Young Nikkei Cooker
Nikkei gastronomy in Peru has a long tradition that young chefs have been investigating. In this series we will learn about the contribution of Nikkeis who are renovating a Peruvian and Japanese cuisine.
Stories from this series
Maketto: Nikkei cuisine in urban expansion
Feb. 21, 2020 • Javier García Wong-Kit
There are restaurants that are looking for a culinary trend where they can insert themselves and be comfortable, especially if it is a trendy cuisine. In Peru, Nikkei gastronomy has been in vogue for a long time, but few dare to innovate beyond the 'toppings' of the makis . Some, like Sutorīto Māketto , avoid labels such as sushi bar or Japanese food, although they take these concepts to extend the category of Peruvian Nikkei cuisine. The creators of this …
Coco Tomita meeting Peruvian cuisines
Jan. 8, 2020 • Javier García Wong-Kit
As with many Nikkei, appearances can be deceiving when looking at Coco Tomita Naganamine . He arrives in a hurry, a little disheveled, with a backpack on his shoulder, like in his schoolboy days in La Unión, to take care of the responsibility of an adult: running the Shizen Barra Nikkei restaurant, which he opened in 2017 with his chef friends Renato Kanashiro and Mayra Flores. At 28 years old, Coco is a chef, businessman and teacher of Japanese cuisine. …
Warike Nikkei: a popular secret
Dec. 23, 2019 • Javier García Wong-Kit , Asociación Peruano Japonesa
Cooking has something of a mystery when it surprises with peculiar recipes that seek to be inimitable. Although their objective is to reach a large audience, in Peru huariques have become famous, those simple restaurants that have achieved mastery in a dish for which people visit them even if they are in remote areas or small establishments. On a street in Breña, Lima, in a single-room establishment but with a lively staff of waitresses and cooks, Warike Nikkei has become …
Andrés Hamamoto: Nikkei cooking over hot coals
Dec. 4, 2019 • Javier García Wong-Kit
Many descendants of Japanese grew up in Peru with a mixture of cuisines at home: the Creole native to the country and the Japanese that their ancestors shared without making any further distinction between the origins of both. Nikkei in gastronomy is just that: the mixture of both cultures in a diet that has a new personality, with ingredients from both sides of the Pacific. Andrés Hamamoto is 29 years old and is a baseball fan who grew up in …
Masaki Uyema: an adventurer of Nikkei cuisine
Nov. 1, 2019 • Javier García Wong-Kit
The career of a chef usually has several routes that make their training experience an adventure. In 2002, Gastón Acurio, the most famous Peruvian chef, started a television program that charted a path for many young people who wanted to study cooking. The show was called Culinary Adventure and it was a tour of the gastronomic proposals from all over Peru. At that time, Masaki Uyema was 11 years old and did not yet know that he would be a …
