Virgilio Martinez

Virgilio chooses to approach the diversity of our ingredients in a manner similar to that used by the peoples of the Andes in pre-Hispanic times: through vertical ecological monitoring. According to this alternative way of understanding the geography, land is perceived not as a horizontal plane but rather vertically, so that it takes advantage of all that the flora and fauna are able to deliver according to the particularities of each ecological system. As a result of the dramatic fluctuations in the Andean terrain in a relatively small radius of 100 kilometers (for many farmers this is not a difficult hike), there is direct access to the country’s products from various altitudes ranging from the coast to the Amazon. Motivated by an insatiable curiosity and interest in conveying the complexity of their land, Virgilio is passionate about traveling and investigating ingredients that can bring undocumented and yet even more wealth to the local cuisine. To do so, through a number of areas: ocean, lower Andes, extreme altitude, and high and low jungles. He also has an interdisciplinary team that complements each new "discovery" in a necessary context that seeks to transcend the strictly culinary and penetrate nutritional, biological, anthropological aspects.”