"Anybody can cook food. And Michelin-star chefs can cook up tasty dreams, and gastronomic adventures. Virgilio Martinez Véliz, founder of Central Restaurante in Lima, Peru goes further: "At Central we cook ecosystems."

Quilt Weaver
And it is not only in his restaurant that he cooks them up. He does so through a variety of partnerships across the globe, partnering with Orient Express Hotels, a hospitality and leisure company that operates luxury hotels, train services, and river cruises worldwide, and XCaret Group, a leader in sustainable and socially responsible tourist recreation in Mexico. Martinez's Lima restaurants have spread to at least two other continents with multiple locations in London and Dubai.

Local Looms
However, the chef's heart is in his home in Peru, where he co-founded Mater Iniciativa, an interdisciplinary team of professionals dedicated to exploring Peru's diverse ecosystems in search of rare and unique ingredients by collaborating with local communities. Mater's outputs extend beyond food to span art, culture, communication, kitchen design, and culinary education and experimentations. In 2018 Martinez opened a laboratory in the middle of the Andes to work with local families to catalog different crops.
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