Diner’s Diary | From Central, Lima, to Central, Hong Kong, one of world’s top 10 chefs on his new Peruvian restaurant Ichu Peru
Virgilio Martinez runs the world’s sixth best restaurant in his native Peru, and he’s been ‘trying to do things’ in Hong Kong since 2014. He tells us what to expect from his venture at H Queen’s – shareable comfort food locally sourced
Peruvian chef Virgilio Martinez has been on the go lately. Three weeks ago, his restaurant in Lima, Peru, Central was named sixth best in the world at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards, held in Bilbao, Spain. Less than a week later, he moved Central to a much bigger location.
Now he is setting his sights on Hong Kong with Ichu Peru in H Queen’s, a new tower in the city’s Central business district that houses art galleries and restaurants. There have been a few delays – it was originally expected to open at the end of July, but will now open in late August or September.
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“I’ve been trying to do things in Hong Kong since four years ago,” Martinez says. That was when he collaborated on a four-hands dinner at Amber with Landmark Mandarin Oriental culinary director Richard Ekkebus.
He says that, since then, he has visited Hong Kong five or six times, on one occasion bringing his wife and fellow chef, Pia Leon, to try some restaurants.
“The city is changing all the time, with different concepts and different things happening,” says Martinez. He is familiar with the challenges of opening and managing a restaurant in another country, having opened Lima London in the British capital seven years ago.
Ichu Peru – the name of the restaurant comes from a plant in the Peruvian Andes that grows in extreme conditions – will serve Peruvian cuisine with Hong Kong characteristics.