Monday, October 14, 7:00 P.M.
Members $85, guests $110

When Lima native Pedro Miguel Schiaffino announced to his parents at the age of 12 that he had decided to become a chef, they skeptically suggested he first give it a try as an apprentice. So Schiaffino got a job at a butcher shop, then a sushi bar, then a French restaurant, and finally in a hotel kitchen. He amassed six years of kitchen experience, and by then he'd made his point: his passion was legit.

In 1996, leaving his home far behind, he enrolled at the CIA for formal schooling. Fast forward a few years—to graduation—and Schiaffino again was off on a new adventure. With a scholarship for a master's program at the Italian Culinary Institute in hand, he departed for Italy. There, he spent kitchen time at the Michelin three-star Ristorante dal Pescatore under the renowned Nadia Santini, and at Piero Bertinotti's celebrated Ristorante Pinocchio.

When this young globe-trotter finally returned to Peru, he took charge of the kitchen at La Huaca Pucllana, named for an archaeological site that was the sixth-century ceremonial and administrative center of the ancient Peruvian people. At La Huaca, he is fusing the foreign techniques he mastered in the United States and Europe with local recipes and ingredients—chiles, yucas, yams, fish, quinoa, Andean caviar, and exotic seasonings like cedrón, toronjil, muña, sachatomate, and aguaymanto. He is crafting, Raúl Fer of América Economía wrote, "unforgettable" nouveau-Andean fare.

Peruvian cuisine is, after all, one of the original fusion cuisines. Over the centuries, the native kitchen has been subject to a host of outside influences from Africans, Japanese, Spaniards, and other Europeans who conquered, immigrated into, or were forcibly transported to Peru. Schiaffino confidently updates the food of his homeland. He is a masterful cook, and he is a lucky one, too; he has at his disposal an incredible wealth of produce and seafood from all over Peru. His food is, literally, fit for a king (and queen). Last fall, this "young promise of Peruvian gastronomy," as Alejandra Arispe characterized Schiaffino in Expreso, cooked for King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, who were visiting Peru. According to all accounts, they were intrigued and delighted by his cooking.

We think you will be, too.