OP: El Arte de la Cocina Peruana

Quebecor World Peru, 2003. Hardcover. Very Good.

When it comes to cookbook publishing in the US, the food of our South American neighbors has been largely ignored. 

This is a regrettable oversight that businessman Felipe Antonio "Tony" Custer (1954– ) sought to amend in 2000 with his self-published El Arte de la Cocina Peruana. Originally conceived to benefit his charity Aprendemos Juntos, providing educational support for students and their families, the book ultimately gained sufficient popularity to be adopted by a commercial publisher and become one of Peru’s best-selling cookbooks of all time.

Custer’s inaugural work (followed in 2011 by a second volume) is truly a labor of love, acknowledging the significant influence of the many groups that have contributed to contemporary Peruvian foodways—the Incas, the Spanish, the enslaved Africans, the French, the Chinese, and the Japanese—resulting in a deeply nuanced and vibrant national cuisine. 

Dishes include carapulcra—an Indigenous stew named for the hot stones on which it is cooked and later adapted by the Spanish—featuring pork, potato, aromatics, aji panca paste, butter cookies(!), port, chocolate, and peanuts. Another is tacu tacu, an economical and nutritious African dish, utilizing fatback, beans, and rice; or a bacon and octopus “salad,” emblematic of Nikkei cuisine—Peruvian ingredients executed with Japanese technique. There are also  several variations on causas and ceviches, desserts, and Pisco cocktails. 

The skilled styling and photography of Miguel Etchepare might suggest that these dishes are offered as in the fine dining tradition, but the recipes themselves are direct and intended to be as feasible for the home cook as inspirational to the restaurant cook. 

This is the Spanish language third edition. The book block and case are in Fine condition, though the jacket has taken a bit of a beating and shows heavy scuffing and closed tears to the rear. 

You can find the English edition here.