolate made with cacao from 1,800m above sea level.
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The music changes to complement each course. A dish with ingredients from the sea had a track with the sounds of the ocean, and one with ingredients from the Andes was served with music interspersed with the gentle whooshing of wind. “The food comes from different ecosystems and music sets the context," he explains. It is this attention to detail—he calls it obsession—that underlies each of his endeavours, be it Central in Lima, which opened in 2008, his food research centre Mater Iniciativa, which is headquartered in Cusco and has a branch in Lima, or the destination restaurant Mil, located at the Inca ruins in Moray, Peru.
Martínez was in Mumbai for three nights and had a packed schedule, which included a press meet, interviews, and visits to different restaurants. Throughout he appeared relaxed, dressed casually in denims and T-shirts. “We are chefs and we need to please people. I was trained for this you know," he says laughing and adds, “It’s discipline. I don’t party, and I get my eight hours of sleep. Every morning, I meditate for 15 minutes and go for 5km runs four times a week. Once you have discipline, you’re set to see life with different eyes with curiosity and positivity. I used to complain about a lot of things, and that has changed. Now, there’s a board in my kitchen that says, ‘no complaining today’."
After gaining fame as the world’s best restaurant, his current passion is to build the world’s No.1 workplace. “We say we cook ecosystems and now I pay close attention to work ecosystems. I am a chef in charge of my chefs. I have to look after them more than the guests. This might sound crazy, but if I care about my people, the guests are going to be amazed with what this team is creating."
