Arthur's Blog: Gastronomy, of All Things, is the New Reason for Persuading People to Visit Peru

On my own last trip to Miami Beach and Miami, I was stunned by the number of new Peruvian restaurants I spotted. I counted at least a dozen of them and went to eat several times at one in particular, called Mixtura (meaning "melange"), on Collins Avenue in North Beach. Its signature main dish -- aji de gallina (shredded chicken in a cream-based sauce of chili peppers) was awesome, and its ceviche appetizer (the Peruvians invented ceviche) made for a bracingly tart start for the meal.
Now food, obviously, is a great reason for travel. It is food that draws a great many tourists to France. It is food that -- at least in part -- has made such a touristic success out of Barcelona. And the Peruvians have now decided that they will spotlight food as a major reason for vacationing in Peru.
The effort started this past weekend at a conference in Washington, D.C., where "PromPeru" publicized the appearance, talking about Peruvian food, of the great Ferran Adria, chef-owner of the former El Bulli restaurant in Spain (probably the finest restaurant on earth, in the short period of its existence). Adria has concluded that food can be an instrument for social change in Peru, and that 80,000 under-privileged young people can be trained as great Peruvian chefs, to earn their living in a vastly expanded industry of restaurants in Peru itself, in multiple cooking schools there catering to tourists, and in overseas countries offering Peruvian restaurants to their inhabitants. He is aided in that project by the leading Peruvian chef Gaston Acurio, and the two have produced a film called Peru Knows: Cuisine as an Agent of Social Change (also, Peru Sabe: La cocina: arma social).
The hour-long film will eventually be transferred to the Internet for free viewing by anyone, but for the time being you can see a four-minute trailer. I've played the trailer, and found it quite interesting (it has English sub-titles). Here's an unusual approach to tourist promotion, obviously reflecting Peru's belief that they need something more than Machu Picchu to attract visitors from abroad. After glimpsing the delectable dishes pictured in the film, you may want to rush onto a Peru-bound plane right away.