Juan Sebastián Pérez’s signature dish is a sliver of meat sliced at right angles, coated with a gelatinous gleam and topped with broccolini and a diaphanous amaranth cookie. It dissolves in the mouth like slow-cooked duck, while its translucent skin shatters like pork crackling; even the most worldly diner is unlikely to guess this is, in fact, guinea pig. It’s a world away from the skewered and butterflied cuy (the Spanish word for guinea pig) on Quito’s streets, a dish that’s often described as dry and tough, even by its biggest fans. But at Quitu, his restaurant in the capital, Pérez has created a true high-end experience — and has done it all using local ingredients sourced personally by him. Born in Quito into a family of hospitality
Guinea pig served
with broccolini and an amaranth cookie
Right: Chef Juan
Sebastián Pérez set up his restaurant Quitu in 2015
professionals, Pérez says the passion for cooking runs in his DNA. As a teenager, he took odd jobs flipping burgers before travelling to Mexico City to study at Le Cordon Bleu, the top-of-the-range international network of haute cuisine schools, where he was introduced to fine-dining techniques. Four years later, back at home, he founded Urko, a restaurant that would grow into a Quito institution. “We used local ingredients, but there was no real identity,” says Pérez.
Quitu is the distilled form of what Pérez
started with Urko, which he’s now left. In 2014, while looking for inspiration, he came across a newspaper report on a pampamesa harvest celebration in the rural area of Tarqui. He took an 11-hour overnight bus to be there the next day. “I saw all these fresh ingredients, which locals cooked directly on fire — there was no comparison,” he says. From that point on, he became obsessed
with origin. For him, it’s not enough to speak to vendors at the market; he pursues ingredients to their source, cultivating relationships with farmers and helping them realise the value in what they grow. “The producers are the ones with the knowledge — that’s what inspires me,” Pérez says. “I eat these ingredients with them, and in turn, they come here and try my recipes. They feel very proud of their work — it’s emotional.” Pérez opened Quitu in 2015 with 10 seats.
It’s moved and grown; the current 20-seat restaurant in the capital’s trendy La Floresta neighbourhood is its fourth location. Designed by the studio of Barbara Bermejo, Pérez’s wife, the space has dark-wood ceilings styled after a 1950s Quito home, with pre-Incan ceramics that belonged to Pérez’s mother.
ECUADOR 2023 19
IMAGES: BEN PIPE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
