As more of the world's gastronomic festivals are oriented toward commerce, internationally-experienced "foodies" turn their attention to Peru’s largest food fair Mistura, which meets their culinary expectations.
“I think it’s all about food, if you go to a food fair in the [United] States, it’s not about food, it’s about the rides, the ferris wheel, the t-shirts, the games,” said Gary Coltek, U.S. chef and senior director of Culinary and Hospitality Services at Kennesaw University.
The renowned cook, who came to Peru to deliver a keynote speech on culinary sustainability at the seventh edition of Mistura, explained this festival is mainly about food, and it needs to stay about food.
He said that besides it is growing every year in numbers and size, Mistura still gets down to the personal level, where you see guys like Gaston Acurio opening culinary schools.
In an interview with Andina News Agency, Coltek also stood out Peruvian Gastronomy Society - Apega (Mistura’s organizer) has made a very good job expanding slowly.
“This year I noticed every day it’s open, you can walk, you don’t have to run into people, so the management of Mistura is getting very smart and expanding it carefully,” he added.
When asked about the highlights of this year’s edition, he noted the important role of Apega in choosing the vendors that are at the fair more carefully.
“If I come to Mistura not as a chef, but as a person from outside living in Lima, I want to get the opportunity to taste maybe some food that I can’t afford; so for 10 soles I can taste these famous ‘anticuchos’ by Mrs. Grimanesa Vargas…and now for 20 soles people can taste Javier Wong’s food,” he stated.
This is not the first time Coltek participates in this event. In fact, he took part in the first edition back in 2008, when he gave a talk on stage about the influence of Peruvian food around the world. He has also been the jury for a Lomo Saltado competition there.
As for culinary sustainability, the subject of his speech at the fair this year, Coltek acknowledged that, after visiting about 60 countries, he realized Peru is one of the most sustainable countries throughout the globe.
Actually, he and Peruvian star chef, Gastón Acurio, had a long conversation about sustainability, and they agreed that nowadays one can’t just have a culinary school.
“You need to teach students where the food comes from, how it gets there, they need to work on a farm, to make cheese, to take things back 50 years and start from the beginning, because if we don’t, we’ll destroy everything that we have,” he noted.
He even assured Gaston is one of those smart chefs that is going to turn it around and change the way young people think about sustainability.
(END) RMB/RMB
Published: 9/15/2014