The word picantería is unique to Peru. It describes a specific type of restaurant which focuses on serving regional and local cuisine. Most notably, picanterías are in constant rebellion against mainstream culinary traditions – there is no global fusion or modernist influence here. This rebellion involves a zealous protection of their heritage and the use of food as a tool to preserve the ingredients and techniques used throughout history.
During AdventureNEXT Peru in December 2023, some colleagues and I visited Victoria Picantería, a popular picantería in the White City of Arequipa. Amid a spread of ancestral ingredients and utensils that illustrate Arequipa’s culinary patrimony, chef and owner Roger Falcón Quicaño explained what makes picanterías stand out from a typical restaurant.
“There are picanterías in all of Peru but the ones that have developed the most are the ones from Arequipa,” he said. “There are 41 picanterías in Arequipa that prepare food or follow the engineering of local cuisine… These picanterías have over 700 recipes that have been developed from the Spanish foundation to modern times.”
Falcón, who also participated in the AdventureNEXT Peru keynote panel “Ayllu/Community: Indigenous Communities Influence in Conservation Initiatives and Local Cuisine,” explained that dishes served in picanterías have pre-Hispanic, colonial, and contemporary elements that draw an accurate picture of the cultural blend that Arequipa has experienced over the centuries. What makes picanterías different from any other restaurant interested in preserving the local heritage is their adamant refusal to let outside influence in.
“Picanterías are weirdos, very different places from restaurants in Europe,” said Falcón. “They are very cultural and third-generation owned. They are a source of resistance… We refuse to cook outside food, we only cook native food. This is how we preserve identity and culture.”
Falcón has taken this attitude to the next level to develop Victoria into what he calls a “picantería 2.0.” An architect and urbanism graduate, Falcón took over the picantería from his mother and became his family’s eighth generation to manage the business. He immediately found himself immersed in the history of Arequipa’s culinary past. Over the years, he conducted extensive research and collaborated with UNESCO to deepen his understanding of Arequipa’s gastronomy, which allowed him to merge his passion for local cuisine with academia. The result was the concept of an edible museum or what Falcón calls “an anthropological menu” that takes visitors on a 3,500-year exploration of the most iconic and relevant traditions, ingredients, and dishes in Arequipa’s history. His menu has become so notorious that he was invited to cook for the Andean Parliament and showcase his dishes at the Expo 2020 in Dubai.
While Falcón’s picantería is a new breed, the notoriety of Arequipa’s food scene is not. Arequipa is a cradle of distinctly crafted food. Back in 2014, the Peruvian Ministry of Culture named Arequipa’s picanterías a National Cultural Heritage. In 2020, Arequipa was named a creative city of gastronomy by UNESCO. This honor is awarded to cities around the world that show an uncanny approach to gastronomy or which have an exceptionally rich legacy that remains alive. In the case of Arequipa, this status was achieved after many years of championing for its exclusive approach to food, customs, and cuisine. Lima may be known for its street food and award-winning restaurants, but Arequipa is known as a top regional food destination in a country that already boasts UNESCO Intangible World Heritage status for its cuisine.
The passion that Arequipa’s local population has for its food traditions can be felt in eateries throughout the city, but eating in Victoria was a one-of-a-kind experience.
At the top floor of Victoria, a long table off to the side displayed a variety of ingredients like dried corn, peppers, spices and herbs, some out in the open, others in glass cases, not unlike a museum exhibition. On the other side of the room stood a contrasting kitchen with a mixture of commercial equipment, open flame brick and stone stoves, and age-old cooking utensils. On top of the stoves, clay pots bubbled with chicha, a traditional drink made of dried and fermented corn that is prepared daily.
Victoria’s menu is designed to take diners on a chronological journey of Arequipa’s culinary history. Beginning with pre-Hispanic dishes from 2,000 BC to 1550, our meal included a glass of classic chicha (a must in any picantería), a seasonal salad, and alpaca meat with local potatoes served on a hot stone and aromatized with a smoldering twig bundle called ccapo. The hot stone was used as a sort of grill, not only to keep the meat warm, but to ensure it retained its juices and tenderness. This method produced a dish of lean and juicy meat, earthy and smoky flavors with an herbal touch. Falcón explained that this was an ancient technique, lost once the Spanish arrived in Peru, but unearthed through research into historical cooking methods.
Up next were dishes from the colonial period (1500-1800) – a time when the Spanish brought their own culture, religion, language and ingredients to Peru – and the republic (1800-1950), a period that began with Peru’s independence from Spanish rule and was marked by civil wars and territorial wars with neighboring countries.
During these tumultuous times, the clash of worlds and ideals led to a mix of cultures, traditions and ingredients that trickled down to the cuisine. One of the most representative dishes from the colonial times was adobo de cerdo, a hearty stew made when slow cooking pork in a marinade of pepper, onions, herbs and chicha.
The republican period was characterized by a greater influence of European cuisine and ingredients that gave birth to chupe de camarón, a type of shrimp chowder that, according to Falcón, represents the pinnacle of a blend of culinary influences specific to the Arequipa region. This dish incorporates European products like potatoes, cheese and milk with local products like shrimp, native potatoes, choclo (a type of corn or maize used in Peruvian cuisine) and huacatay (an herb known as Peruvian black mint that tastes like a cross between mint and citrus, with some hints of basil and tarragon).
The second dish that characterized the republican period was the famous rocoto relleno (stuffed rocoto peppers), which Falcón explained started out as street food but that depicts the character of arequipeños, people native from Arequipa. Although this dish can be found across Peru, Arequipa’s version stands out for its use of local herbs, spices, and cooking techniques specific to the region. It’s savory and meaty, spicy and bold, balanced out by cheesy creaminess.
“[In Arequipa] we had rocotos, not Spanish tomatoes. What's interesting is that the dish began to be in harmony with the character of an arequipeño… It is said that arequipeños are rebellious and passionate at the same time, just as a good rocoto,” said Falcón.
The experience ended with a unique dessert, arroz vicuña (vicuña rice) developed by Victoria and, according to Falcón, impossible to find anywhere else. It combined rice cooked in a sweet brown sauce with warm spices and topped with Arequipa’s famous cheese ice-cream.
“We built a sort of duality… A classic dessert with an ancient and pre-Hispanic element as well as a modern and contemporary element,” Falcón said. “We have combined the ancient with the modern in one dish but, above all, we’ve maintained the Andean worldview, which is the duality of opposites… We have rescued that philosophy through this dessert.”
It is through actions like these that Victoria has become a picantería that not only takes visitors on a culinary adventure, but conveys the wisdom of Arequipa’s heritage through gastronomy.
“What is gastronomy? It is a holistic understanding of the food in a territory,” Falcón said. “We can find traces of the personality, the valley, the cultural mix [of a territory]. It is something much wiser than simply cooking because it is aligned with the worldview, the territory, the countryside, everything.”