Ask a Chef: Where to Eat in Lima, Peru

For our travel issue of JBF Notes, we asked top toques about their favorite international locales for culinary inspiration. Below, JBF Award winner Rick Bayless shares his picks for Lima, Peru:

“Lima has all the right components to be a world-class food city: a rich history, incredible ingredients, and ambitious chefs.”

Malabar is a great example of modern Peruvian cooking—if you plunked this place down in New York, it’d be the most popular restaurant in town.

El Chinito and La Lucha are two great spots for one of Peru’s quintessential eats: the pork sandguches (sandwiches).

If you can get there during Mistura, the huge food festival, you’re in for a fine time. When I was there I fell in love with the chancho en palo (boned-out pigs roasted over huge fires), the sparkling ceviches, and the quinoa tamales.

Editor’s note: Mistura 2014 will be held September 5 through 14.