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Hufvudstadsbladet 6 October 2005, page 32. Peruvian flavours surprise Food from the Peruvian kitchen is a stimulating mix of cultures and epochs, seafarers and immigrants. The variety fascinates. The ingredients are always fresh and there is a lot to choose from, Pia Sovio-Pyhälä says. She lived five years in Peru with her husband, Ambassador Mikko Pyhälä. ― During our time in Lima, I had help in the kitchen, but I very much enjoyed to test and prepare myself local dishes. Food plays a very important role when you want to get to know a new country and not the least when you want to get to know the traditions and flavours of the local people. Peru is a country with many cultures. Impulses and ingredients from many civilisations have left their mark. ― When Peruvians meet, they start their conversation by discussing food, not weather or politics, Ricardo Salamanca, Counsellor of the Peruvian Embassy to Finland, tells. ― What did you have for dinner last night, what are you going to cook today? Seventy percent of all Peruvians think that way. According to Salamanca there are only delicacies in Peru. The cold sea gives away fish and an abundance of shellfish and the warm climate and the big differences in altitude provide fruit and vegetables throughout the year. ― Despite good relations between countries, few know Peruvian cooking, Ambassador Manuel Picasso states. In order to remedy the situation, the Embassy together with restaurateurs Tony Ilmoni and Sikke Sumari organise the Peruvian food festival until 26 October. The country of the Indians Peru is the country of the Incas. The Spaniards have been here for almost 500 years, the Chinese for 150 years and the Japanese for one hundred. Most of the Spaniards that settled in the country came from Andalusia and were influenced by the Arabic cuisine. The Spanish colonizers brought with them, among other things, olives, grapes and tapas while the Japanese and the Chinese created the Asian culinary art. But there are also elements of Italian, Jewish and other European cuisines. Impulses and ingredients from the different cultures have in different ways affected Peruvian cooking. But it is the descendants of the Incas in the Andes that constitute the original population and that have left their mark in the Peruvian cooking through spices like aji and rocoto (chilli pepper). Huacatay is a spice with strong, green flavour. These spices are still used by the people in the Andes to give flavour to cooked and grilled dishes. The potato originates from Peru and so does the tomato. In the capital of Lima there is an international centre for research on potatoes, which maintains gene bases for more than 2500 different kinds of potatoes. The potato is still the basis for soups and stews. And not least in the dish pachamanca, which is a mix of meat and vegetables and which is cooked together with hot stones in a hole in the ground. Ewa Wörlund The Peruvian food festival is organised together with the Embassy of Peru to Finland until the 26 October in Tony’s bar and restaurant, Bulevarden 7 in Helsinki. The chef is Roberto Yagui from restaurant Asia de Cuba in Lima.
Then there is a big picture of Pia Sovio-Pyhälä and Roberto Yagui cooking. The caption says “Chilli pasta. A portion of potatoes with ocopa sauce is ready. Included flavours that characterise the Peruvian kitchen are among others aji and huacatay. Pia Sovio-Pyhälä has learnt to handle chilli pepper with care and to find substituting flavours for spices that cannot be found here. In Tony’s kitchen, Roberto Yagui is the expert during the food festival. [Roberto Yagui is cutting a chilli pepper in the picture, Pia Sovio-Pyhälä is watching.] Then there are five recipes: Pisco sour, tiradito en salsa de rocota, potatoes with ocopa sauce, rice with chicken and lúcuma mousse, with the explanation “Lúcuma is a dark fruit with yellow flesh and a black stone. It is used in desserts and especially in ice cream. It is delicious and tastes like a mix of banana and mango with a hint of ginger bread.”
Mystic Ayacucho |
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Background information: Ms Liina Sillanpää is a recently graduated designer specialized in the field of glass design. As her final graduation project -between July and October 2004-, she designed unique pieces of jewellery with the collaboration of Peruvian silversmiths Fredy Rodríguez Calle and José Flores Medina. They based their inspiration for their imaginative jewellery on Peruvian, Finno-Ugric and Scandinavian mythologies using Finnish glass and Peruvian silver as their materials. |
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The Project: Liina Sillanpää travelled to Peru in order to fulfil the required period of field practices in 2002. With the help of the Embassy of Finland in Peru, Liina found a working place in “Chirapaq”, The Centre of Indians of Peru, in the southern region of Ayacucho. For several months, Liina worked for a project of Chirapaq called “Noqanchiq” (Ourselves in Quechua). Her every-day work in Peru consisted mainly of teaching arts and crafts to children from poor neighbourhoods and small villages of Ayacucho.
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Around this time Ms Sillanpää met the Peruvian artist Fredy Rodriguez Calle and became impressed by his peculiar silver craft. They agreed on working together Two years later, when it was time for Liina to choose the subject for her final project, she again contacted Fredy Rodríguez who accepted to start this project.
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Fredy, who now was part of the Association “Qori Willka” (Descendents of the Gold), suggested that another outstanding silversmith, José Flores Medina would collaborate with them in the project. These three artists looked for inspiration both from Peruvian and Scandinavian mythology. The bonding between these Peruvian artisans and a Finnish designer and the ways in which their ideas worked well together from the very start, make this project very unique and original. |
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The first phase of the project was based on Finnish inspiration. Harmonic forms of glass were crafted with different techniques, for example with tack fusing, mouth blowing and forming pearls with gas in Hämeenlinna and Nuutajärvi, Finland.
The second phase started when Ms Liina Sillanpää travelled to Ayacucho and started to collaborate
in both designing and making the silver parts Eight beautiful pieces of jewellery were made as the result of this project, each one of them with a special story to tell. Peruvian and Finnish mythologies tangled together forming fresh and precious pieces of art. |
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