Peru was celebrating earlier this month after winning the prestigious award for the "World's Leading Culinary Destination" for the second year in a row at the even more prestigious World Travel Awards at the end of November, held at Doha in Qatar.
The World Travel Awards recognise and award for excellence in a wide variety of categories, such as "World's Leading Airline", "World's Leading City Break Destination", and "World's Leading Boutique Resort", alongside more than 100 hundred others.
The winners are determined by a voting system of travel agents worldwide, and this year, in 2013, travel agents have once again recognised Peru for its fabulous, exciting, and varied cuisine and as "the" destination for food lovers.
At Go Andes we have long been championing our love for Peru's cuisine, with exceptional world-class dishes such as Peruvian Ceviche, Lomo Saltado, Papa Huancaina, Causa, Ocopa, Anticuchos... and uncountable others. Only very recently has Peruvian cuisine started to travel the globe, with Peru-themed menus and restaurants opening in some of the worlds larger metropolises, such as London and New York, and the current boom in popularity of Peru cuisine is partly due to these restaurants, but also due to the high quality and innovation of restaurants within Peru, as chefs in cities such as Lima continue to master and refine what is a true "fusion" cuisine.
Holidays to this fascinating destination can now include fabulous "gastronomy tours" which educate tourists on some of the more famous dishes in Peru - the tours follow the route of the food, starting in a market to educate on some of the bizarre and exciting ingredients used, then to a kitchen to teach some basic Peruvian culinary techniques, before leading to a restaurant to finish the tour with a gastronomic delight.
However it isn't just these short tours that are attracting attention to tourists travelling to Peru - the annual "Mistura Food Festival" held in Lima is a world-class food festival and celebration of Peruvian cuisine, in all its eclectic delights.
At the World Travel Awards, held on 30th November, Alvaro Silva-Santisteban, the Director of PromPeru's Trade and Investment office in Dubai, said that Peru continues to stand out internationally with its food festivals attracting record visitor numbers. He said "We are extremely proud to receive this recognition for the second year. In less than ten years Peruvian cuisine has grown to be a culinary trend known throughout the world. This is a major step towards our goal for Peruvian cuisine to be present in all major cities of the world, for our chefs to be recognised worldwide, and for Peruvian produce to reach all ends of the globe."
It is great news to us that Peru continues to be recognised as a travel and holiday destination, for its fabulous food, and the cultural and geographical variety and history that have helped shape the cuisine into what it is today.
Published: 24/12/2013.
A plate of Peruvian ceviche.
