High Food in Low Places: The Gourmet Cooking School in the Middle of the Slum

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Karel Navarro / AP

Yovani Palomino prepares food in the kitchen of her house in the shantytown of Pachacutec in Lima, Peru, December 18, 2010.

The shantytown of Pachacútec looks a little better nowadays than when it was first created 11 years ago. At that time, there was no electricity, no water and no roads for the thousands of squatter families removed from private property from the far side of Lima, the capital which lies some 30 miles away from Pachacútec. Many of the houses are still ramshackle and clearly made of scrap wood and plastic. But public services are now in place as is a paved road.

And a squat collection of brick buildings, sitting on a sandy bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, may make Pachacútec worthy of its name — that of the all-conquering founder of the Inca Empire. But this time, the aim of the conquest goes beyond the Andes: it is global and the weapons are culinary.

Peruvian restaurateur Gastón Acurio, who has opened cevicherías around the world to gastronomic acclaim, envisions training a small army of low-income youth from Pachacútec and other slums to become the shock troops of his country's varied and versatile cuisine around the world. Students pay around $30 a month for a two-year course to be trained to the same standards as the best cooking schools in Lima, which is easily the culinary capital of South America.

Even though the amount is a tenth of the cost of the high-end academies, it is still a large chunk of change for families in Pachacútec, where the monthly wage hovers around $225. Rocío Heredia, who runs the institute, says that while the tuition is low, the idea is that each student needs to pay the flat monthly rate to so that they feel that they "own" the project. "We began by giving the students everything, but decided that the model discouraged them from becoming fully invested in the school." In addition, however, the classes are underwritten by Acurio and other Peruvian chefs, as well as the local supermarket chain, Wong. The professors all volunteer their time and services.

The promise of a career in haute cuisine (or, as Spanish speakers prefer, alta cocina) has generated more than 600 applications each year since the inception of the Pachacútec Culinary Institute in 2007. Very few make the final cut, which takes place after an extensive winnowing process. First, 150 students are selected for an initial four-month training program that includes languages, math, history and geography — but not cooking. Only the 30 with the best grades, attendance records and personality get to move on to the kitchen.

Not all survive. The first graduating class had nine students. The second 12. This year, 20 are expected to complete the program, which runs six days a week. Each student is required to complete several internships and enroll, with the help of the institute, in an English-language school. "The internships are an indispensable part of the program," says Heredia. "And they are not glamorous. Interns wash dishes, chop vegetables and see how a kitchen is prepared. They need to see how everything works, from the bottom up, if they want to be expert chefs."

Students learn the ropes from chefs working in Acurio's growing food empire. Manuel Cumpen, a top chef at Acurio's Tanta restaurant, tests students once a week on what they have learned. Teams of five prepare a full course meal, including, recently, a Peruvian variation of crab consomme followed by braised pork. Rosa Rojas, the lead pastry chef for Acurio's restaurants, is in charge of desserts. Her recent exam for first-year students was to prepare five desserts simultaneously. Working in teams, the students had one hour to present pastries ranging from the traditional Peruvian favorite mazamora morada — a kind of pudding using purple corn — to apple strudel, in case a tourist has a craving for it.

Increasingly, the students are being instructed by top ranked chefs brought in from around the world. Among recent guest professors was Andoni Luis Aduriz, whose Mugaritz restaurant outside San Sebastian in Spain was voted third best in the world this year in the top 50 ranking prepared by Restaurant magazine. Other invitees include Giancarlo Morelli of Italy's Pomiroeu restaurant and Patricia Quintana of Mexico's Izote restaurant. All showed students how to prepare signature recipes from their kitchens.

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